The film starts with a very funny and touching love story between Nicoletta Braschi and Roberto Benigni, who plays his role with a passion that humour that Chaplin would have been proud of, and a heart that Chaplin only approached in The Kid (1921).
From here the film moves on to Benigni and his son being put into a concentration camp, and his attempts to hide the truth from his son.
The film deals honestly with the Holocaust, without any graphic detail, an example that many Hollywood movies would do well to follow. However, this is not a film about the Holocaust, it is a film about the human spirit, what it can perpetrate, and the horrors it can endure.
But this film has one quality that lifts it above most Hollywood movies; it is made with one thing that Hollywood rarely uses. It is made with love.
From here the film moves on to Benigni and his son being put into a concentration camp, and his attempts to hide the truth from his son.
The film deals honestly with the Holocaust, without any graphic detail, an example that many Hollywood movies would do well to follow. However, this is not a film about the Holocaust, it is a film about the human spirit, what it can perpetrate, and the horrors it can endure.
But this film has one quality that lifts it above most Hollywood movies; it is made with one thing that Hollywood rarely uses. It is made with love.