International Film Critique

Use the following format for your international film critique; answers must be typed below the questions and
all questions must appear in full on your final copy. You can use this document as your template. Pay careful
attention to the required number of words for those questions that have them. Failure to follow the
instructions here and on your syllabus will result in a substantially low grade. Minimal answers poorly written
are a D grade or less. Elaboration of points, excellent arguments, and good writing garner higher grades.

Name ______Emily Rasmussen______Class period/section ______HUMA 1100______

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Title of Film: Life Is Beautiful

Year of release: 1997
Language of original film: Italian
Director: Roberto Benigni
Actors: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini

6) Give a brief plot summary {150-250 words. DO NOT plagiarize from the web!]:
Guido is a comically optimistic Jewish man living in Italy in the 1930s. Everything in his
life seems to be moving along perfectly (well, with a few silly moments of interruption) when
he ends up meeting and marrying a beautiful woman named Dora, and together they start a
happy little family with their son, Joshua. Life seems very beautiful for them until the
Germans begin occupying Italy. Him and his family get captured and sent into a
concentration camp where his wife gets separated from him and his son. Guido struggles to
protect his son in the camp by making his son believe that being at the camp is a game that
they must win by earning a thousand points to get a tank as their prize at the end.
7) Analyze the social and philosophical issues the film addresses. Make sure you include the point
of view of the movie, the context of the movie, what audience the movie is targeting, and why.
(i.e. you should address and reflect upon the argument or meaning of the work. This should
be analysis, not just summary of issues in the movie). {at least 500 words}
Love The whole beginning of the movie starts out as a love story between Guido and Dora.
At the time, their love story seems a bit complicated; Dora is already engaged to marry a
wealthy man who she does not love. Dora is instead smitten with Guido and his fun,
surprising, and adventurous personality. Though the situation seems discouraging, Guido
eventually rescues his princess from her captor on a whitewell, painted greensteed and
they end up being together with their son, Joshua. Love can be distressing and challenging,
but it is also strong, and later it will need to be in order to protect their family during the
Holocaust. Love also adds a connection between the audience and the characters in the
story, so that the audience may later understand how simple the struggles of life may be in
relation to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Innocence Guido tries to save his sons innocence and spirit when they get captured. He
does so by claiming that the whole thing is a game that Guido set up as part of a surprise for
Joshuas birthday. There are still many people today who wish to hide the horrors of the
Holocaust. In Guidos case, hiding it from his son was necessary to keep his son safe from
the fear of death and what it would mean for them in the end. Protecting innocence for his
son during this time also helped Guido in a way. Even when he knew what terrors were
around the corner, he kept smiling and being positive for his son. Protecting this same
innocence by saying the Holocaust never happened is what some people would like to do

now. There are many who claim that it never actually happened, or that it could not happen.
Though it was appropriate for Guidos son to not know their possible fate, to believe (or
claim) that now is a tragedy to all men. To say it never happened, opens up the gate for it to
happen again; if man does not know the horrors of the past, he cannot prevent the same
from happening in the future. History is not supposed to repeat itself.
Good vs. Evil The idea of turning a movie about the Holocaust into a comedy sounds
absolutely absurd and offensive, but in Life Is Beautiful, the story really isnt about the
Holocaust per se but about the fight of good against evil. The movie perfectly balances the
comedies and joys of life mixed with the tragedies it can hand us. Guido is committed to
using his humor and positive behavior to encourage his son even amidst one of the most
terrifying places to be. With this premise, the movie proves the spirit of a man can be
stronger than whatever evil is brought against him. With darkness, there is always light
somewhere. When the sun sets, the moon rises. When Joshua was worried, Guido brought
him light through all the darkness of reality. In the end after all of the terrible things that had
happened in the concentration camps, the Nazis did not win. They were brought down and
the Jews were lifted back up.
8) What is your response to the message of the film? Why do you respond this way? Show that you
are thinking about your own thinking here and the biases/assumptions about the world you bring
to your viewing. Did the film change the way you view the subject? Why, or why not? {at least
250 words}
Life Is Beautiful encourages the audience to be themselves no matter what. Guido was not
afraid to use his talent for humor in many of the situations he came across. Even in the face
of death, his humor and imagination were what made him strong. Had he just accepted what
was happening around him, his experience probably would have felt much more grim. His
son, Joshua wouldnt have had as positive an experience as he had, and he probably would
have ended up dying if he hadnt been following his fathers lead.
I am amazed at how well the director, Roberto Benigni was able to portray such a beautiful
story about such an ugly subject. He somehow found a way to show everyone that in any
situation, there is something positive that you can pull from it. There is many a time when I
feel depressed about the awful things that happen in our world, and I wonder how anyone
could do such things. Then I think that it is because many people forget that there are many
more little things that add up to also bring a substantial amount of good into this world. Those
who forget the little things of this world that make it beautiful only see the foul things, and
then they feel that they must give in and accept the negative. They become selfish and only
do things to help themselves; this eventually makes them cause some of the ugly things that
they succumbed to. People need to be reminded of the good things in life, because only
those people can share and provide more of it.
9) What cultural differences did you notice in the film (philosophical outlook, humor, architecture,
customs, clothes, cities, weather, food, music, dancing, lifestyles, etc.)? What did you learn
about history, economics or politics? (There are always differences; look for them). {at least 250
words}
Customs One of the customs that the movie actually talks about is when Guido is
becoming a waiter. He is asking his uncle how he should bow to guests, and mentions
bowing lower than them. His uncle tells him, You're serving. You're not a servant. Serving is
a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men but he's not a servant to men. I love

