Life Is Beautiful (1998)

That was an excellent one.

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

What an absolutely beautiful film!!!! I had always wanted to see this film but always passed it up. I'm so glad I gave it a chance! Although it's in Italian, I watched it in Spanish and read subtitles. This movie tugged at my heart strings! It was a beautiful mixture of comedy, romance and drama. Make sure to have tissues ready! This will definitely go on my list of all time favorite movies!

The first act has the sweetness of disney movies, except it didn't reach the same level of charm of disney movies due to the overly clumsy dialogue, and the fact that the first act is very long. But I didn't mind that, or rather this isn't my main issue which is the second act and most of the third act are way more serious, because this is when the tone of the movie changed to be dark comedy, and that, of course, made the movie inconsistent in tone. Nevertheless, the movie became way more powerful as a dark comedy, and allows Benigni's clever and deft direction, and Oscar-winning performance, to shine even more. This is when the movie tug at my heartstrings, and became very devastating till its end that is as sweet as a disney movie as it is wrenching as a usual holocaust movie. Even the dialogue became more smart and touching. And let's not forget the beautiful cinematography, and Nicola Piovani Oscar-winning score.(8.5/10)

Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful has reached rarefied heights in terms of critical acclaim. There are only a few times when a foreign-language film has been nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. It's been thirty years since a film was nominated for best picture and best foreign-language film. With its seven nominations (including actor, director, and screenplay) Life is Beautiful is one of the must-see films from last year's batch.The first half of the film is about a man in pursuit of love. Guido develops a severe case of love at first sight when he bumps into "the princess" while traveling through the Italian countryside. Through humor and several carefully-arranged "chance encounters", Guido manages to win the heart, and eventually the hand, of the woman he loves. Benigni's comedic acting is reminiscent of Chaplin in City Lights. The first half of the film is filled with wonderful humor and charming romance.The second half of the film jumps forward to the couple with their young son. Guido is trying to run a bookstore, but conditions are not conducive to success for Jewish businessmen in Italy during WWII. Guido and his son are taken to a concentration camp where Guido's primary concerns are being reunited with his wife and protecting his son from the brutality of life in the concentration camp. He does the latter by convincing his son that this is really all a game he arranged to celebrate the boy's birthday. If they follow the rules very carefully, they will make it to 1,000 points and win the grand prize.Benigni's acting and story development are very Chaplinesque in the second half, but here we are reminded of Chaplin with The Kid or the clowning Chaplin in The Great Dictator. Like Chaplin, Benigni has a gift for comedy mixed with pathos. Some have criticized the film for its use of humor in conjunction with the holocaust, but the film is not about the holocaust, it's about the human spirit and what holocaust survivor Vicktor Frankl called the "will to meaning." This film is a real gem. It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry, but most importantly perhaps, it will make you see how beautiful life really is, even in the darkest of circumstances.

A beautiful movie, absolute masterpiece. A must watch movie.