Don't know you, but I find that completing surveys for 20 min and getting 10p with a promise of ente...
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Member since:17.01.2007
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Here I am trying to update my first ever review at Ciao and hoping to be able this time to share with you the overwhelming emotions I felt while watching this amazing movie.
In my opinion this is definitely a must see, a foreign film which will give you a good insight on how life was in my homeland Italy some years ago. I agree it can be quite difficult to be attracted to a film belonging to a different culture, I for example find it very hard to watch French films but I am attracted to the solarity of the Indian ones. I find that once we try different things and we cross the boundary of the "unknown" we might actually be quite surprised on how much we might relate to a different culture or how a specific subject we thought singular can actually be addressed globally.
This is a film you might want to watch and share with family, people who are really close to you and who will not be laughing at you if you shed a tear or two (especially as they will be possibly crying themselves!) so next to your bowl of pop corn do remember to get some tissues!
Anyhow, hold on there... do not be horrified, it is not a tear jerker, in some parts it can be actually rather hilarious! It does talk about life, this is what you will have to bear in mind and we all know life can't be sad all the time, we might have some problems,
some much bigger than others sometimes, but we do have a little ray of light now and again, a little cause for joy, may be love, something that might bring up a smile or some laughter and that is what makes us keep going, a reason to live and face whatever gets thrown to us. This is what this film is all about...
STORY -----------
This film is based In 1930s Italy, Jewish waiter named Guido starts a fairy tale love by courting and marrying a beautiful school teacher called Dora whom he calls all the time "Principessa" (Princess). Guido and his wife have a son called Giosue and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. Unfortunately they all get captured and sent to a concentration camp: Guido and Giosue' stay together and Dora gets sent to an area for women only. Guido manages to save his son's life when all the children get sent to the "showers" so the only hope of survival is to have him well hidden in the dormitory. In order to do this Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a hiding game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank, when Giosue asks daddy where all the other children are he says that they all want to win the tank and they are hidding well (but we of course know it is not true). Guido sticks to this game for his child's sake until the end when finally Americans come to the rescue with their massive tanks, when the coast is clear Giosue emerges out all happy as he thinks he has won one of those as he has been a good boy. He finds his mum while parading sitting on top of a tank shouting "I won a tank mummy, I won a tank!" oblivious to his daddy's fate...
Who is Roberto Benigni? ----------- Roberto Benigni is possibly the best comic we have in Italy, he always digs at politicians ( Mr Berlusconi has heard quite a few from him) and his a very good actor and film director.
Superb acting in this film also comes from "Princess" Nicoletta Braschi who actually happens to be his wife in real life and let us not forget about little Giosue' played by Giorgio Cantarini
Who wrote this story? ----------- Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni
Did this film win any awards? ------------ Yes it won three Oscars in 1999
-Roberto Benigni won an Oscar as best Actor -Another Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -An Oscar for Best Music to Nicola Piovani Plus four other Oscar nominations
-Roberto Benigni also won a Bafta for Best Performance by an Actor in a leading role Plus two other Bafta nominations
How much does it cost? -----------
When I bought this DVD it was on offer in HMV and paid £4.99 which is really good. Looking at www.amazon.co.uk you can get it either used or new from the starting price of £4.97.
Other details? ----------- This dvd runs for 122 minutes Classification is a PG (no swearing or nudity) 1 Disk DVD released on 22 January 2001 Languages and subtitles: Italian and English
MY OPINION ----------- It is the first time I find myself laughing and crying at the same time and would definitely reccommend it to anybody. For the first time I could understand the pain and heartbreak Jewish people were going through the second world war. I find this is also a lovely insight into Italian romanticism, solarity and strenghth of true love during war, which makes us realize how lucky we are today and how sometimes life is easy and we get too stressed by little things.
Downside is obviously that this film really is at is best when you watch it in Italian therefore the only option for non Italian speakers is to watch it with subtitles or dubbed in English. I do not like when films are dubbed but I suppose it is the only way when you don't know a foreign language (saying that I was used to watch American/ Italian films dubbed in Italian when I grew up in Italy!) To me this is an outstanding film which doesn't need special effects or any of those compurterized miracles tricks they use today to make us go to the cinema, this is a real people's film I hope you guys will give it a chance and judge for yourselves.
Thanks for reading! x
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Feb 19th, 2007
(Apr 5th, 2007)
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