Brehm Center

If you are only able to see one film this year, go see “Life is Beautiful.” An Italian movie which was directed and co-written by its lead actor, Roberto Benigni, it has received seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. Showing in theaters since last November, this art house film has attracted a growing audience by word of mouth. (When we first saw the film in December, only a handful of people were in the audience; in February, the theater was full.) “Life is Beautiful” will soon become the all time leading money-maker in the United States for any non-English language film. But don’t go because it has made money; go because it shows you what love and trust within a family should look like. Put quite simply, go to be inspired.

            The movie’s story is simple and warm, horrific and yet humorous. Using the languages both of slapstick and romance, Benigni tells the story of a young peasant who comes to the city to work It is 1939 and anti-Semitism is growing. But Guido, a Jew, is oblivious to his danger. He is in love; and life is beautiful. In one of the funniest courtships to be portrayed in film in recent years, Guido wins Dora (played by Benigni’s real-life wife), a schoolteacher with social standing. In fact, he knocks her off her feet (quite literally!). The couple’s love is genuine and contagious, and their son Joshua lives in the wonderful embrace of their love.

            Then the family is arrested and shipped to a concentration camp. The thought of Joshua suffering in fear is more than his parents can bear. And thus, the second half of the movie shows the extreme measures that parents will go to to protect their children. Guido plays an elaborate “game” to protect his son from the horrors of the camp. Wanting to be sure Joshua stays in hiding, for example, Guido pretends that all is well while marching with an exaggerated style before his captor.The extent of Guido’s love for his boy will bring tears to your eyes, as will the commitment Dora and Guido have for each other. In a scene reminiscent of “Shawshank Redemption,” Guido risks his life to play music for Dora over the camp’s loudspeaker. It is magnificent to watch and personally inspiring. Guido will do anything for Dora and Joshua, and the compelling power of his affection is both contagious and reciprocated.

            The transition from town to concentration camp is heart-stopping. When we saw this movie, the audience was awash with laughter for the first forty-five minutes and starkly quiet the last hour or more. But the contrast works; the joy and innocence of the opening scenes only make the pathos of the second setting more heartfelt. Some have questioned the appropriateness of linking laughter with the unthinkable. Isn’t the Holocaust beyond humor? But such a response, however understandable by those who have not yet seen the film, misses both the genre and the intention of the movie. For this film is not about Italy in 1939 or Germany in 1945. It is instead a celebration of life’s possibilities, even in the midst of unspeakable tragedy and pain.

            The film begins by saying that it is going to tell a “fable,” and it does just that. It invites the viewer to see Reality behind and in reality. The humor in “Life is Beautiful” is inviting. The horror of humankind’s inhumanity is chilling. But the love which is shown a boy (one with the biggest eyes you could hope to find!) is compelling. How can life be beautiful? How can a waiter’s life be redeemed or a holocaust victim be victorious? Guido’s uncle who is a maitre d’ provides the key as he teaches his nephew, “You are to serve, but you aren’t a servant. God serves man, but he isn’t man’s servant.”  Guido’s love expresses itself in service and it proves redemptive.

Ultimately the father’s love in this film became paradigmatic for us of what a father’s (and mother’s) love should be; it is analogous to what the Father’s love is. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) To be held in your parent’s arms and experience love is transformative (or in the words of Joshua as the movie ends, “We won.”).

            In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl reflects on those who were able to survive the horror of WW2 concentration camps. It was those who had something to focus on beyond themselves who lived. In our narcissistic and networking contemporary age, self-sacrifice and a focus on the “other” is countercultural. It is also profoundly Christian.