PG | 1h 56min | Drama, Comedy | 1997
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Roberto Benigni’s classic, “Life is Beautiful,” (1997) which won three Oscars (Best Actor, Foreign Language Film, and Score).
This tragi-comedy is about an early 20th-century Italian-Jewish waiter, a Chaplinesque Guido (Roberto Benigni who writes, acts in, and directs the film); he marries a schoolteacher, Dora (Benigni’s wife Nicoletta Braschi), and they live a blissful life with their five-year-old boy Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini).
Guido’s slapstick actions, often silly, turn every mundane moment into something magical. So, their ordinary lives feel extraordinary. His gift for concocting coincidences mid-conversation sweeps his listeners off their feet, sometimes quite literally. Wooing Dora for instance, he gate-crashes her school, goofing around as a School Inspector, shows up at the opera and steals her from her fiancé, in pouring rain….