Life Is Beautiful

Overview

Life Is Beautiful is a Chaplinesque fable about the power of imagination set against the stark reality of World War II Europe.

At the center of the fable is Guido, an enchanting individual with childlike innocence and grand dreams of owning his own book Shop. It's 1939, and he and his poet friend, Ferruccio have come to the Tuscan town of Arrezzo to stay with Guido's uncle. With unabashed humor and joy, the two seek fortune and romance, ignoring the growing anti-Semitism, some of which has been directed at his own uncle, and Fascist government that surrounds them. Guido falls in love with Dora a beautiful young school teacher, and a fairy tale romance ensues.

Several years later, Guido and Dora are married and have a son, Giosue and Guido has finally opened the book shop or his dreams. But now, the occasional bigotries Guido once ignored have become Racial Laws with which he must come to terms. This determination becomes a matter of life and death when Guido and his son are sent to a concentration camp three months before the war's end. Of her own accord, and out of her love for them, Dora deports herself on the same train Now, in this unimaginable world, Guide must use his bold imagination and every ounce of his indefatigable spirit to save those he loves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	0031398267775
Publisher:	FOX HOME ENT. (LGF)
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Edition description:	Color / Wide Screen
Product dimensions:	5.45(w) x 0.62(h) x 7.53(d)

Table of Contents

Disc #1 -- Life Is Beautiful
1. Program Start
2. "Good Morning, Princess!"
3. "We're In The City!"
4. A Great Escape
5. The New Waiter
6. "Schopenhauer Willpower"
7. "When I Suddenly Appear"
8. "A Light Meal"
9. "The Superior Race"
10. "Turn Around"
11. Stealing The Princess
12. Signs From Heaven
13. The Jewish Horse
14. A Wedding Announcement
15. Two Become Three
16. Grandma
17. The Birthday Party
18. "Where Are We Going?"
19. First Prize
20. Learning The Rules
21. The First Day
22. The Showers
23. The Doctor
24. "Buttons & Soap"
25. "For Life"
26. "The Journey That Had To Be"
27. End Credits

Editorial Reviews

Life is Beautiful caused more than a little controversy when it was released: any attempt to make comedy out of the Holocaust is going to inspire strong reactions from critics and audience members. Love it or loathe it, Life is Beautiful inarguably made an international star out of Italian comedian Roberto Benigni, who wrote, directed, and starred in it. One of his country's most celebrated comedians, Benigni was previously known for his work in numerous Italian comedies, as well as Johnny Stecchino and Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law and Night on Earth. Life is Beautiful's Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by Benigni's Best Actor Oscar and acceptance speech (in exuberant, skillfully broken English), made Benigni possibly Italy's most famous export since the Fiat. Although some viewers found the film's second half, set almost entirely in a concentration camp, to be well-meaning but misguided, the film's first half is indisputably enjoyable. Revolving around the courtship of an aristocratic lady nicknamed the Principessa by Benigni's Guido, it makes a refreshing, elegantly hilarious love story. Somewhat ironically, the film's wittiest and most accurate commentary on fascism and religious oppression is contained here, rather than in the concentration camp setting. Benigni's comedy here becomes a tool for side-splitting yet razor-sharp criticism, and this first section powerfully establishes the reality of everyday life disrupted by the war.