The film La Vita e Bella which translates to life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni
The film La Vita e Bella which translates to life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, is a film based on war and the torture years in the Nazi Concentration camps. The film captures elements of love, life, and death in a beautifully intertwined manner that attracts the viewer. The world has always had elements of love expressed in various relationships, such as between lovers, parents and children, siblings, and strangers. Interactions between people are often built on the basis of love and care for others. Unfortunately, aspects of inhumanity usually take over the world, as revealed by the Nazis. The development of concentration camps, the gassing of adults and children, and the killing of people by hanging to mention but a few. The inhumane aspect of the regime tests the limits and ability to maintain a sober mind among the Jewish community in Europe. Nonetheless, the determination to maintain peace and sanity in times of insanity is possible in times of trouble. In the film, despite the cruelty experienced by the Jewish people, especially the Kiddush family, they do not give up and continue to be reliable. In the narrative, the father maintains a game that protects the psychology of his child against the troubling events of their daily lives. The dedication to remaining sane and balanced in the society is interesting to the viewers. In the film, the director makes use of the theme and filming techniques to capture the interesting story of the extent to which people will go to create a safe haven for their families in the midst of war.
The film uses a linear plot style to capture the meeting, separation, and reunion of the main actors in the film. The plot captures the beginning, climax, and finishing of the film. As illustrated in looking at movies, “The events follow one another coherently and logically, and their relations of cause and effect are easy to discern. Balance, harmony, and unity are the principal keys to understanding the relationship between the story and the plot” (Monahan and Barsam 161). In that, creating a chronological order in the film allows the balance and harmony of a film to be reached with ease. In the film by Benign, the chronological events are presented in the plot. The main character, Guido, meets the girl of his dreams, Dora, and is married. Despite the opposition by the parents. Later, the characters are separated in a camp, and Guido is left passing coded messages to the female camp to assure her of their safety. Similarly, the hero of the film makes use of his imagination to ensure their son does not experience the form of mental torture as others in the campy by believing they are in the game. Eventually, the film reaches the climax in which the hero is killed at the end of the Nazi era. Nonetheless, the heroine figure is reunited with their son. The narrative is simple and easier to understand based on the linear plot of choice. As Cutting emphasizes, “Against most of the film and literary theory, I believe we should acknowledge that there are actually two fabulas. The first is in the minds of the story makers and, after the telling, a second recognizable, but condensed Fabula is in the minds of story consumers” (1715). The storyteller, the characters and the consumers should have a similar understanding and appreciation for the film, in Life is Beautiful, the characters are introduced to the audience, and the audience is made to fall in love with them. Therefore, the middle part of the narrative capitalizes on the attention and emotions that were grabbed at the beginning stage of the film. In the introduction, the theme of love is established in the family. Therefore, as the story progresses, the viewer is allowed to see the power of love in the midst of a war and chaos. At the end of the film, the triumph of love over war and instability is evident based on the plot and themes applied.
The film by Benign falls in the neorealistic genre. The genre captures the films made after the war to illustrate the challenges experienced from the beginning to the end of the war era. As Monahan and Barsam explain, “Its humanism and concerns with social conditions during and after the war broke away from conventional movie narrative and established a “new realism” in both story and style in the early films” (200). In this genre, the aspect of presenting the aspects of pain and the suffering of people during the war are captured. Through the use of unprofessional actors and recreating the war scenes, the story captures the struggles of real people. The events used in the narrative are real as the war and impacts of the superior myth of Germans were evident in the second world war. However, the story is created out of the imagination of the writers despite having elements of truth, such as parental separation and the gassing elements in the camps. This is evident in the narrative style of choice in Life is Beautiful. The movie captures the life of a bookstore owner and finding love before the war breaks out. After, the director looks into the different struggles in the internment camps, which Guido presents to his son as a form of a game. The narrative form applied in the story is based on real events, which is the war and the Nazi actions in the camps. The disruption of life in the Jewish community is visible and the use of force to ensure the community is oppressed and punished for no reason. However, it is a narrative created purely on imaginative story writing. The use of real events to tell an interesting and heartwarming narrative of the aspect of hope and love over the instability is intriguing to viewers. The type of genre applied is postwar realism and allows the viewers to have an in-depth understanding of the historical moment and heartwarming hope aspects applied by some of the victims.
The director also applies the profound meaning of love over a difficult moment in the lies of the characters. The movie makes use of verbal and non-verbal cues to create a message that is developed and expressed throughout the narrative. According to Cutting, “our daily experience and our interactions with many arts occur over a larger time frame and are full of structure and meaning. Indeed, the kind of larger-scale periodic structure found in movies may reveal a lot about what our minds like best and the rhythms they prefer” (1740). In that, the film is often organized to develop a clear message and outcome. In the second lecture on form and narrative, it is evident that movies are a form of art that passes a certain message to the viewers (lookmov6_ch02). In the same way, life is beautiful is a form of art created by Benign to offer meaning to the viewers. The film is based on the triumph of a family over the inhumane aspects of war. The art is developed from the moment in which the lovers meet to the reuniting of a mother and son. As a piece of art or painting, the movie started with a basis of the period of war in Europe and advanced to capture the element of a family that beats the odd to maintain sanity and stability. The Kuddish family is able to remain strong despite being placed in the worst conditions. The message of love by the father allows the child to remain strong. Similarly, the heroine of the narrative remains positive; thus, she is able to raise the child after Guido is killed. The different parts of the story appear like a perfectly expressed art that looks into the strength and power of members of a given community where evilness is profound. The visible and invisible aspects of the film creatively allow the meaning of the film to be presented broadly in the narrative. The invisible aspects in the film are particularly presented through the cinematic elements used in the film.
