Word: guidos
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...Cerami) of Life Is Beautiful, which has been winning awards and high popularity in Europe. Benigni won't--can't--have it any other way, for even a hint of the truth about the Holocaust would crush his comedy and reduce to absurdity his "fable" about a man named Guido making a sort of hide-and-seek game out of camp life, diverting his four-year-old son (Giorgio Cantarini) from its harshness and encouraging him to lie low. The idea, of course, is to save the boy from the gas chamber, where the young, the old and the sickly...
...script's most clever invention, Guido protects his son from the reality of their situation by turning the war into a game. In one of the film's funniest sequences, Guido translates an SS guard's orders into Italian, even though he doesn't know any of the German phrases that are being angrily barked out. Instead of translating, he tells everyone that "points" will be subtracted for missing one's mommy and crying for food. According to Guido, the child who reaches 1000 points first gets a real tank, the prospect of which makes little Giosue's eyes widen...
...transition between the two halves of filmis handled gracefully; against all odds, the moviefeels like a coherent whole. Credit for thissuccess goes not only to the funny and intelligentscript but also to the capable actors involved.Benigni makes Guido's clownishness completelycompatible with his enormous heart and intellect;his performance in this film will be remembered...
Braschi handles the tricky role of Dora well,making a lovely and worthy counterpart for thezanier Guido. (The chemistry between this slightlyodd couple is automatic, perhaps due to theirreal-life marriage.) And Cantarini is so naturalin his role as Giosue that it's hard to believethat he's acting...
...ending of this film is its greatestaccomplishment. Though tragedy is involved, theimagination ultimately triumphs, and Guido's"game," in Giosue's mind, seems to deliver on itspromise...