Back after several years away and looking forward to seeing what I have missed! Hope the site is as ...
Back after several years away and looking forward to seeing what I have missed! Hope the site is as interesting as it was 4 years ago!
Member since:03.08.2003
Reviews:31
Members who trust:5
I rented this film out from my local video store as I’d heard good things about it but little else (I never like to hear to much about film plots before I see them). It wasn’t until I saw the box that I became aware of the critical acclaim this film received. It was the winner of the three Acadamy awards including ‘Best Actor’ for the main star (and director!) of the show Roberto Benigni. Not a bad effort for an Italian language film in the states!
This film is a masterpiece. This was a compelling, funny, poignant story, brilliantly acted and directed and rightly deserves the success it received!
THE PLOT
Guido (Benigni) is a charismatic, energetic if slightly awkward waiter in the Fascist Italy of the late 1930’s. He meets and, in typically italian style, falls in love with a pretty teacher called Dora (played by Nicoletta Braschi). He goes through a variety of funny and slightly surreal pranks to win her over. Unfortunately she is getting engaged to a bureaucrat (boo hiss) with whom Guido has already had a rather nasty run in! In the end Guido
can stand it no longer and sweeps her away from the man she doesn’t love and into his life (ahhh!).
Fast forward a few years and all is going well. Guido and Dora are married and have a son called Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini). They run a small bookstore in the town and lead a relativley carefree life against the backdrop of World War 2. However its not to last and unfortunately for Guido the fact that he is Jewish results in him and his young son being rounded up and put on a crowded train to a concentration camp. Dora comes back to the ransacked house and her worst nightmares are soon confirmed: the holocaust has found them. She pleads to be allowed to go as well and is soon on the train with her family.
On arrival they are put in separate male and female areas of the camp. Guido is sent of to work as his wife in the other area. Guido’s aim is to ensure that his son never realises the full horror of the situation and tells him its all an elaborate gameshow. The aim is to get 1000 points and the prize is a real tank to replace the toy one he lost in the move. This allows him to get Joshua to do strange things without suspicion telling him others are trying to stop him get his prize and are lying about the gas chambers and furnaces. Its only Joshuas stubbornness to avoid a ‘shower’ that saves him from that fate. Guido does all he can to give hope to his son and separated wife playing music over loudspeakers, using the camp PA system etc.
His enthusiasm and quick thinking make him an intensely likeable character and deserving of the award he received. The tricks manage to keep them alive until the end of the war. Then comes the big day for the ‘game’. As the allies close in the Germans try to kill as many as they can before they have to leave. I’ll leave the events of that night out of this op and please watch it to find out!
DIRECTION
Benigni manages a seemingly impossible feat in this film: a comedy out of a film about the holocaust. It is still very moving in places and you don’t know how to react (like when Guido shows the number on his arm to his son and tells him is the registration number for the game!). The direction is excellent throughout, an impressive feat from a man in the lead role. I suppose it allowed him to really express the vision he had for the story.
ACTING
Almost perfect. All concerned do well but the three main characters of Guido and his family particularly impress. Benigni is impossible not to like in this role. Braschi does some of her best work in the film in her unspoken scenes using body language and reactive expressions to good effect. Cantorini’s innocence may have been real or acted but it worked brilliantly. Some of the extra characters like the doctor who loves riddles are also excellent. Oh and please please please watch it in Italian! Subtitles are irritating a know but as with all good foreign language films its well worth it!
OVERALL
I’ve run out of superlatives now really so suffice to say I would recommend this to anyone old enough to follow the subtitles! It can be a touch haunting but this is nothing to shy away from. I rented but this can be picked up for under £10 now. Try Amazon or Play on the web if you can’t find it in a video store near you. Thanks for reading!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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I agree with Kirsty1, Begnini really deserved his awards, I was so pleased this film was recognised at the Oscars! As soon as the video came out I bought it, still one of my all time favourite films. Well reviewed! KirstyM
penguinchickalata 26.08.2003 16:50
this sounds good :D lesley
Kirsty1 26.08.2003 15:45
Yep - a contender for best film of it's decade in my opinion. I do so wish you had watched Benigni receive his academy award - it was wonderful television to see him completely over-excited like a little kid standing on his chair, totally unable to shut-up! Reading this op I can see how much you enjoyed the film so I'm sure you would have loved that moment too :o) Kirstyxx
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