Film delves into tragic beauty

At the Michigan Theater

Life is Beautiful

REVIEW

In the beginning of Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful," a narrator announces: "This is a simple story, but not an easy one to tell." This brief statement encapsulates "Life is Beautiful" better than any other.

Much has been written about this film - a lot of people calling this movie a comedy about the Holocaust. It is not. "Life is Beautiful" is funny, but never makes light of the horror of 13 million dead human beings.

Rather, the film is divided into two interconnected parts: the first is a light-hearted romantic comedy; the second is a gravely serious account of a father and son struggling to survive the Holocaust.

"Life is Beautiful" is set in fascist Italy against the backdrop of the Second World War. At the center of the film is Guido (Benigni), an Italian Jew, who meets the woman of his dreams when she literally falls into his arms. From the second he meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), who he calls "Princess," Guido is love struck.

Courtesy of Miramax Roberto Benigni, Giorgio Cantarini and Nicoletta Braschi make a beautiful appearance in Benigni's film "Life is Beautiful."

As it turns out, both Dora and Guido live in Tuscany, where Dora teaches and Guido waits tables in a fancy restaurant while saving up to buy a book store. After another chance encounter, Guido makes it a point of finding Dora and letting her fall in love with him.

To do this, Guido disguises himself as a government official who is supposed to speak at the school at which Dora teaches. It's only after Guido arrives there that he realizes that he has to give a speech on Aryan superiority. In one of the film's funniest scenes, Guido turns the Nazi Superman lecture into a mockery, showing the school children different parts of his body as an example of what a Nazi Superman should look like.

After this, Guido sweeps Dora off her feet, spending a romantic evening with her, rescuing her from a boring state dinner with her fiancé. In an intensely romantic and comical sequence, Guido unlocks Dora's heart, before stealing her away from her fiancé and their engagement party.

Up until this point, the violence against Jews is kept mostly in the background. The most overt sign of anti-Semitism is when a group of kids paint Guido's uncle's horse green and write "Jewish Horse" on it. But Guido turns even this hatred around, riding the horse into the party to take Dora away.

At this point, "Life is Beautiful" works as an amazing romantic comedy, worthy of heaps of praise in and of itself. Benigni displays his adept sense of physical comedy in the tradition of Chaplin, Keaton and the Marx Brothers. But instead of continuing down this path, Benigni shifts the film and takes it into the years when Germany occupied Italy towards the end of World War II.

In the several years in between Guido and Dora getting together, they've married and had a son; Guido has opened his bookstore, and the situation is getting dire for Jews.

Not that "Life is Beautiful" loses its sense of humor. When Guido's son, Giosue (Georgio Cantarini), asks his father why stores have signs up reading, "No Jews or Dogs Allowed," Guido suggests that they put a sign in the bookstore's window that reads "No Spiders or Visigoths Allowed."

But things get out of hand when the Nazis round up Guido, Guido's uncle and Giosue on Giosue's birthday. Guido has to make the decision that he cannot let his son know what's going on. How can a father explain the ultimate evil to a young boy?

Instead of letting Giosue face reality, Guido turns the concentration camp into a game. He convinces Giosue that they can leave as soon as they earn 1,000 points, at which point they will win a real tank. At the same time, Guido has to survive the back-breaking labor and keep his son alive after all of the children and the elderly are executed in the showers.

Balance this with the fact that Dora has decided to join her family in the camp despite the fact that she's not Jewish, and does not know if her son is alive or not after all of the children and the old people are rounded up.

The result is a tragi-comedy of the first order. "Life is Beautiful" is less about the Holocaust, and more about the lengths to which a father will go to protect his son, both physically and psychologically. The film leaves the audience with a question: If an adult like Guido can't understand why the Nazis are killing all of the Jews, than how can Giosue?

Not only is "Life is Beautiful" incredibly written and directed by Benigni (he co-wrote the screenplay with Vincenzo Cerami), but the cast is perfect. Benigni, Braschi and Cantarini never miss the mark, displaying the right effect when the film is comic and when it is tragic. "Life is Beautiful" would undoubtedly win the Oscar for Best Picture if it was in English. Alas, the American prejudice against subtitles will hold this film back, which is a shame, because it's the second best film of the year.

I can guarantee you will cry at this movie - it would be inhuman not to cry. But you will also laugh through your tears.

11-25-98