LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

Written, directed by and starting Roberto Benigni

Miramax Pictures

at Kendall Square

Life is Beautiful is a truly rare and unexpected creation: a comedy about the Holocaust. One of several miracles that writer, director and actor Roberto Benigni performs in this film is to convince the audience that this is not a contradiction in terms. And though the humor has some dark undertones, it's as far as can be from a black comedy. Life is Beautiful is a species of film that hasn't quite been categorized yet and that might be difficult for fans of Benigni's extraordinary work to reproduce.

Benigni believes in his film's title, and it is this optimism that makes the movie's unlikely concept work. At the Cannes film festival, where Life is Beautiful won the Grand Jury Prize, Benigni kissed Martin Scorcese's shoes when he came to the podium to accept his award and hugged members of the jury. Benigni is a major national celebrity in Italy; here, his previous films (mostly high-concept slapstick comedies like Johnny Stecchino) have never found much of an audience, and his attempts to break into the American film market (Son of the Pink Panther) have fallen flat. He's been dubbed by some as Italy's Robin Williams, though this comparison hardly seems adequate. The best way to describe Benigni is as a mime who speaks--his broadly funny body and facial movements complement a mellifluous, mile-a-minute verbal style, and, in the case of Life is Beautiful, a script that is wise, sympathetic and very often hysterically funny. Benigni knew he was taking risks in making the film, but he "was obsessed, in love with this idea," he says. "I was scared, but you're always scared when you're in love."

Love is the seed from which the story germinates. The first half of the film--which takes places against the beautiful landscape of a Tuscan village in the early 1940s--follows Benigni's character, a hapless, intelligent and endearing waiter named Guido, as he courts a local schoolteacher, Dora (Nicoletta Braschi). Dora, who is engaged to a Fascist official, falls for his antics from the start, though it takes time for her to decide to leave her other life behind.

The first hour of the film passes like a dream. There's a good deal of slapstick humor (flower pots and eggs falling on the heads of government officials, Benigni paying so much attention to Dora in his restaurant that he ends up carrying a live poodle on his serving tray), complemented by a lyrical and occasionally surreal style. Benigni's talent as a wordsmith is also evident: no knowledge of Italian is necessary to understand that he has a way with the language that is highly amusing in itself. There are also, however, hints of what is to come, but it's not in Guido's nature to let these threats impede his lifestyle. When Guido's family horse is spray-painted green and covered with anti-Semitic slogans, he uses it to carry Dora away from her Fascist husband-to-be. In another scene, Guido pretends to be chief inspector at a school so he can turn an intended lecture on the superiority of the Aryan race into a discussion of the superiority of his own "Aryan" ears, feet and bellybutton.

Marital bliss is interrupted a few years later when Guido, Dora and their son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini, a wonderfully precocious little actor) are taken to a Nazi concentration camp three months before the end of the war. One would expect the film to sober up at this point, and it does, but it never sacrifices the lyricism and humor which are integral to both the story and to Guido's personality. There are a few truly harrowing scenes, but the violence and politics are largely external to the story--Benigni assumes that we know all that already, and the film barely features a single swastika. The movie defiantly clings to humor and hope in the face of ultimate tragedy.

In the script's most clever invention, Guido protects his son from the reality of their situation by turning the war into a game. In one of the film's funniest sequences, Guido translates an SS guard's orders into Italian, even though he doesn't know any of the German phrases that are being angrily barked out. Instead of translating, he tells everyone that "points" will be subtracted for missing one's mommy and crying for food. According to Guido, the child who reaches 1000 points first gets a real tank, the prospect of which makes little Giosue's eyes widen just enough for him to dismiss his doubts about the game. In one of the film's funniest sequences,Guido translates an SS guard's orders intoItalian, even though he doesn't know any of theGerman phrases that are being angrily barked out.Instead of translating, he tells everyone that"points" will be subtracted for missing one'smommy and crying for food. According to Guido, thechild who reaches 1,000 points first gets a realtank, the prospect of which makes little Giosue'seyes widen just enough for him to dismiss hisdoubts about the nature of the "game."

The transition between the two halves of filmis handled gracefully; against all odds, the moviefeels like a coherent whole. Credit for thissuccess goes not only to the funny and intelligentscript but also to the capable actors involved.Benigni makes Guido's clownishness completelycompatible with his enormous heart and intellect;his performance in this film will be remembered.

Braschi handles the tricky role of Dora well,making a lovely and worthy counterpart for thezanier Guido. (The chemistry between this slightlyodd couple is automatic, perhaps due to theirreal-life marriage.) And Cantarini is so naturalin his role as Giosue that it's hard to believethat he's acting.

The ending of this film is its greatestaccomplishment. Though tragedy is involved, theimagination ultimately triumphs, and Guido's"game," in Giosue's mind, seems to deliver on itspromise.

This celebration of the imagination in the faceof so much reality--not just in the movie's plotbut in its whole visual and emotional style--is abrave choice that will make this film a classic.See this movie for a reminder of the wonderfulheights that film can achieve, and for theat-long-last American arrival of a majorinternational talent