Welcome to The Best Movies I’ve Never Seen! This is the part of the blog where I work my way through 100 films I’ve never seen that are generally considered to be great. You’re invited to watch along with me if you can find a copy or find it streaming. So grab some popcorn and let’s get started!

Life Is Beautiful

1997

Directed by Roberto Benigni

La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful) is Roberto Benigni’s 1997 tragicomic masterpiece about love, laughter, and the human spirit in the darkest of places. Benigni directs and stars as the endearingly goofy Jewish-Italian bookshop owner Guido, who relies on his vivid imagination to shield his young son Giosué from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp.

Benigni, who co-wrote the script with Vincenzo Cerami, deftly balances the absurd and profound as Guido spins an elaborate game to convince Giosué the camp is just a contest they must win. While some criticize Benigni’s use of comedy in the setting, the film remains impactful and a testament to hope. Guido’s antics allow us moments of lightness before the gut-punch ending.

Benigni’s Chaplinesque physical comedy and boundless heart carry the film, earning him the Best Actor Oscar… the first for a non-English performance. He and his remarkable cast bring emotional truth to this fable celebrating the human spirit. Brief comic interludes remind us what is at stake before we return to the inhumanity of the camp.

Life Is Beautiful was an international sensation, earning over $230 million worldwide. It remains the second highest-grossing foreign language film in the US and won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The National Board of Review named it one of 1998’s top five foreign films.

Benigni enlisted family to help tell this story honoring his father, who survived two years in a Nazi camp. While Life Is Beautiful attracted some controversy, time has proven it to be a thoughtful, inventive film that succeeds in walking the fine line between uplifting parable and exploring unimaginable atrocity. Benigni gifts us laughter and tears in equal measure… a cinematic triumph exploring the power of love and the magic of storytelling.