Throughout the years, the cinema has given films in which the love of parents has been the protagonist. “In Pursuit of Happiness” or “I am Sam” remind us that this feeling is unshakable, regardless of context or time. That is why “Life is Beautiful” (Roberto Beningni) used this idea to bring to life one of the most acclaimed films of the last 30 years. With a particular plot, he united drama with comedy through a historical event that should not be repeated: war.
Captured in times of Italian fascism, and shortly after the arrival of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust, “Life is beautiful” turns 25 of having narrated a story with a life lesson, the one in which love is placed as the key to resist a harsh and hopeless environment.
“Life is beautiful”, the film that owes us tears
The tape shows us Guido Orefice, an Italian Jew who owns a bookstore. After falling in love with Dora, he gambles everything for everything with her and they form a family next to hers, her son Giosuè. Perhaps the family’s life could have been a field of roses, but the film reminds us, on more than one occasion, that the worst is yet to come.
With the advent of Nazism, Guido, belonging to a Jewish family, is subject to imprisonment, like his uncle, and Giosuè. After they are captured, the man must use his imagination to protect his little girl from the horrors of a concentration camp and, if time permits, be reunited with his beloved Dora.
With moments where we forget the context of the plot, Benigni took us through scenes, in which the dialogue fades into the background and his gestures and mimicry are the protagonists. The script transformed the cruelest torture into a game through an alternate reality in which the father and the child played and freedom still existed beyond words.
Of all the highlights of the film, it is hard to forget the death of Guido, who until his last breath told his son that he loved him and to hide because he was about to win the game he had created. The man is executed fulfilling the promise that his child would never know the horror of war.
The denouement, in which Giosuè and his mother meet, also has a special sentence. After coming out of his hiding place, the little boy runs into an American tank. One of the workers carries him on his shoulders and the boy sees his mother along with the rest of the prisoners. Here we notice that the voice-over, at the beginning of the film, is that of the character, but in the adult version of him. He says: “This is my story. That is the sacrifice my father made. That was the gift he had for me.”
The euphoria of Roberto Benigni and a speech for the history of the Oscars
That cry from Sofía Loren at the 1999 Oscars has been recorded in everyone’s memory, in which she presented the award for best foreign film. The film icon did not hide her emotion when she saw that Italy was recognized with a work that would mark the public to this day. A euphoric Roberto Beningni would take the stage twice that night, also winning best actor for his performance in the film.
And it is that the jumps and applause that the world saw were valid. Benigni directed, wrote and starred in the film that would give him two Oscars to date. If people don’t forget the plot, neither does his speech before Hollywood that time, one in which he recalled that poverty was the best gift his parents gave him and that we exist for love. He closed his words by dedicating his work to one person, his wife, Nicoletta Braschi.
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