La Vita è bella (1997)

100%

(http://allbackgrounds.com)

[Life Is Beautiful]

Rabid Individuality

Brilliant political satire (in the Dr Strangelove mould) on White supremacism that accomplishes the rare feat of setting a comedy in a Jewish concentration camp.

Like Chaplin’s Great Dictator this is as sad as it is funny because it understands that Western culture is based on a view of life that discounts individuals by claiming they only ever represent a cost, but never a value; that people are only to be seen in the aggregate, as abstractions or statistics. This is an attitude that can only work if both victims and perpetrators accept it without question; hence, the characterization shown here.

The comic timing is spot-on, as are the clever comedy setups and payoffs. Where Roberto BENIGNI has been so clever is in not showing the inevitable atrocities, but implying them at every turn: Their absence makes them all the more present. This allows the jokes about turning people into soap to become genuinely funny. The point is also made, thereby, that those who survive mistreatment are those with the most positive attitude to begin with. The title says it all: Schindler’s List with a life-affirming and death-defying smile on its face.

---

Copyright © 2010 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.