AND........i'm back. exams are over and i've a whole four months of nothing but Ciao to rectify my a...
AND........i'm back. exams are over and i've a whole four months of nothing but Ciao to rectify my absence. So grab a cuppa, stay a while and sift thru the ideas of me..... ah go on!!!?.... what if i say please????
Member since:10.09.2001
Reviews:19
Members who trust:23
Being A very poor student with far too little time on my hands due to my intense course, I, like many other of my comrades, spent every wakened minute, even the ones meant to be spent in lectures, between the student union (but shhh I was under aged) and the good ol’ Odeon Cinemas just down the road from my student accommodation. This life began to get taxing on us, the student body. Hangovers tested friendships and, more importantly, only so many new movies came out, only so many where worth seeing twice, what was there to do when the big blockbusters where memorised word for word? Enjoy the art of fine conversation? Turn to our books perhaps? Or, notice some unheard movie on the billboard and figure it’s worth the chance – what else would we do with those two hours anyway! ? This is how I stumbled across the glorious and truly beautiful ‘Vita ET Belle - Life is beautiful.’
Now don’t get me wrong, I walked into this theatre unsuspecting with my best bud. We heard the Italian accents, noticed the subtitles, how ‘un-modern’ the movie looked and thought ‘RUN’. We even went as far as voicing this opinion to each other. We should’ve gone to the pub? Cultured as I was (?) being thrown into this movie terrified me and was a far cry from what I’d call entertainment. However the popcorn and enormous Pepsi tempted us to stay, at least a while. Thank Bejesus! I would’ve otherwise walked out on what is now easily one of my most loved and most inspiring movies ever!
Between
tuts of disapproval of our bad bad choice (yes we are those tossers you all hate at the movies), the disgust that instead of a bucket of fizz one could be enjoying a pint of the finest, and the crunching of our unappetisingly unbuttered popcorn, the magic of this movie, its simplicity, it’s uniqueness and yes, its beauty, managed to warm our close-minded hearts, opening our minds to be taken on a simple carpet ride, which, although it lacked the glitz and glam of modern spectacular, managed to preserve the magic.
‘Life is Beautiful’ (I’ll stick with the English) is a simple story of one man and his love for his family. Guido – played by academy award winning Roberto Benigni, is a Jewish Italian waiter, filled with a zest for life and the sense of humour and wicked imagination to live his own to the full. Through perseverance and charm the first half of the movie is dedicated to him winning the heart of the woman he adores, Dora, a local schoolteacher, and his princess. She is betrothed to another man, one approved of by Dora’s family, and influential within the small Italian town. But Guido steals her heart. This plain, funny looking man with this love filled smile gets the girl. Yes the story line is basic, and will not appeal to many, boy meets girl, boy wants girl, and boy gets girl, big deal eh? Except here it is a big deal. Although the ‘average love story’ Guido makes it bigger, better and attainable to all. He00 creates a world for Dora that is nothing short of magical; he literally sweeps her of her feet and makes her open her eyes to the imaginary fantastic.
So they get it on (it’s much more tasteful than that) and two become three – Joshua joins the family. Briefly we see them living together in a house full of laughter and merriment. Guido’s outlook on life is amazing, he is forever the optimist and he brings a note of enchantment to everything that occurs in their lives. Life is Beautiful.
This life is continually threatened by the growing nazi influence creeping through Italy. Guido keeps his head above water and his son’s happiness intact by creating stories, ridiculously far fetched, that maintain his sons naivety to the growing prejudice. However World War 2 brings the family to an inevitable fate and they are sent to a concentration camp. It is in this situation that Guido’s ‘gift’ with life is required to keep his family alive and together.
The old clichéd moral that the power of the human spirit can rise above all human misery is adopted and reran, but it is told so delightfully and is as incredibly fanciful as it is believable. Guido manages to hide the impact of war and discrimination from his son by describing the situation as a game, a difficult game that they are playing in honour of Joshua’s birthday, the prize being his dream of a tank. He goes to ridiculous lengths to maintain this pretence but his aim is achieved, his son lives through the showers and begins to believe in the game. Guido finds a way to let Dora know that he and Joshua are all right giving her the strength to carry on through the traumatic ordeal, knowing her family are still alive when many women have lost theirs.
Although I’m aware that security surely wouldn’t be as lapse as it seems it is in this camp I believe these ‘flaws’ irrelevant to the tale the movie tells. Perhaps it does not do justice to the severity of these camps, to the horror and fear and death that was hidden there, but it is the story of Guido; his strength, his love for his family and the sacrifices he will risk and take to keep them safe.
The movie ends on the same note carried throughout. It is terribly sad yet carries the hope and love and passion that Guido portrays. When the camps are liberated the magic that has kept Joshua alive is revealed. He is untouched by the war, by the prejudice that has killed so many lives and so many souls. He reunites with his mother and the tear jerking ending leaves us sad, delighted, enlightened and inspired. Life is still beautiful! Life can always be beautiful!
Please see this movie. And word of advice, watch it in Italian - I’ve seen it dubbed in American and it looses its charm when the Italian accents don’t ring out. I still scream ‘BONJOURNO PRINCEE PESSA’ most mornings at my twenty two month old daughter. I bought it on DVD two years later; I don’t even have a DVD player, but couldn’t find it on video. It will capture your heart and no words will do it justice. Watch it and let it take you where it does.
"With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, It is still a beautiful world."
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1981 - Drama - Director: Franco Zeffirelli - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley, Penelope Milford, Beatrice Straight
Hi this was a great movie that i must have seen already 5 times. It was unexpected to me that someone like Benigni would direct a great movie as this one. Great op.
Fasteleven 02.04.2002 15:27
Stanley Kubrick is a genius.
littlemissdrunk 02.10.2001 04:50
Yes, she did cry for a good thirty or so minutes :) Anyhoo....fab op :) And I plead to anyone who doesn't think that its their kind of film - I didn't think so either, and I'm not even the kind who's bothered by subtitles. A friend bullied me into seeing it, and its a truly unique (sans-schmultz) heart warming film. Would love to see it again soon :) lmd xxx
very helpful by (100%):
