Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Original title

La vita è bella

Directed by

Roberto Benigni

Written by

Vincenzo Cerami, Roberto Benigni

Cast

Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano, Horst Buchholz, Amerigo Fontani, Sergio Bustric, Lydia Alfonsi

Genre

drama film, comedy film

Country

Italy

Runtime

1h 56m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

8.4 of 10 from 14,078 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Jewish Italian man uses his imagination to protect his young son from the brutal reality of their time in a Nazi concentration camp. The film mixes playful comedy with the tragedy of the Holocaust.

tenderwhimsicalharrowinginventivebittersweetemotionalheart-wrenchingwarm

What happens

Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella, pronounced [la ˈviːta ˌɛ bˈbɛlla]) is a 1997 Italian period comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film was partially inspired by the book In the End, I Beat Hitler by Rubino Romeo Salmonì and by Benigni's father, who spent two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II. The film was an overwhelming critical and commercial success. Despite some criticisms of using the subject matter for comedic purposes, it received widespread acclaim, with critics praising its story, performances and direction, and the union of drama and comedy. The movie grossed over $230 million worldwide, including $57.6 million in the United States, is the second-highest-grossing foreign-language film in the U.S. (after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and one of the highest-grossing non-English-language movies of all time. The National Board of Review included it in the top five best foreign films of 1998. The movie won the Grand Prix at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, nine David di Donatello Awards (including Best Film), five Nastro d'Argento Awards in Italy, two European Film Awards, and three Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for Benigni, the first for a male non-English-language performance. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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