Roberto Benigni
He was born in 1952 in Misericordia, Italy.His long journey started in 1972 when he had his first
experience as a theatre actor in
He became famous with a tv series were he interpreted the satirical piece "anthem of the melt body" a hymn to defecation.
His satirical monologues with a political sublayer combined with his tv experience and film experience had as a result an unpredictibal and uncoventional actor who you can not "not" observe. 757u208h
His first film "Berlingue:ti voglio bene" had an tragicomic interpretation of high intensity.
Benigni's first film as a director was "Tu mi turbi" wich means "You upset me" and was released in 1983. It offers him the chance of meeting his actual wife, Nicoletta Braschi who starred in most of the films he directed.
Starting with 1986, Benigni starred in three american films directed by Jim Jarmusch: in "Down by law"(1986), in "Night on earth"(1991) and in "Coffee and Cigarettes" in 2003.
He also starred in "Son of the Pink Panther" directed by Blake Edwards, "La voce della luna" in 1989, the last film of Federico Fellini, a film were he had a serious role, and of course other tv series.
He let himself cathced into a big production "Asterix and Obelix" but he didn't fit in the evil role
of the film.
From now on Benigni had other succesful movies like "Johnny Stecchino" with a good profit and a Nastro D'argento award," The monster" with a huge profit this time.
He let himself trapped into his biggest project from all his film works,the most expensive movie from the history of italian cinematography, and the film that he dreamt all his life to realise, Pinochio adapted after the Carlo Colodi novel.
Altough the film had a very good profit at the box office, the public and critics didn't digest it very good. The film buget was over 45 millions euro.
For Benigni, Pinochio is Don Quijote, Faust, Hamlet and Oedip at the same time in one person and the novel that gave life to this character is about three things, in favour of "listening,working and, about wisdom", real secrets and keys to happiness.Pinochio, in Benigni vision, shows us that "for growing up a man has to face or to know the death,starvation and violence..."
But the watchers does not receive the message of the director of the movie, being trapped by the beauty of story, the beautiful decorations and other aspect of the film.
Benigni, at the age of 51 years old, is the creator and the interpretator of seven films. Despite he didn't collect the best critics for Pinochio and that he "won" the oposite prise of the Oscar, "Golden Strawberry", the film was being watched in the first week-end by over 1,15 millions of people.
Benigni is also known and apreciated for improvisatory poetry and for explanations and recitations of Dante's "Divina Commedia" by memory.
He was given offers to bring his Dante show on Broadway but since then he turned them down continuosly.
The most apreciated film from all his career "La vita e bella"
"La vita e bella" won the Oscar Academy Award
for the best foreing film,the best principal actor (Roberto Benigni) and the
best soundtrack(Nicola Piovani)-1999,Cezar Award for the best foreing film, the
special grand prix of the jurry,
The film is constructed from two distinctive moments :1939 and 1944-1945. The first moment is being placed in a small town Arezzo, Italy and the second one-at the beginning in the same place but the in a nazzi deportation camp. The first part is concentraded on unsignifiant daily moments, on facts, events of wich autor, actor and spectator is Guido, a young man with modest social condition, with an uncertain and varying social statute.But not an usual man you see, totally out of common, naïve, innocent, generos, an idealist.On the first sight seem to be an anachronic. In the second part of the film the rezonance is not that comic but tragic. For saving his wife and his child, Guido built and try to live into a superreality. Every bad moment, every bad happening is being watched and lived like game, from the eyes of child. That is why "La vita e bella" is the first film about holocaust treated in this way, a tragicomic way.
Rivette tells in an article : "can you use travelling in a film about holocaust", he refers about the fact that do you have do stilish something or a film about this simply shows us the cruel reality from that time.
The answer is yes.You can use, and the fact that you can use a lot of film tehnics is demonstrated by Benigni. Not just a travelling but also comic parts and happenings.
As I sad there are two parts of the film. In the first part he met his wife, his "princess", gorgeous, lovely, delighting, a very big cinema moment, but after that in the second part of the movie, actually the one that take place in the deportation camp and the ilussion created by father for his son, the humour is totally different, strange, and with all that perfect and extroardinary scenaristic skills, everything is awful and unbelieveble(no, the life is not beautiful in such extremely and tragic situations, even if you saw all the movie and you remain at your own opinion).
The afirmation "life is beautiful" is not very special, everyone could have used it but just like in Marin Preda's situation ("if there's no love...") is definetily Benigni's afirmation, and so will remain.
The film is inspired by Dante's observation: "there is no painful tragedy than to remember of happy moment in unhappy moments".
It balances the tears with happy moments,it's like a Rembrandt picture, the two parts of the film are one of light and one of dramatic clear-obscure.
First on the half of the road between fairytale and comedy slide very fast into a nightmare. "There is a first time for smiling and second time for crying" said Begnini.
Everything is a game, a fantastic game of lying more and more. The game that father plays is set up for his son's 5th aniversary, and a game with a special prize, a military tank.
Guido use his smile always for protecting the child from the horrible faces of the war and that his soul and mind to remain beautiful.
Before the comediant there was the clown and before the clown there was the bufon.They all catch the public without the actor to identify with them. A nightmare being watched with the eyes wide shot of love!
"In "the devil" I was a child, I was just descovering the genital femini organ. In "Johnny Stecchino" and in "The monster" I was a maniac from outside the world. But now, in this film, I know everything about world and love. I am an extremely romantic Begnini. A Benignini between Clark Gable and Gary Grant."
The film received a lot of bad attributes. It was accused by profanation, revisionism and even that it deny the holocaust.
But with all this accuses the jewish people accept it and The Jewish Film Festival welcome him very nice.
He riscked a lot, he violated a tabu. He scream, shout with all his power that despite all those horrible things that happened, despite everything and everyone, life is beautiful.
It's said that this is a cinematographical fenomena.
The film is in fact a lesson of improvisation.
Don't watch it if you are to sensible,emotional or if you are easy to impressed. It simply remain inside your brain and everytime you remind of it you just can not think about it for a time and get impressed again, or maybe remembering the time that impressed you.
Being an actor and a director is quite interesting, you have to direct yourself. You have to listen to you and do the act just like you want and like it. Maybe not a smart line but it just flashed my mind now and I simply could'n resist to use it.
During
the Pinochio filming, Benigni wrote a poem for the Basilique Cnv of Saint
Francisc from
"La Povertà genera Amore
la Carità conduce all'Estasi.
Se metti insieme le quattro iniziali
Delle virtù che sopra ho diviso
Ne nasce un'altra che vola senz'ali
Verso le porte del Paradiso."
"The poverty generates Love
Charity takes you to Extasy
Putting together this four initials
Of the virtues that I classified up there
Gets born another one that flies without wings
Till the gates of Heaven"
Putting togheter those four initials you obtain another word, "pace" the sense, the word for peace in italian.
The ascenscion of Benigni is in the middle of progress, because he prepare for us another film that is promised to be a new political lampoon, in the same time tragic and comic, of wich action will be placed in the invaded Irak by the american soldiery. A "family" film in wich Benigni and his wife play the main roles.
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