A poignant
Italian film about the
human spirit and love. Untranslated,
La vita e bella, is a film directed by
Roberto Benigni.
Awards
Nastri d'Argento awards 1998 - Best film, Best actor (Benigni), Best Supporting actor (Giustino Durano), Story and Screenplay.
Cannes Film Festival 1998 - Grand Jury Prize.
European Film Awards 1998 - Best Film and Best Actor.
Oscars 1999 - Best Actor and Best Foreign Film.
Storyline
A clownish country bumpkin named Guido arrives in a large Tuscan town to start a new life in the late 1930s. He soon meets and falls in love with a prim school teacher named Dora. Through a series of comic incidents and magical coincidences, he wins her heart and they get married. It is such a lovely fairytale.
Guido is played by Begnini, and Dora by Nicoletta Braschi his real-life wife.
But as World War II takes hold, the inexorable rise of fascism and anti-Semitism change their they lives. Guido, who is part-Jewish, is hauled off to a concentration camp with his uncle and his infant son, Giosue. Even though his wife is not Jewish, she refuses to escape and is also interned in a concentration camp for women.
Guido, despite his apparently simplistic nature, tries to shield his son from the reality of their hardship. Instead, he turns it into a game. Hiding his own fear and risking his safety, he preserves his son's life and innocence right to the end.