Turn off bright lights, get a box of kleenex + curl up with a blanket. Then press 'play'. I guarantee after the moment you have pressed play, you will be transfixed to the screen, transfixed to a captivating, beautiful story of love + sacrifice ultimately intertwined in the most beautiful of ways. I certainly was.

From the first moment this film was advertised on Front Row I had little fancy for it - an Italian movie in subtitles - I thought it would be too confusing + not even that good. I'd never heard of a good Italian movie before. Infact I'd never even heard of any Italian movie (uncultured you see). in actual fact, there is a version now with English voices, which some might prefer though I find the true essence of the story is presented in a more beautiful way in the character's native tongues. Anyway, each to their preference!

Thus the film begins with the hilariously cute, loveable yet ultimately charming Guido, played by Robert Benigni (who also directed the film). For the first half an hour, the audience grows to love Guido as they watch his embarrassing, amazingly beautiful attempts to woo an Italian schoolteacher Dora, who is already engaged (to a rather pompous guy). He pretends to be an inspector at the school where she is a teacher, before revealing to a bunch of school children his ..... (it's clearly not something dirty) belly button, professing that through someone's belly button you know a true Italian! how can you not love someone who goes to these lengths? By profession, Guido is a waiter who also likes to solve riddles (an underlying story). In the end Dora falls to his immense charms + dashes off with him on a horse at her 'engagement' party. At this point there is the first hint of future events when the horse has an anti-semitic message scrawled over it in grren paint. For the first half an hour, I was interested - it was amusing, comical + Guido provided a background which made the focus of the film even more tragic.

Guido marries Dora and they have a small son, about 4-5 years old, called Joshua. They live a somewhat happy life, with Guido owning his own bookstore. the real hints towards the future start to occur when officials come to see Guido at the bookstore and after a short while Dora returns home to discover her husband and son have been transported to a concentration camp.
Dora, despiter not being a Jew, cannot bear the fact they have been taken away and selflessly boards a train for the same concentration camp.

At the concentration camp is where the horror and tragedy accumulates. Guido goes to incredible lengths to protect his son from the horrendous episode they are in. He hides Joshua in his room and pretends that as it is Joshua's birthday and Joshua loves tanks, Guido is taking him there as a treat - they are competing to win a tank. From the outset of the concentration camp, Guido risks his life - he pretends he can translate from german to Italian for the german officials just so his little boy cannot understand what is going on. He makes a mockery of the Germans in the speech, risking his life to shelter his son. Throughout the major part of the movie Guido makes up a series of lies to shield his little son - he tells him he must be quiet, never leave the small room where approximately 20 of them are shacked up in. When Joshua catches Guido doing strenuous manual labour, he tells him they are building the tank that they are to win. despite the incredible hardships, the lack of food, Guido sacrifices his shares for Joshua and always keeps up a brave face of 'isn't this fun??'. At these points, I felt a tear welling up inside of me - for the horror, for Guido, for Dora, for the little boy. The film brings alive the horrors in a more real way.

As well as tyring to shield his son, he tries to find his wife - he speaks to her over the tannoy before nearly being caught. He runs into a German doctor whom went for a meal at the restaurant he worked for those years ago. The doctor is obsessed with riddles - and knows Guido is. Guido works as a waiter one night at the german restaurant. At this point I had hope the doctor would help him, but instead the selfish and cruel aspect of the leading Germans is portrayed in that all the doctor wants out of Guido is help with a riddle, even saying imploringly 'I need your help!' This provides a stark contrast to the help guido needed that the german doctor wouldn't provide. In this scene Guido also transmits through a gramophone music to his wife.

As the concentration camp draws near a close, Guido tries to keep his son's spirits high - pretending the last game is a game of hide and seek, with some german children who happen to be playing it at the time. Guido instructs him to stay there no matter what - he is hiding him for when the prisoners are let out. Guido sets off to find his wife. But he doesn't. Desperate, he is caught. As the German soldiers march him past the little box where his son is hidden, he does a sort-of funny march which is symbolic of the comical way he has tried to shield his son and symbolic of his bubbly amazing personality. As he is taken down a back alley, the gun shot sounds - and my heart broke. The tears literally came flooding down.

The day after the little boy is alone + the camp is deserted. American trucks roll in and the boy's triumphant shouts of 'We won! We won!' break hearts all over again. His incapability to understand the horrors he has lived in along with the incredible sacrifice and effort of his father provide a beautiful story of what can be described as one of the harshest if not the harshest act playe dout on humanity. As the tank rolls away down the road, and he finds his mother and rolls in her arms, her tears of happiness and obviously a whole mix of emotions mingled with my tears of complete and utter I don't know what. As an older voice comes over the film saying 'this is the sacrifice my father gave for me'. the film is touched with wonder, amazement, and obviously intense tragedy.

The film does not present the full aspects in intense detail of the horrors - it does show the showers, the cruelty of the leading German officials, and the struggles + death of the Jews. However, what it shows is the emotional side - how families were torn apart, separated, and sacrificed for each other. I can fail to understand why any one after seeing this movie would fail to be moved by it - it is a masterpiece. why I love this film is because there are so many films at this moment which feature the same people in the same storylines - anybody fed up of romantic comedies? fed up of spoofs? fed up of the same old horror movies? Life is Beautiful is in a league of its' own - it's different, fresh, and real. Life is never what you see on the movies (we could only dream) but the reality of this touches my heart more than any romantic comedy (even Pretty Woman!) ever has! I adore this movie because it shows the truth in a beautiful way, it doesn't cover up, it doesn't hide the facts + it provides a clearer picture into the mindset of the victims of one of the most treacherous acts of humanity.

It can be purchased at around £8.99 on DVD on the Internet and is well-worth buying. I only wish I could see this film in the cinema to experience it on the large screen, though the affect it had on me could not be enhanced any further.

Main Actors:
Robert Benigni - writer, actor and director (GUIDO)
Nicoletta Braschi (DORA)
Giorgio Cantarini (JOSHUA)