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Movie of the Week #20 - Life is Beautiful
Second movie in the Best Picture Losers month is Life is Beautiful from 1997 directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. It won for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Leading Actor and Best Original Dramatic Score.
Besides any thoughts on this movie, have you seen the other nominees that year and do you think this deserved the win instead?
The other nominees:
- Shakespeare in Love (winner)
- Elizabeth
- Saving Private Ryan
- The Thin Red Line
The rest of the schedule is:
- 18th: High Noon
- 25th: Saving Private Ryan
I had never watched this before. I know this is in the top 100 for IMDb. But it’s the type of movie that would do well with the IMDb demographic. Due to the 90s release and it being a crowdpleaser.
I can’t really explain why I never watched it. Although I imagine I would have eventually watched it due to the similarities it has with The Day the Clown Cried.
I have mixed to negative feelings about this. Looking at a lot of the Letterboxd reviews, the negative reviews come from people largely saying it’s inappropriate to have comedy in such a setting. That’s not an argument I’m terribly interested in, nor is it something that came to mind while watching it. I think it might just be a bad movie.
The first half, which I didn’t know about since I was expecting the whole film to take place in a concentration camp, is dreadful. It is so painfully unfunny and nauseously whimsical. I was prepared to give the film a much lower rating just based on that. I’ve never seen any of Begnini’s other films, but if they’re more in line with how this half of the film is then I understand why he’s never had another film be well received.
The second half I thought had some strong moments. Overwrought sentimentally works on me, but I don’t know if the few moments that work are enough to outweigh everything else I don’t like about the film. There’s a cheapness and an awkwardness to the way the big two final moments of the film are delivered. The ending being a freeze frame I thought was almost to the level of satire.
I don’t think Begnini deserved to win Best Actor, the real winner that year (Jim Carrey for The Truman Show) wasn’t even nominated but Tom Hanks was more deserving of the award for Saving Private Ryan. The performance I did think stood out was the child’s performance. I don’t think the movie works without him. He’s the emotional crutch of the film.
In terms of people’s critiques of this film; there’s this idea that it’s saying life is great as long as you ignore misery and delude yourself into thinking it’s great. I think this is an incorrect reading of the film. It’s not saying the only way to keep being happy is to lie to yourself. It’s a father’s Herculean effort in preserving his child’s innocence. The reality of the concentration camp is still there, and the pain the father goes through is still there. He’s just hanging onto hope that the misery will end and in that hope tries his hardest not to let the child become crippled by it.
But overall I think Jojo Rabbit deals with similar things better. I think that’s a better made film overall. And I won’t speak to all the other nominees since we’re gonna be talking about this year again for Saving Private Ryan (and I’m planning on watching the nominees I haven’t seen) but I don’t agree that this is better than Shakespeare in Love.
I can understand how the whimsical comedy can be off-putting. It is almost a throwback to Charlie Chaplin in the silent era. But I do think it should be viewed as retold through the eyes of the boy, who might have heard the story as a sort of "How I met your father" later on in life and he attributed his father's demeanor to that as well.
I agree on Jim Carrey though. He should at least have gotten a nomination. Not sure about Tom Hanks, as I don't recall him as being overly remarkable in that, but it isn't fresh in memory yet.
It’s not that I have a problem with the whimsical nature itself. It’s just not executed well, and I think the gags are unfunny. It’s like copying Chaplin’s comedy but not doing it well.
The juxtaposition of the horror of the concentration camps with the main character's comedic nature, and the way he employed it to shield his son wrecked me when I first watched this even though I was a (fairly callous) teenager at the time. Even back then, I had the abstract idea that I would give/do anything to keep my (theoretical) kid safe, but the prospect of having to do that while living in a concentration camp, when you have nothing was pretty overwhelming to think about.
Now that I am a father, I don't think I could even watch it again without going to a super-dark place. I don't mean to suggest that people should ignore it. We should remember that it happened and try to make sure it never happens again. But for my own mental health, I have to approach things like this from the side rather than head-on.
Another amazing/devastating read in this vein is the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. It is told from the perspective of a son born after the war. One of the major themes is the way being in the camps shaped his father's whole life. Even though he did make it out, you see that there's a very real way that he is still there, still experiencing the fear and anger.
To bring it back to Life is Beautiful, for someone to have the foresight and cleverness to try to shield their kid from that lifelong trauma is pretty amazing.
I was around 14 when this came out and haven't seen it since, but it still a film I remember. I plan on seeing it tonight and a lot has happened in my life the past 25 years of course, so I am sure some perspectives are different now.
I couldn't remember much details about this since I last saw it 1999, other than the general feeling of very mixed emotions with Begnini's humor and the horrors of the holocaust. That still holds true with this almost fairytale like depiction of a concentration camp. But the ending also makes it pretty clear that this story is told from the boys perspective, with all the real horrors happening out of frame. In my mind it is clearly not trying to make light of the holocaust or downplay it in any way, but it is a bold move to make a whimsical movie about such a topic. It relies on the viewer knowing about the real events, which just keeps the contrast of the child perspective much stronger without having to show it directly. I kinda want to watch Schindler’s List again to have a fresher comparison in mind on different ways to depict the concentration camps.
We will deal with Saving Private Ryan at the end of the month and I will have to rewatch that again too to give a proper judgement, but it is probably be one of those two that would be my pick for a winner over Shakespeare In Love.