Library Pickups: Life Is Beautiful

Comedy and Holocaust. Those are two words that most people would tell you should NEVER be put in the same sentence, let alone in the same movie. But somehow, Director and Star, Roberto Benigni was brave enough (some may even say heroic enough) to depict this most evil of human events with the most lighthearted of genres and the result is just as resonant and profound as even the most serious of films of the same subject.

One of the main things that the film utilizes to justify this angle is to have the actual scenes in the concentration camps to be around the halfway mark. Everything prior to that shows the exploits of Benigni's loveable and irreverent goofball character, Guido, from posing as an inspector for a racist school and discussing how perfect and flawless the Aryan belly button is, mischievously stealing someone else's hat, and riding a defaced horse to a crowded dinning hall to woo the woman of his dreams, who later becomes his wife. These scenes highlight the innocence and purity that was utterly destroyed for many people by the Nazi's, reminding us exactly why the Holocaust is such a sensitive subject matter to begin with. But the comedy doesn't stop even there because Guido, throughout his time at the camp, tries to shield his five year old son from the horrors that await them by making the whole ordeal seem like a game where, if they keep their chin up and pull through, they will receive a tank as a prize.

As much as the audience wants to cry for what the characters are going through, especially when the film refuses to shy away from why they are REALLY at the camp, those tears become just as much of joy for the strength and perseverance of the human spirit.

Thanks to Benigni's sensitivity and earnestly, Life is Beautiful that simply should not work but it miraculously does and reminds us that a more comedic and light-hearted Holocaust film is more necessary that we thought.

If you enjoy this post, please consider contributing to my Patreon for awesome perks: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=8841985