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zingy
College Boy Z
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:40 pm
Posts: 36662
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 La vita è bella [Life is Beautiful] Life is Beautiful Quote: Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) is a 1997 Italian language film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film), who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.
At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the film won both the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Stunning film. It's my personal favorite foreign film, actually. To take a subject matter like the holocaust and turn it into a nice, comedic-type of film is quite impressive and well-done. The performances are fantastic. A-
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| Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:35 pm |
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Dr. Lecter
You must have big rats
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pm
Posts: 92093
Location: Bonn, Germany
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A
Am amazing effort and only second to Saving Private Ryan in the Best Picture race of 1998. It mixes humor with drama extremely well. There are light moments aplenty and it made me laugh. At the same time, there are dark and sad spots as well. It is this mixture that makes Life is Beautiful one of the best films ever made about this subject matter. That all is supported by masterful direction and acting by Robert Begnini. Not sure what happened to him after that (since his recent films seem to be quite a descent in quality), but he was great here and that Oscar was (almost) well-deserved. Of course, there was also Edward Norton that year... The film is sappy at times, true that, but it is genuine in its heart and intention and it is furthermore emotionelly powerful enough to leave an impact.
_________________The greatest thing on earth is to love and to be loved in return!
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| Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:28 am |
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Chris
life begins now
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:09 pm
Posts: 6480
Location: Columbus, Ohio
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I wasn't too impressed by this, and that has a lot to do with Roberto Benigni. I thought he was rather annoying throughout the film, although the actor who played his son was rather good. I loved the score.
B+
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| Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:56 pm |
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Jim Halpert
Stanley Cup
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:52 pm
Posts: 6981
Location: Hockey Town
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D. I found it very overrated.
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| Wed Jun 13, 2007 6:46 pm |
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Mannyisthebest
Forum General
Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 3:53 pm
Posts: 8636
Location: Toronto, Canada
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I found this film to be amazing fun and very depressing at the same time.
A-
_________________The Dark Prince 
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| Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:33 pm |
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Omni
The Antichrist
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:04 am
Posts: 1742
Location: Calisota
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Benigni tried to do what Chaplin did decades ago: an intense movie where you both laugh and cry, have fun and think. The results are obviously lower, but still high.
B++ or 9/10
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| Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:23 am |
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Libs
Sbil
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:38 pm
Posts: 48626
Location: Arlington, VA
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A stunningly powerful picture. A
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| Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:02 pm |
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Shack
Devil's Advocate
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:30 am
Posts: 37995
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Re: Life is Beautiful I was totally in love with the first act of this movie, just an insane amount of charm and screwball humor, mostly anchored by Bengini. I felt it lost something in the concentration camp, but as a whole, I enjoyed this quite a lot.
4/5
_________________Shack’s top 50 tv shows - viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90227
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| Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:41 pm |
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Riggs
We had our time together
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 4:36 am
Posts: 13270
Location: Vienna
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Re: Life is Beautiful What an exceptional movie. A+
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| Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:54 am |
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Bradley Witherberry
Extraordinary
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 1:13 pm
Posts: 15197
Location: Planet Xatar
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Re: Life is Beautiful I don't have my original review, but I loved Life is Beautiful - - it is perhaps the only great holocaust movie.
Brilliant work by Roberto Benigni (who was in one of my Alltime Top Ten Movies: Down By Law, a decade earlier (check out the Criterion Collection edition)). Also great to see his wife and perennial acting partner, Nicoletta Braschi get a role worthy of her talent.
A very special film.
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| Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:17 am |
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