Roger Ebert
In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But Life Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit.
Full review
Life is Beautiful
Roberto Benigni's Oscar, BAFTA and Cannes-winning WW2 drama. A happy, eccentric Italian bookseller of Jewish ancestry (Benigni) is caught up in the evil of the war when his family is deported to a concentration camp. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
Best Actor (Benigni), Best Original Score and Best Foreign Language Film at the 1999 Academy Awards; Best Actor (Benigni) at the 1999 BAFTAs; Grand Jury Prize winner at Cannes Film Festival 1998; People's Choice Award winner at Toronto Film Festival 1998
1997Rating: M116 minsItalyItalian with English subtitles
ComedyDramaWarWorld Cinema
Life is Beautiful / Reviews
Los Angeles Times
Its sentiment is inescapable, but genuine poignancy and pathos are also present, and an overarching sincerity is visible too.
Full reviewEmpire Magazine
Ultimately it's Benigni's show; a kind of manic cross between Woody Allen and Jim Carrey, he creates the kind of tragi-comic hero you can't help but end up rooting for.
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