The director of Life is beautiful makes use of different camera angles, setting, costumes, and lighting to capture different moments in the heartwarming narrative. Different elements applied in the film create the meaning and the theme in the narrative as they illustrate the basic narrative written in the script. As Monahan and Barsam, “A movie’s mise-en-scène subtly influences our mood as we watch, much as the decor, lighting, smells, and sounds can influence our emotional response to a real-life place. The two major visual components of mise-en-scène are design and composition” (172). In the design, the director applies different elements to make the narrative more interesting to the viewers to set the mood. One of the interesting settings in film life is beautiful is the capture of the society in which Dora and Guido meet. Guido owns a books store in a small and beautiful neighborhood (Benign). As a result, the viewer is introduced to the interesting love formed between the characters. The setting at the beginning of the film sets the mood of the story as a testament of love. The setting adopted for the film in the next scenes is also critical in learning the aspect of war. In the camps, the Jewish people are forced to live in inhumane conditions as they are locked up and gassed at the pleasure o the soldiers. The setting creates the aspect of war and the advanced challenges developed in the period. Similarly, the director uses other elements of design, such as the costumes, to capture the narrative presented in the film. For instance, the beginning of the film captures the main actor, Guido, as an elegant young man through the choice of costumes. The director creates the use of suits to present a good bachelor and the outfits of Dora to capture the essence of her beauty, thus creating a beautiful couple. Similarly, in the camps, the outfits shift to the ragged pieces which capture the inhumane treatment of people in war. Additionally, the director makes use of the camera angles to capture the mood created for the viewers. Different camera angles and shots are developed to capture the mood of the characters and build on the narrative. For instance, as Guido is taken away to be killed, he leaves the son hiding in a box for his safety. At the instance, the camera angle captures a close-up shot of the boy in the box, thus creating the aspect of sadness. Similarly, the shift in camera to capture the father adopts the wide-angle that allows the viewers to see the happiness of the father in being able to protect the boy. The shift in the camera angles and shots are essential in developing an immense understanding of the film. Moreover, the film makes use of lighting to emphasize the narrative. At the beginning and end of the film, the director makes use of a vibrant and captivating light, which illustrates the happy times in the film. However, in the period where the actors are in the concentration camp, the director makes use of a dark light, which emphasizes the somber mood. The different uses of light allow the mood of the viewers to be impacted notably. Misc-en-scene is useful in the narrative as it allows the viewers to see the visible elements that create mood in the story.
The film also illustrates the concepts of diegetic and diegetic sounds to emphasize the narrative. In life is beautiful; the directors apply the use of sound to ensure the viewers clearly understand the message of the film as well as non-verbal sounds to capture the environment in which the film is created. As Monahan and Barsam explain, “Whereas that diegetic music came from a jukebox from within the world of the story, this new music is non-diegetic score music that the filmmakers have imposed onto the movie in order to add narrative meaning to the sequence” (141). In that, different sound elements contribute to the advancement of the sequence in the narrative. In the scene when Guido comes to take Dora from her fiancé, different sound elements are used. The conversations, sounds of music, and the horse create a romantic mood and element to the narrative. On the other hand, the indistinctive sounds of the service and the background create an element of a party and celebration of life in the community. These elements thus allow the viewer to be drawn into understanding the genesis of love in the movie. The same use of music to emphasize the narrative is applied in other scenes in the film, thus capturing the realness of the narrative and different elements of the environment in which the film is developed. The extensive adoption of the film elements thus illustrates the dedication to illustrating the love over war theme in the narrative.
The film makes use of the genre type, the form of narrative, plot, design, and sounds to express the theme of love over war. The visible and invisible elements in the narrative allow the viewers to understand the storyline as well as identified the hidden cues that emphasize the narrative. The film is engrossed in presenting the development of love against all the odds. The main characters start a love based on care and support, which transcends into aiding them to fight the unstable period in their lives. The war and creation of concentration camps cause the inhumane aspect of people to be captured. The aspect of the race takes root, and hatred is developed. However, the film develops an aspect of love that allows a father to protect his son through it all. The director allows the theme to thrive through the style of narration and genre. The realistic approach to storytelling and chronology of events makes it easier for the viewers to have a clear understanding of the film and message. The reference to a war that devastated the world creates a backstory in which the viewers are able to build on and understand the events in the film. Similarly, the visible elements such as lighting, costumes, and camera angles allow the mood of the story to be created. The different elements applied in the development of the film play an essential role in getting viewers to understand the main message of the film. Overall, Benign creates a heartwarming film that presents the aspect of triumph in a period where humanity has been lost in the world.