this quote because it draws the line between the customs of a waiter versus a servant, and
relates meaning to such customs by using God. God is powerful, yet he serves men, but
serving men does not make him any less powerful. In other cultures such as in Asia, bowing
lower than another person shows more respect for them, it doesnt necessarily mean that you
are their servant. Another custom in the movie shows how important family is in the Italian
culture. Italians are very accommodating to family members. Guidos uncle is very
accommodating to him and his friend when he lets them have access to his whole house.
Clothes The movie is based in the 1930s so clothes are very different now than they were
in the movie. Women are always shown wearing dresses, and a lot of the men are always
wearing hats like fedoras or newsboy hats.
Surroundings The buildings in Italy are very different than in the US. There seems to be
more floral hangings, and warm colors. They also have different technologies that they used
then such as older cars and radios.
History There is a huge part of history in this movie. The Holocaust was one of the biggest
genocides in the world. Over 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust as well as
many other peoples. The Nazis believed that Germans were a superior race, and wanted to
clean Europe of certain qualities or religions. In Life Is Beautiful, it does not show all of the
terrible details of the Holocaust, but implies just enough that anyone can feel how heavy a
subject it is from history. Some think that the movie is insensitive to the Holocaust because of
Guido trying to make it seem like a game to his son, but really the movie does a perfect job
at showing how horrible it was amidst Guidos attempts at protecting his son from the reality.
10) What techniques did the filmmaker use that were different from what you see in the films you
normally watch? Think about lighting, dialogue, atmosphere, setting, music, and how the
filmmaker might play upon your own biases, etc.{150 words}
For a movie about such a heavy time in history, a lot of the music and lighting is very happy
and bright. Later, in the concentration camp, the lighting does tend to get more monotonous
though. For some of the scenes in the movie, the director does not show everything that
goes on in the concentration camp, and he leaves room for the audience to feel the irony
between their own knowledge of what was happening and watching Joshua remain innocent
under Guidos invention of what was happening. There also are not many special effects in
the movie at all, everything is left in a style of realism to better connect the audience to the
reality of what was going on.
At the beginning of the movie, it is very comical and playful; it is not until deep into the movie
that you start to see bits and pieces of fascism poking its way into the scenes. This reminds
the audience of what is about to happen to Guidos fairytale life. By getting the audience
more interested in the characters first, before adding in the fascism, it pulls at them to be
more involved and connected with them. At the end of the movie, it reveals that Joshua was
the one who started narrating the movie at the beginning, alluding that Joshua later knew the
truth about what had happened, and that he was able to share his fathers courageous story.
11)

Discuss how what you saw in the film relates to one of the assigned readings or class
discussions we have had. Be specific! {150 words}
Life Is Beautiful showed a lot of aspects of love throughout the whole movie, and especially
at the beginning. The character Guido keeps running into Dora who is the most beautiful

woman he has ever seen. Guido runs into Dora several times in the film both accidentally
and on purpose. He uses his charm and humor to win her over very quickly. There is one
scene where he plans out a whole sequence to convince her that it is fate that they should be
together. Later at the hotel where he works as a waiter, he finds that she is to be married with
a fascist man she does not love. Guido spills a tray by her table, and as he is cleaning it up
off the floor, Dora crawls under the table and asks him to take her away. Guido obliges by
riding in on a white steed, as her knight in not so shining armor, to whisk her away. His love
for his son is also a huge part of the movie, as he tries to protect his son from knowing what
an awful place they are in at the concentration camp.
12) Why do you think I assign an international film?
When someone watches a foreign film, it requires them to be more involved in the film, so
that they may better understand what is going on. You have to be watching closely to see
body language and lighting and other things alike, in order to follow the story, because
sometimes reading subtitles just isnt enough when you need to understand another culture.
Also, all cultures play a part in humanity, and making connections between similarities and
differences across cultures is required to be able to better understand the themes that follow
in our day to day lives.