This review originally appeared on the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s “Roll Film” movie review site (http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=219_0_6_0). Each film was also reviewed by my CBF colleague, Greg Borzo, who focused more on the bike content.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
3 Wheels
It would be a gross misrepresentation to refer to Life is Beautiful as a "Holocaust comedy." We may be asked to laugh at the antics of its protagonist, but the Holocaust is never made light of or trivialized. It is, however, a backdrop to some broad character humor that usually works, but not always. Even before the film's setting moves to a concentration camp, a sense of discomfort pervades.
Life is Beautiful is an Italian film by writer/director/actor, Roberto Benigni, told in two parts. The first half is a giddy romance with Benigni playing the boisterous Guido, who embraces life with such gusto that every moment is an opportunity for humor and theatrics. Guido falls in love with Dora the schoolteacher and wins her heart through romantic comedy stalking. You know: the kind of behavior that always gets the girl in movies, but would lead to a restraining order in real life.
It is in this setting of pre-war idealism that bicycles are prominently featured and come to represent an innocence soon to be lost. One of a series of "accidental" meetings between Guido and Dora takes the shape of a small bike collision. Years later, after the two are married and have a son, all three are seen happily riding through the Italian city streets.
The second half takes a dark turn when Guido (who is Jewish) and his family are sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Here Guido attempts to use his gift of humor and passion for life to provide his 5-year-old son the hope to survive in this hopeless environment. He convinces the boy that it is all a game and that he is actually in a contest to win a tank if he can hide long enough.
Benigni's influence for Life is Beautiful was most likely Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Chaplin's first talkie had him playing both a Hitler-like buffoon and a Jewish barber facing persecution. It's similar in style, and Benigni's humor can be described as Chaplinesque; however, The Great Dictator had the advantage of being released in 1940, at a time when the true extent of the Holocaust was not yet known. In any case, Benigni is no Chaplin--but who is?
Schindler's List and The Pianist provide such vivid reminders of the horrors of the Holocaust that the concentration camp in Life is Beautiful seems watered down for the purposes of preserving some of the film's more fanciful conceits. This is an understandable decision that allows both comedy and pathos to exist side by side, but such a laser focus on Guido and his family sidesteps the fate of their fellow prisoners.
Benigni has made a film close to his heart and it succeeds on its own terms. Intentions count in this case because if the tone were just a bit off, the whole film could have ended up as an exercise in bad taste. Benigni is like a tightrope walker trying to balance his life-affirming vision with real life atrocities, all without crossing lines of sensitivity. We see him stumble a few times, but he never falls off the rope.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
3 Wheels
It would be a gross misrepresentation to refer to Life is Beautiful as a "Holocaust comedy." We may be asked to laugh at the antics of its protagonist, but the Holocaust is never made light of or trivialized. It is, however, a backdrop to some broad character humor that usually works, but not always. Even before the film's setting moves to a concentration camp, a sense of discomfort pervades.
Life is Beautiful is an Italian film by writer/director/actor, Roberto Benigni, told in two parts. The first half is a giddy romance with Benigni playing the boisterous Guido, who embraces life with such gusto that every moment is an opportunity for humor and theatrics. Guido falls in love with Dora the schoolteacher and wins her heart through romantic comedy stalking. You know: the kind of behavior that always gets the girl in movies, but would lead to a restraining order in real life.
It is in this setting of pre-war idealism that bicycles are prominently featured and come to represent an innocence soon to be lost. One of a series of "accidental" meetings between Guido and Dora takes the shape of a small bike collision. Years later, after the two are married and have a son, all three are seen happily riding through the Italian city streets.
The second half takes a dark turn when Guido (who is Jewish) and his family are sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Here Guido attempts to use his gift of humor and passion for life to provide his 5-year-old son the hope to survive in this hopeless environment. He convinces the boy that it is all a game and that he is actually in a contest to win a tank if he can hide long enough.
Benigni's influence for Life is Beautiful was most likely Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Chaplin's first talkie had him playing both a Hitler-like buffoon and a Jewish barber facing persecution. It's similar in style, and Benigni's humor can be described as Chaplinesque; however, The Great Dictator had the advantage of being released in 1940, at a time when the true extent of the Holocaust was not yet known. In any case, Benigni is no Chaplin--but who is?
Schindler's List and The Pianist provide such vivid reminders of the horrors of the Holocaust that the concentration camp in Life is Beautiful seems watered down for the purposes of preserving some of the film's more fanciful conceits. This is an understandable decision that allows both comedy and pathos to exist side by side, but such a laser focus on Guido and his family sidesteps the fate of their fellow prisoners.
Benigni has made a film close to his heart and it succeeds on its own terms. Intentions count in this case because if the tone were just a bit off, the whole film could have ended up as an exercise in bad taste. Benigni is like a tightrope walker trying to balance his life-affirming vision with real life atrocities, all without crossing lines of sensitivity. We see him stumble a few times, but he never falls off the rope.
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