FilmAppreciation–VISCOM|1

Department of Visual Communication

Faculty of Science and Humanities
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
NME – 2020
FILM APPRECIATION

Name Karthik Raja

Register Number RA1932202010013
Department M.COM- 2nd year

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
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FILM INFORMATION CAST &CREW

Original Title & English Title

“Life is Beautiful”
Language: Italian
Initial Release: Dec, 1997 at Italy

Main Cast

Actor / Actress Role

Roberto Benigni Guido Orefice
Nicoletta Braschi Dora Orefice
Giorgio Cantarini Giosue Orefice
Giustino Durano Uncle Eliseo
Horst Buchholz Doctor Lessing
Marisa Paredes Dora’s mother
Sergio Bustic Ferruccio

Director
Roberto Benigni

Produced by
Elda Ferri

Composer (Music Score)

Nicola Piovani

Cinematographer
Tonino Delli Colli

Editor
Simona Paggi

Genre: Comedy drama

SYNOPSIS

The Italian film “Life is Beautiful” is of genre comedy drama released on 1997 at
Italy. The film is directed and starred by Roberto Benigni who plays the role of a Jewish
bookshop owner employing his imagination to protect his son from the Nazi Concentration
Camp at Germany. Also, the film is inspired partially by the book “In the End, I Beat Hitler”
written by Benigni’s father who had to spend two years in a German camp during second
world war.
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FILM REVIEW

This film is, without a doubt, a masterpiece. The first half is a sweet romance story
filled with laughs and warmth about a charming, gentle, yet humorous Italian-Jewish waiter
who eventually wins the heart of the girl of his dreams. The second half is a heartfelt story of
a father protecting his young son's innocence in spite of everything horrible going on within
the setting of a concentration camp. A number of people complain that this is too happy for a
holocaust film. I know very well that a concentration camp was no amusement park and that
the film didn't mask what the Jews suffered before and during their imprisonment (within a
PG-13 rating, not as severe as Schindler's List), but the fact that a father decides to protect his
child's innocence from the horrors of a camp by pretending it's all one big game, from playing
hide and seek to "making fun of" whatever rumors the son heard about what happens in the
camp, is truly sad in itself.

Each of the two stories in this film was heartfelt and well written. It's a film that
warms your heart and then breaks it. A film that makes you laugh and then makes you cry. A
film that wraps every emotion into one beautiful story. Roberto Benigni really outdid himself.
I can't say it's the greatest film ever made, but I have a feeling that if anyone tried to make an
English adaptation of this, it could never compare to the original.

OPENING CREDITS

In Italy, at 1939, a Jewish man named Guido Orefice arrives to work in the city of
Arezzo where one of this uncles Eliseo runs a hotel or restaurant. Guido is sharp and comical.
He fell in love with a girl named Dora. He saw her again in the city where she worked as a
teacher. She was engaged to a very rich arrogant government official and he also has several
misunderstandings with Guido Orefice. Guido tried his best to impress her by setting up many
incidents, so called coincidental, in which Dora saw his affection and interest in her, hence
decided to go with him instead of her arrogant fiancé and mother.

PLOT

They then gave birth to a son, Giosue who runs a bookstore. On his son’s birthday,
Guido, his son and his uncle Eliseo are seized along with many Jews by Nazi concentration
camp during second world war. Dora, on knowing this information, voluntarily got on the
train so that she can be somewhat closer with her family but men and women are separated in
the camp which prevented Guido and Dora to see each other. Guido tried many stunt works
like using loudspeakers to ensure her that he and his son are safe. Giosue was asked to bath in
showers by the Nazis which he usually hates. So he didn’t went to bath while other Jews
including Eliseo was murdered as the showers were in fact gas chambers.
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Guido tried his best to hide the whole situation from his son. He explained to his son
that it was a complicated game and he must complete all the tasks given by him. The points
increase as he completes every task and atlast he might win the tank if he had been the first
one to reach one thousand points. The points get reduced if he cries, complain, want his
mother or hungry. Sometimes, Guido took advantage of German woman and thought that his
son was one of her charges because he served German officers once. When he was teaching
other German children to thank in Italian, they were found as prisoners by another server.

Guido maintained the same story to his son till the end. When the allied forces
approached them, they were shutting down the camp. He told his son that his final task was to
stay in the box after which he would get the tank as reward. Guido went on to find Dora but
he got caught by a soldier and they decided to murder him.

CLIMAX

Guido, on walking towards death, winks one last time at his son, just a character
playing the game. He was shot dead. A US army tank reached the camp the next day and
Guiso came out of the box with the joy of winning the tank as the US soldiers allow him to
ride on the tank. On moving towards a safe place, he found his mother Dora in the procession
and got united with his mother. He told his mother how he won the game and tank by
following his father’s advice and also the sacrifices his father did for him.

KEY SCENES
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