Life Is Beautiful

The film Life Is Beautiful tells the viewers a story about a Jewish-Italian man's journey, Guido Orifice who faced hardship at the Nazi concentration camp with his family and the Jews. This film was directed and played by the director himself, Roberto Benigni. The film was played by his real wife, Nicoletta Braschi who played a role as his wife and Giorgio Cantarini who played as his son. The film was linked to the portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust.

One of the film attractions is the genre. I believe that Roberto Benigni was the only person has the courage to set a comedy about the very serious Holocaust. By creating such a light-hearted tone for a film about one of the cruel periods in recent history, it would easily offend viewers, especially those who have a personal connection with the Holocaust. However, Benigni's clever directing and acting somehow succeeds at such a genre-bending convention. The film is in Italian, so it could be a bit troublesome for viewers who don't speak Italian. However, I am very thankful that they included English subtitles so the viewers can understand the film better. I am very amazed with how Benigni plans the dialogues to make the audience laugh no matter what scene it is, from the time he met Dora to the part where Guido was in the concentration camp.

The film first show the viewers the countryside, where Guido and his friend were in an old car, chattering loudly and suddenly he exclaimed that there's problems with the brakes, which ended up driving in a small town waiting for a very important person to arrive. It was hilarious that the town people cheered for Guido and waved at him as if he's a king when he's not and later on that person arrived behind the crowd and the whole town was in absolute silence. Later on in the film, they showed the beautiful city of Arezzo in Italy where Guido plans to open a book shop there. The city of Arezzo was so beautiful it hypnotized me and it gives a feeling to me that I was there. The storyline is happy and romantic in the first part of the film with Guido and Dora falling in love with each other and were blessed with a son, Joshua. The film changed its shade without warning when Guido and Joshua were brought to a Nazi concentration camp. At this point of the story, there are no more hopes of a beautiful ending; like the title of the film. I could feel that some character will die in the end, and it did happen. Guido was shot to death by a Nazi guard after getting caught at his attempt to save Dora. I almost shed tears thinking of Joshua who followed his father's last orders, that is to stay hidden in the sweatbox until the area is quiet, if Guido is not coming back.

The music used in this film is mainly orchestra and instrumental music. Unlike the modern film nowadays, they use music with loud beat and sometimes songs from various artists. The music used in this film perfectly