Life Is Beautiful (1998)

Roberto Benigni          Guido Orefice
Richard Sammel           Official
Jonathan Nichols (II)    Voice of of Guido
Nicoletta Braschi        Dora Orefice
Giustino Durano          Uncle
Sergio Bustric           Ferruccio
Lydia Alfonsi            Guicciardini
Giuliana Lojodice        Headmistress
Amerigo Fontani          Rodolfo
Pietro DeSilva           Bartolomeo
Francesco Guzzo          Vittorino
Raffaella Lebboroni      Elena

Directed by:             Roberto Benigni
Produced by:             Mario Cotone, Elda Ferri, Gianluigi Braschi


In 1939, Guido, an Italian Jew, falls in love with Dora, who isn't Jewish. He woos her away from the 
Fascist official she has been dating, and they get married. Their son Giosue grows up among growing 
anti-Semitism. As the war progresses, Guido and Giosue are arrested and taken to a concentration camp. 
Dora goes too, determined not to separate the family. In the midst of the horrors of the camp, Guido 
protects his son by pretending that survival in the concentration camp is an elaborate game with 
which Giosue must play along or be sent home.

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In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and 
marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together 
until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help 
his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a 
game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank.

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In this WW II tragicomedy, famed Italian funnyman Roberto Benigni (THE MONSTER) portrays Guido, who 
moves during the '30s from the country to a Tuscan town, where he is entranced by schoolteacher Dora 
(Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's real-life wife). Dora likes Guido, but she remains faithful to her 
pompous fiancé, so Guido has an uphill struggle. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attitudes lead to attacks 
against Guido's Jewish uncle (Giustino Durano). Leaping ahead to five years later, during WW II, 
Guido and Dora are married and have a son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini). After they are imprisoned in 
a concentration camp, Guido goes to elaborate lengths to keep his son from understanding the truth 
of their situation. He tells the boy that they are competing with others to win an armored tank -- 
so everything from food shortages to tattoos is explained as necessary for participation in the 
contest.