Evil in Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful
The Representation of Evil in Roberto Benigni 's Life Is Beautiful
AUTHOR: CARLO CELLI
TITLE: The Representation of Evil in Roberto Benigni 's Life Is Beautiful
SOURCE: Journal of Popular Film and Television 28 no2 74-9 Summ 2000
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
When the subject of Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) became public knowledge, there was apprehension because of Roberto Benigni 's reputation as a comedian that he might not approach the subject of the Shoah with appropriate sobriety and respect. The film adopted a visual and thematic strategy contrary to the norm in contemporary commercial cinema because of the lack of scenes of horror or violence. Criticism focused on the film 's historical veracity and suspension of disbelief. For example, Daniel Vogelmann, an Italian Jew who lost family members at Auschwitz, rejected the idea of presenting the evil of Holocaust in a manner that might mislead new generations into regarding the film as factual. In the United States, critic David Denby led the protest against the film by panning the film as "unconvincing" and "self-congratulatory" and accusing Benigni of perpetrating a Holocaust denial (Denby 96). A cartoon of a despairing concentration camp prisoner holding an Oscar statuette accompanied Denby 's New Yorker review. Art Spiegelman, the author of the Holocaust comic book series Maus, drew the cartoon and called the film a "banalization" of the Holocaust (Polese 1). Benigni had prepared for potential criticism by inviting Marcello Pezzetti of the Center for Contemporary Hebrew Documentation (Centro Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea) of Milan to serve as historical consultant for the film. The aim was to gain not only the approval of the Italian Jewish community but also the expertise of its members. Benigni had seen Ruggiero Gabbai 's
AUTHOR: CARLO CELLI
TITLE: The Representation of Evil in Roberto Benigni 's Life Is Beautiful
SOURCE: Journal of Popular Film and Television 28 no2 74-9 Summ 2000
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
When the subject of Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) became public knowledge, there was apprehension because of Roberto Benigni 's reputation as a comedian that he might not approach the subject of the Shoah with appropriate sobriety and respect. The film adopted a visual and thematic strategy contrary to the norm in contemporary commercial cinema because of the lack of scenes of horror or violence. Criticism focused on the film 's historical veracity and suspension of disbelief. For example, Daniel Vogelmann, an Italian Jew who lost family members at Auschwitz, rejected the idea of presenting the evil of Holocaust in a manner that might mislead new generations into regarding the film as factual. In the United States, critic David Denby led the protest against the film by panning the film as "unconvincing" and "self-congratulatory" and accusing Benigni of perpetrating a Holocaust denial (Denby 96). A cartoon of a despairing concentration camp prisoner holding an Oscar statuette accompanied Denby 's New Yorker review. Art Spiegelman, the author of the Holocaust comic book series Maus, drew the cartoon and called the film a "banalization" of the Holocaust (Polese 1). Benigni had prepared for potential criticism by inviting Marcello Pezzetti of the Center for Contemporary Hebrew Documentation (Centro Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea) of Milan to serve as historical consultant for the film. The aim was to gain not only the approval of the Italian Jewish community but also the expertise of its members. Benigni had seen Ruggiero Gabbai 's
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