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PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Roberto Benigni
Script :
Vincenzo Cerami, Roberto Benigni
Photography :
Mario Cotone
Editor :
Simona Paggi
Cast :
Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano, Sergio Bustric, Marisa Paredes, Horst Buchholz, Lydia Alfonsi, Giuliana Lojodice, Amerigo Fontani, Pietro De Silva, Francesco Gu
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LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
Italy 1938. Guido, a Jewish waiter who dreams of owning his own bookshop, is in love with Dora, a beautiful young school teacher. Unfortunately the woman he calls his princess is already engaged. Worse, she is engaged to the local Fascist official with whom he has had a run-in. Guido is not deterred and a fairy tale romance ensues. A few years later, Guido and Dora are married. They have a son, Giosu�, and Guido has finally opened his bookshop. But the Fascists have begun enforcing oppressive anti-Semitic laws. Returning home one day Dora finds her son and her husband missing. They have been taken away for deportation. Dora, who is not Jewish herself, insists on boarding the train with her family. At the concentration camp Guido is determined to protect his son both physically and psychologically. Accustomed to fast-talking his way out of difficult situations, Guido convinces the boy that everything around them is part of a zany game: in order to win you have to obey the uniformed men pretending to be nasty, never ask for food or rest no matter how badly you want them, and keep quiet in your hiding place when others are sent to the "shower"."A poet once said that after the Holocaust no poetry is possible. But that statement itself is poetic. No man can take from another man his belief that life is beautiful, right up to the final moment." -- Roberto Benigni
Roberto Benigni
Born in Arezzo, Italy in 1952, Roberto Benigni began his showbusiness career in the theatres and cabarets of Rome and quickly became one of Italy's leading comics. After achieving great success with his physical comedy on the small screen, he brought it to the cinema in the late '70s in films by Giuseppe Bertolucci (BERLINGUER TI VOGLIO BENE, 1977) and Marco Ferreri (CHIEDO ASILO, 1979). During the '80s, while continuing to act in films by other directors (including Jim Jarmusch, Fellini, Blake Edwards and Wim Wenders), Benigni launched his own directing career with TU MI TURBI (1982). He followed that with NON CI RESTA CHE PIANGERE (1984), THE LITTLE DEVIL (1989), JOHNNY STECCHINO (1992) and THE MONSTER (1994). LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL won the jury grand prize at this year's Cannes Festival.
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