Life is Beautiful
(La vita è bella)(1997)
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.
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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
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Directed by Roberto Benigni
Starring Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Marisa Paredes, Horst Buchholz
Written by Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami
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Life is Beautiful
The Press Reviews
80%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Its sentiment is inescapable, but genuine poignancy and pathos are also present, and an overarching sincerity is visible too. Full Review
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
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. Full Review
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