Product Details

• Actors: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano, Sergio Bini Bustric
• Directors: Roberto Benigni
• Writers: Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami
• Producers: Agnès Mentre, Elda Ferri, Gianluigi Braschi, John M. Davis, John Rogers
• Format: PAL
• Language: German (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: German
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (701 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004U420
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,872 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Life Is Beautiful" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Italy's rubber-faced funnyman Roberto Benigni accomplishes the impossible in his World War II comedy Life Is Beautiful: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. An international sensation and the most successful foreign language film in U.S. history, the picture also earned director-cowriter-star Benigni Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. He plays the Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the heart of his sweetheart (Benigni's real-life sweetie, Nicoletta Braschi) and raises a darling son (the adorable Giorgio Cantarini) in the shadow of fascism. When the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win (of all things) a tank. Guido tirelessly maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son safe, secure, and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy--he accomplishes feats no man could realistically pull off--both of which have drawn fire from a few critics. Yet for all its wacky humor and inventive gags, Life Is Beautiful is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker

Would that it were. The great, donkey-faced Italian clown Roberto Benigni attempts an ambitious fable of comedy's redemptive power. He plays an Italian Jew who keeps alive his little boy's innocence in a Nazi concentration camp by pretending that the routines of the camp are no more than an intricate game staged for his son's benefit. After all, Benigni appears to be saying, the Germans were indulging a fantasy, too-the fantasy of total control. But Benigni's ironic counter-reality undermines this movie, not the Nazis, who were beyond ridicule for the same reason that they were beyond rationality. Totalitarianism makes the fantastic literal-that is its demonic appeal. Benigni's jokes and games just aren't enough, and you leave the movie thinking that what's touching is not Benigni's ministrations to the little boy but his own need to believe in comedy as salvation. With Nicoletta Braschi as the hero's wife, and Giorgio Cantarini, who has the heartbreaking quality of the children in the old neorealist movies, as the boy. Set design by Danilo Donati. Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. In Italian. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

194 of 203 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 292 Reviews should tell you something. It's terrific!, April 26, 2000

By 

Maurice Z. Crosby Jr. "moec" (Trenton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life is Beautiful (DVD)

Put the children to bed, unplug the phone, get out the tissues and refuse to watch this movie with anybody who likes to talk during a movie. You will be blown away.

Holocaust and comedy. Two words never spoken in the same breath before "Life is Beautiful." To smiply label this movie as such, would do it injustice. Every emotion comes into play during the viewing. You soon begin to empathize with Roberto Benigni as he portrays a father trying to keep the harsh realities of a German concentration camp from his young son. Benigni protects his son with two weapons that the German's could not seize: Humor and Imagination.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and yes I cried. But I also laughed and smiled.

I recommend the Sub-title version of the movie. After five minutes the reading becomes natural and the depth to which you become involved with the movie is well worth it.

I so enjoyed the music in this movie, that I purchased "Tales of Hoffman" by Offenbach. The second playing of this piece in the movie will not allow you to maintain dry eyes.

83 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both hilarious and deeply moving, August 31, 2003

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life is Beautiful (DVD)

When Roberto Benigni burst onto the Hollywood scene with this acclaimed film and his over-the-top enthusiasm, I couldn't bring myself to watch this film. Instead, I waited for the DVD. However, what I perceived as hype was truly deserved. "Life is Beautiful" is a wonderfully inventive tale that seems fresh even today, years after its first release. Part slapstick, part drama, part romantic comedy, part tragedy - this story of an Italian family during the Holocaust defies categorization.

The films opens with Guido (Benigni) and his friend arriving in town on a car with no brakes and being mistaken for facist officials expected for a parade. This slapstick scene ends with Guido catching the future love of his life, Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), as she jumps from a barn window. The clownish Guido sets out to win her heart despite the odds against him. These early scenes set the stage for the rest of the movie: Guido will rely on invention, humor, and persistence to protect his loved ones despite the obstacles he faces. What begins as slapstick becomes heartbreaking later. Like all stories of the Holocaust, this film has its grim side, but Benigni relies heavily on exaggerated humor, running gags, and an early circus-like atmosphere to set up the emotional power of the time's reality. Most of the atrocities are implied, not witnessed, and the viewer's own knowledge of the time period creates an additional layer of tension.

Roberto Benigni is superb as Guido; his antics are hilarious, but during more dire moments, emotions flash across his face, revealing both the depth of his character and the reality of his position. Nicoletta Braschi is also good, and little Giorgio Cantinini as Guido?s son Joshua is adorably spunky, especially as he questions his father's stories.

I always advocate watching foreign films in the original language, with subtitles, but I understand that some viewers may not like "reading" a movie. In this case, however, the dubbed version was distracting, as Benigni provides the English track for his own character while American voices dub the rest of the cast. His Italian accent amid the American accents completely broke the illusion for me. Still, if a dubbed version is the only way you'll watch this movie, please do it.

I highly recommend "Life is Beautiful." Its offbeat approach remains unparalleled in the canon of Holocaust movies. Because of the absence of explicit violence and sex, viewers as young as thirteen should admire this extraordinary film.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone, but damn close, November 13, 1999

By 

C. A. Stewart (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life is Beautiful (DVD)

Okay, a few folks have said they did not like this film. Fair enough, I didn't like Good Will Hunting.

But let's take a look here. If you know what this film is all about, then the first half of it will astound you. I mean, egg on faces? It comes startingly close to Benny Hill for 'want of a laugh track'.

Ahh, but the warmth grows on you, and then...

The second half.

Few scenes are as emotional as when Guido has to reassure his son that the Jews 'aren't going to be made into soap.' The film takes a turn for the harshness and doesn't let up.

Schindler's List was a phenomenal film, showing the utter horror of the holocaust, but it missed one thing: the notion of hope. No one in Spielberg's masterpiece continually believes that 'life is beautiful'. All we see is the horror, the downfall, the pain. And while that makes for a fantastic dramatic punch, it negates any humor or spirit the prisoners may have had to blanket themselves from the harshness, and this humor surely existed.

Guido knows very soon that he is going to die. But, the love for his son outweighs the need to DISPLAY hopelessness. If nothing else, he must protect his son. So he convinces him it's all a game. Simple, buffoonish...

and damn identifiable. Who here can honestly say they wouldn't do anything they could to protect their sons/daughters from knowing the biggest evil on Earth? Guido manages to keep his son involved in 'the game' while he himself knows it will most likely end according to an evil thought.

The end scene, where Guido realizes he is going to be killed, and yet does a goofy march to make his son laugh, is one of the most powerful sights to ever be associated with the trauma the Nazi's inflicted on the world.

If you didn't like this film, fine. But don't say it mocked the Holocaust. If anything, it's a tribute to the flame of life that wouldn't be blown out.

Laughter seeps into any tradegy, if the love for life is there. Anne Frank said something to the effect that 'in spite of all this, I still feel people are good in heart'. She had hope.

She knew life was beautiful.

-CS