Customer Reviews

The Tiger and the Snow

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Watching this movie will inevitably remind you of Benigni's previous movie "Life is beautiful". Most probably it will not give you the same thrill since "Life is beautiful" is a masterpiece and it is such an inspired movie. I am sure that even Benigni does not expect to produce such a movie again.

Still there are some common elements in these two movies. Benigni plays once more a funny character which is surrounded by extremely difficult circumstances. Yet he is focused on his goal (in this movie to rescue the woman he loves). And this time we get to see a much happier ending. This movie also unfolds during a war which is taking place right now. This time the villains are not so easy to point out (like the "Nazi's in Life is beautiful") but the movie still describes how war brings misery to everyone involved, either these are the American troops, the residents of Baghdad or even members of humanitarian organizations and regardless from which side the fire comes. If anyone expects any political comments in the movie I think he will be disappointed. Benigni remains neutral and does not take sides on who is right and who is wrong in this war. This might disappoint some who would expect a political comment in this movie yet it will make it more attractive to broader audiences.

I cannot also overlook Jean Reno's role in the movie. He plays an Arab poet. One of the best scenes of the movie is when he is looking at the starry sky of Baghdad with Attilio and he quotes some memorable poetry. I believe this is another role which Reno delivers in a superb way.

Nicola Piovani's music also contributes to the atmosphere of the movie. He has worked with Benigni in many films and there is the right chemistry between his music and the scenes for which it is employed.

In conclusion I would highly recommend this movie. When you get it do not expect to see another masterpiece like "Life is beautiful" because you will be disappointed. Yet prepare yourself for an entertaining movie with positive messages. If you have not seen "Life is beautiful" (you can check my review for this movie as well), see it AFTER you see this movie. I think this is the correct order to watch these two movies and get the best out of them.

Attilio de Giovanni (Benigni) teaches poetry at the university, and is in love with Vittoria (Braschi) whom he dreams of marrying every night in his shorts and t-shirt, while Tom Waits sings. One day, Vittoria travels to Iraq with her poet friend Fouad (Jean Reno) and is in an accident. Attilio will do anything to be by her side. Will love conquer?

Benigni as the director signs here a film about war in Iraq, love, survival, romance, life, poetry and most of all, human relationships during a time of war. His opinions are clear. This is not a simple comedy or drama.

Benigni as the actor slightly overacts, but doesn't he always? Braschi is a delight as always, and Jean Reno is wonderful as the Iraqi poet who returns to his country. He also had a great Italian coach, for his Italian is near perfect! It was refreshing to see Tom Waits in this movie, although he was simply a "musician" and didn't have a speaking role.

Well directed and with as usual great music by Nicola Piovani, I found the movie much better than expected, and would watch again any time.

Roberto Benigni is without a doubt a mastermind of comedy. But not just comedy for comedy's sake, but a type of comedy that is paired with deep pathos. In this movie, he shows again his great art as director and actor. His favorite theme seems to be the great importance that love plays in our own life, and that in spite of all those horrific episodes of human history, individuals always fight to the last to keep the only thing that they can control: love; love to the ones who truly matter to us and who make life worth living. I highly recommend this movie. I am not sure why it has not made an impact in the US. My only guess is that people would expect to see something similar to 'life is beautiful', and even though the movie uses similar resources to balance the comic and dramatic, it is still quite different and of a category of its own. Here we are thrown into the drama a lot sooner than in 'Life', but still we are given many samples of the comic within great adversity. The type of jokes will remind you of 'Life is Beautiful', like the use of hilarious great coincidences. But still, this movie shows a maturity and intimacy that is deeply touching, and maybe even more intense. 'Life is Beautiful' deals with a man's great desire for the survival of his wife and son (those that he loves and all he has in the world) in the middle of one of the most tragic human historical tragedies. In 'The Tiger and The snow", Benigni uses the war of Irak as the historical episode, but he focuses his attention a lot more in the personal story. Here the war in Irak seems to be used as a mere example of one of those large events out of our control, another of those unnecessary tragedies that we humans keep committing over and over again throughout our history. But here this war can be any war, it could have been a war two hundred years ago, or a 1000 years ago, or in the future. Benigni maybe uses the war in Irak as a contemporary one that we can all relate to, since it is still going on and it makes it "closer" to us all, instead of placing the event somewhere further in the past or future. This is a technique that enforces the intimacy of the story. The focus of the movie is the power that love has in us and to the lengths it will take us to protect those who are most important to us. There is a universality in this movie that puts it in a higher level than 'Life is Beautiful'. To anyone interested in those movies that deal with the power of love, and the great lengths to keep anyone important to us alive, this is a movie you will love. Movies like this remind us that LOVE is everything. True love make us go through great adversities, without being selfish. And in spite of all the catastrophes and painful mistakes that we human beings commit and have committed throughout our history (wars, genocide,etc), we should always try to focus on that, LOVE, which is what really truly matters in life, and what makes it worth living. Please do watch this movie.

