The film opens with an atmospheric shot of a silhouetted figure wandering through dense dust and debris. "This is a simple story," the narrator says, "but not an easy one to tell. Like a fable, there is sorrow, and like a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness." The shot then brightens, and we see a simple country road. It is 1939, and we are in Abrezzo, Italy. Two men drive along in a car, and the driver animatedly recites a poem to his friend. Finally, he yells out, "the brakes are gone!" The passenger thinks it is merely another line in the poem, but the driver declares, "No, they're really gone! The brakes are gone!" The car barrels down the road, through the woods, and into a parade, where the passengers' desperate arm movements to the waiting crowd appear to be "Heil Hitler" gestures. The crowd eagerly responds, raising their right arms in kind. When the army official who was actually supposed to be honored in the parade passes the crowd, everyone falls silent in confusion.

The driver, Ferruccio, attempts to fix the car with little success. Finally, he tells our hero, Guido Orefice, to go for a walk, or they will be there forever. Guido says that he will go wash his hands, and he heads towards a little farmhouse. There, he sees a little girl and inquires about the items that she has piled onto a cart, telling her that her display is lovely. He introduces himself as a prince and tells her that everything around her belongs to him. He says that he is going to call the place Addis Ababa--and he will replace the cows with camels. Guido then announces that he is off to meet with his princess. At that moment there is a ruckus, and a woman falls out of a window, directly onto Guido and a pile of hay. "Good morning, princess!" Guido says, grinning. The woman says that she has been stung by a wasp, and Guido begins sucking the venom out of her leg. The little girl, Elenora, tells the woman that Guido is a prince, and the woman offers him some eggs in thanks. Taking half a dozen eggs, Guido makes his exit.

Next, it is night, and Ferruccio and Guido are approaching a grand old house. As they walk to the front door, there is a loud crash, and two men run out. Inside, Guido's uncle Eliseo is on the floor. He says that the men were "barbarians" and that he did not cry out for help because "silence is the most powerful cry." Ferruccio introduces himself as a poet and upholsterer, and Eliseo says that they are welcome to stay in the house, which has been converted into a storage facility. Eliseo also says that Guido can work as a waiter at the hotel where he is employed. Eliseo walks around the room, pointing out the oddities contained there, and then leaves. His horse, Robin Hood, whinnies in greeting.

The next day, Guido and Ferruccio walk through the piazza, visibly excited about their new life. They pass a man standing on the sidewalk, who calls out, "Maria! The key!" An unseen woman tosses a key out of a window, very nearly missing Guido and Ferruccio. They then go to meet Oreste, who is employing Ferruccio as an upholsterer. Guido compliments Oreste on his hat, attempting to switch it for his own. Guido asks Oreste what his political views are, but Oreste does not hear him; Oreste is too busy chastizing his boys, Benito and Adolfo. Guido quickly excuses himself, but not before switching the hats once again. Oreste declares that he will get his revenge.

Guido argues with a woman about his application to open a bookshop. She tells him that the department head, Amico Rodolfo, has to sign the loan, but when Amico walks thorugh the room he refuses to do so since his substitute, he says, will be there in an hour. Guido is irritated; all Amico had to do was give him a signature, and now he has to wait an hour! In his frustration, he knocks a flowerpot off of the windowsill, and it hits Amico on the head as he passes below. Guido runs down to help him, but Amico says that Guido will never get his loan now. He takes a hat from Guido and jams it onto his head, but Guido flinches--earlier, he had put the six eggs into the hat, and they are now shattered all over Amico. "I'll kill you!" he screams, and Guido jumps onto his bike to make an escape.

Guido bicycles frantically through the piazza, trying to navigate around a group of schoolchildren. Suddenly he collides with a woman--the woman from the farm. "Good morning, princess!" he says. "I wonder if we'll ever bump into each other standing up!" He bids her farewell and runs off, leaving her standing in the piazza, watching him go with a slight smile on her face.

Analysis

The moody, evocative opening of the film, with a shadowy character struggling through dense fog, provides a sharp contrast to the cheerful, boisterous scene that follows, which depicts Guido and Ferruccio barreling down a country road in an open-air car. Indeed, the first scene is so at odds with the entire first half of the film that viewers may forget about it entirely until the horrors of the second half begin. Yet, the first scene alerts us to the true complexity of Life is Beautiful: this is a lighthearted comedy, for certain, but it has a dark side that must be reckoned with.

