Life Is Beautiful
Short description
Set in Italy before and during the Second World War, Life Is Beautiful follows Guido, a Jewish book seller whose cheerful, imaginative nature shapes everything around him. He arrives in the town of Arezzo hoping to open a shop, courts a schoolteacher named Dora despite her engagement to a fascist official, and builds a family with her. When racial laws take hold and Guido and his young son Giosué are deported to a concentration camp, Dora chooses to go with them. To shield the boy from what is happening, Guido presents their imprisonment as an elaborate game whose winner will receive a real tank.
Roberto Benigni directed and stars as Guido, with Nicoletta Braschi as Dora and Giorgio Cantarini as Giosué. Benigni wrote the screenplay with Vincenzo Cerami. The film is the sixth he directed, arriving between The Monster and Pinocchio, and it blends comedy with drama across its 116 minutes. Made for about 20 million dollars, it returned roughly 229 million worldwide, an exceptional multiple for an Italian production, and it drew large audiences well beyond Italy.
Viewers rate it highly: on IMDb it holds 8.6/10 from around 808,000 votes, and on TMDB 8.4/10 from about 14,000. A critics' rating of 8/10 from 92 reviews places it close to the audience scores, indicating broad agreement rather than a sharp divide. The credited cast numbers 54, with 50 crew members.
What's left behind the scenes
- According to the director, the film's title comes from the “Testament” of Leon Trotsky, which contains the words: “Life is beautiful. Let future generations cleanse it of evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it fully.”
- The plot of the film is based on the biography of Rubino Romeo Salmoni – an Italian Jew, a prisoner of Auschwitz. The film's screenplay was created based on Salmoni’s book “I Defeated Hitler” (“Alla fine ho sconfitto Hitler”), in which he describes his time in the death camp. Salmoni died in July 2011.
- Some of the film's shooting took place in Arezzo, the director's hometown.
- Roberto Benigni stars in this film with his real wife, Nicoletta Braschi, who played Dora.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