Roberto Benigni has again captured the depth and dynamism of human emotion and the beauty, grit, and passion of a world where people constantly struggle between power and love. As a director and actor he has captured, and accurately, portrayed the tension often felt in life between love and pain, excitement and disappointment, hurt and forgiveness. He plays the part of a poet who chooses his profession because he wants to be able to convey exactly what he felt in any given moment to those around him. Yet, this is exactly what he is incapable of doing when he wants to express love - even to his wife. This movie captures a glimpse of the depths of human emotion and the difficulty, even for the poet, to convey what is most desired - love. It manages to be philosophically, artistically, and theatrically astute and rewarding. Benigni has now made two masterpieces highlighting theological virtues - "Life is Beautiful": hope and "The Tiger and the Snow": love. Now we just have to see if he makes another highlighting faith. As always, Nicoletta Braschi is spectacular. She has a gracefulness and charisma that simply endears her to all who watch. This movie is certainly worth having in your collection and is one worth watching many times over.

The strengths of this film are its unusual plot and excellent art direction. It is incredibly strong on fantasy, whimsy, and romance, but the screenplay is also quite intelligent and has some funny commentary on psychoanalysis, poetry, and literary criticism. I haven't seen "Life is Beautiful" but apparently Mr. Benigni's special talent is taking a wartime setting such as the Holocaust or the U.S. Invasion of Iraq and using these contexts to underscore the potential of human beings to transcend even the most grim and brutal circumstances. While there is something vaguely troubling to me about Mr. Benigni's premise, I give him enormous credit for taking cinema to new places. I was also put off by the frenetic, obsessive way in which Mr. Benigni's character stalks the female lead, as having been a stalking victim myself, I feel that popular culture far too often romanticizes the type of disruptive, mentally unbalanced pursuit of a love object which should actually be criminalized. Despite all this, I found the film very engaging and poignant overall, with a few good laughs for good measure.

I love any film that Roberto Benigni stars in or produces, so I was a little disappointed in this slow, half-baked love story. I was hoping it would get better as the film went on, but felt like it got dumber towards the end. Definitely not something I'd recommend, although Benigni's earlier film "Life is Beautiful" is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen!! Rent that one, not this one!

Remember "Life is Beautiful"? A delicious mix of tragedy and comedy? This is another film that features the Italian actor Roberto Benigni, and once again his real life wife acting his love interest in the film. It's in Italian, with English sub-titles. While Life is Beautiful was set in World War II, this film is set in the modern war in Iraq, with a big part of the film in Bagdhad.

Attilio (Benigni), is a poet in Rome, who teaches in a university. The beginning of the film presents him as a single father, with two teenage girls. His love interest is Vittori (acted by Benigni's real-life wife), about whom he dreams constantly at night, but she wants nothing to do with him. The film has a PG rating, but just as with "Life is Beautiful", Benigni's character declares an unrequited love and begs to make love to his lady - so be aware this might be unsuitable for children. But don't be disgusted too quickly, because you might be in for a surprise... [spoiler: at the end we discover that Vittori is actually Attilio's wife, which gives the entire film a whole different meaning, and you'll almost want to watch it again]

When Vittori goes to Iraq while working on a biography of an Iraqi poet, she becomes seriously ill, and Attilio manages to find his way to her bedside in Bagdhad. Most of the film revolves on the scenes that follow, as he desperately tries to save her life. Here the film clearly becomes serious - Attilio seems oblivious to the reality of the danger, and while his enthusiastic optimism is sometimes over-the-top, it also serves to make the tragedy of war more apparent. His character is very much like the bubbly optimism of his character in "Life is Beautiful", constantly babbling, and if you enjoyed it there, you'll like it here too. He's a buffoon, but a loveable one.

I don't want to spoil the plot, but at the very end there is a somewhat surprising twist and discovery, one that may leave you wanting to watch the film again with a completely new perspective! So if you are disappointed while watching, suspend your judgment until the end! As good as Life is Beautiful? That would be saying too much. It's primarily an entertaining story, but it's a good one, with a pleasant mix of humour and comedy, and one that will leave you contemplating both the power of love and the horror of war. - GODLY GADFLY

I can watch this movie again and again. Its difficult to say more than the previous reviewers. I did not view this movie through a prism of "anti-war" genre as some reviewers above have. I look at Benigni as the embodiment of joy and love. The scene with his daughters in their bedroom with a bat flying around is not only hilarious, but, lovable. With a few gestures, Benigni depicts his love for the world and his daughters. The girls sense his profundity and despite the hour and their recent trauma, they ask Dad how he became a poet. Attilio, Benigni's character's answer to his two daughters is quintessential Benigni.

The scene where Benigni/Attilio is lecturing on poetry to his university class is riveting. I can view this scene again and again. It is reminiscent of Giacomo Puccini's opera, La Boheme, Puccini - La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti, Harwood, Ghiaurov, Karajan "Che gelida manina " (what a cold little hand) aria where Rodolfo describes his life to Mimi: " I am a writer, I live, I write". Vittorio is a poeta, at one with the world in the same manner as Rodolfo.

HOW FAR AND WIDE WOULD YOU GO for someone you truly love??

Maybe a difficult question to answer but try answering in the context of how Attilio (Benigni) travels from Italy to Baghdad during the Iraq War to get to his love, Nicoletta Braschi (his wife in real life) as Vittoria. The travel scenes from Italy to Baghdad can be viewed as comedic when he joins up with the Red Cross in order to get into Baghdad. On a higher plane, Benigni depicts a man who is driven by a powerful love. Benigni's acting when he tries to get a formula for home-made glycerine to treat Vittoria's (Nicoletta Braschi's) cerebral edema is masterful. He portrays a man who is so frustrated and impatient but at the same time knows he has to suppress these emotions in order to calm the wise Iraqi elder man to get the recipe for this life saving medicine. Some could critique the scenes around Nicoletta Braschi's hospital bed as formulaic Benigni. As Attilio (Benigni) in desperation launches into a soliloquy of poetry describing his love for Vittoria to the Iraqi wise man, the monologue and the imagery is as beautiful as some operatic arias. The elder Iraqi man is so taken with the beauty of Attilio's poetry, even though he cannot understand the language, that he relaxes and is able to recall the recipe for making homemade glycerin.

His persona in those scenes is very similar to the nervous jovial character in the concentration camp in "Life is Beautiful". Yes, the acting is similar as other reviewers here have detailed. However, I DO NOT RECOMMEND you view this film as a comparative to "Life is Beautiful". This film can stand on its own merit and I even haven't begun to discuss Jean Reno as Fouad or Nicoletta Braschi.

Benigni does it again. This is an entertaining, moving and somewhat profound movie. It is anti-war without being blatantly so -- it's message is quite subtle, but effective.

Simply magic. There are so many wonderful and touching images in this film, a pure delight!