Indeed, an attentive viewer will catch glimpses of the darker side of the film throughout the first half, hidden though they may be by Benigni's brilliant comedic talents. Before the credits even begin, the audience is alerted to the pervasive prevalence of fascism: when Guido, trapped in the runaway car, frantically gestures to the crowd to move out of the way, they interpret his wild flailings as a fascist salute and eagerly respond in kind. Later, Guido asks Oreste what his political views are, and he receives enough of an answer when Oreste chastizes his two children, calling them Benito and Adolfo. Guido's trouble with Amico seems to have an anti-Semitic reason. And even though Life is Beautiful is not an overtly political film--politics are only directly discussed a handful of times--Benigni's political inclinations are quite clear from the outset.

The first few scenes of the film not only introduce several major characters (including Guido, Dora, Ferruccio, Eliseo, Oreste, and Amico), but they also incorporate additional elements that return later in the tale. For example, Dora's gift to Guido of half a dozen eggs later incites Amico's anger, and Guido's and Ferrucio's discovery of the man who daily cries out, "Maria! The key!" will prove instrumental later in the development of Guido's and Dora's romance.

Furthermore, Eliseo's explanation of why he did not cry out when he was being attacked, "Silence is the most powerful cry," informs the second half of the film. While Guido is not "silent" in his attempts to combat the fascists who entrap him and his family in the second half of the film (consider his later use of the loudspeaker), he is politically silent, focusing instead on laughter and on the joy of human experience.

Right away, the audience realizes that they are dealing with a truly unique individual. Guido himself is a masterful storyteller, able to manipulate his surroundings so that they make his fanciful tales come to life. (Consider Benigni himself in this regard.) When Guido meets the young Elenora at the farm, he takes pleasure in bringing a smile to the child's face by telling her that he is a prince and that he plans to bring in camels to replace the cows. "No!" she cries. "Camels?!" When Dora, the woman who is to become his wife, seemingly falls out of the sky and into his arms, Guido immediately figures out a way to work this development into his story: "Good morning, princess!" he says, thereby lending credence to his tale.

Thus, Life is Beautiful is an almost magical tale. Situations arise that seem so coincidental as to have been directed by a supernatural force, but Benigni is very careful to convey that each seemingly extraordinary occurrence has its natural causes-even if the coincidence is orchestrated by the hand of an extraordinary man or some larger fate. Magic, Benigni suggests, comes primarily from human agency-if only one is willing to see the vast possibilities that life offers.

Guido is at the hotel restaurant, being quizzed by his Uncle Eliseo on his skills as a waiter. Guido describes how to prepare a chicken and then begins explaining, very poorly, how to prepare a lobster. "Lobster is a crustacean," he declares. "Off goes the crust--of the crustacean--and..." After watching him struggle for a moment, Eliseo tells him that you simply serve it as is. Guido then begins demonstrating the correct behavior and comportment of a waiter, down to the exact degree to which a waiter should bow. Eliseo stops him: "You serve people," he says, "but you are not a servant. Serving is a supreme art."

Guido and Ferruccio lie together in a grand old bed in the warehouse. Ferruccio is in the middle of a sentence when he falls into a remarkably deep sleep. Guido, astonished, awakes his friend, and Ferruccio tells Guido about Schopenhauer, who believes that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. "Right now," Ferruccio says, "I want to sleep, so I was saying to myself, ... 'I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping,' and I fell asleep." Guido begins to try the technique, but Ferruccio tells him that it's a serious process that takes time. Ferruccio falls back asleep, and Guido leans over him. "Wake up ... wake up ..." he coos into Ferruccio's ear. Ferruccio bursts awake. "It works!" cries Guido. Ferruccio simply rolls his eyes. "You were yelling in my ear," he says. "That's why I woke up."

The next day, Guido is walking down the street when he hears the man call out again, "Maria! The key!" The key is tossed down, and it hits Guido on the head. Suddenly, across the piazza, Guido sees the beautiful schoolteacher. "Look!" he says to Ferruccio, "There's that teacher. Boy, is she pretty." But then a car drives into the piazza, and Guido hides behind Ferruccio. It is Amico, and he stops for a brief chat with the two women. When Amico drives off, