Life+Is+Beautiful+(2)

Life is Beautiful is an Italian film holocaust film set in the period of (Pre)/World War 2. The film begins with our protagonist Guido, who is a comical and humorous man. He meets Dora and is immediately drawn to her, he uses countless ways to surprise her by meeting her unexpected ways. However, although Dora has her eyes set on Guido, she is set to get married with another man. However, she falls for him as well and together they sort of run away and get married. The film then time jumps to a time where both are married and have a child. Although things seem great, it is quite the opposite, for Guido is jewish both him and his son are captured by Nazi soldiers and sent to concentration camps. Upon finding that out, Dora pleads a soldier to let her go with them. In hopes to preserve his son's innocence, Guido tells him that it is a game that he needs to win. The first one to reach 1000 points, will get a real tank. Throughout the film, Guido works hard for his son to remain innocence and not be affected by the dangers of the real world.

During the film, the director makes several choices to capture the attention of his audience, and present a well made film. A good example of a scene where the director makes several choices could be when the son and Guido first arrive in the bunks of the concentration camp. As they enter the room they see several Jewish men huddled together in a tight pact room wearing the uniforms of white and blue stripes. Of coarse Guido understand where they are and what this is but he tells his son that it is all a game. He meets a fellow Jewish man, telling him to play a long in a way to make his son believe. However, his son is skeptical. At that moment some German soldiers come in and start giving instructions. To make his son believe, Guido pretends to speak German so he can give false instructions, that this concentration camp is really a game.



In the scene the director uses Low Key lighting on the right side of their face, with a sort of fill light on the right so the shadow isn't so harsh. There are no windows on the right side of the room while there are some on the left so this was a good choice. The lighting is very cool, to give off a very serious and depressing tone even while Guido acts very comedic in this scene. That is quite something special about this film, that despite the subject being very depressing and sad, the director manages to make it have a sort of comic relief or funny moments.

The camera is placed between medium to American shots so that the viewer can both see their facial expressions, but their movements as they give the instructions.



The acting is quite spectacular in this scene. As the soldier tells the instructions very seriously, Guido mimics his intensity while saying very silly things. The camera jumps between Guido and the soldier to his son to show his sons reactions to what he is saying. It also shows the reactions of the fellow jews, showing their confusion. That connects to a theme in this film, the relationship between father and son. The fact that Guido is willing to do these things to protect his son is a major area in Life Is Beautiful.

There is always this harsh and sad tone to the film especially in this scene and throughout, and that is the fact that they are actually in a concentration camp trying to survive.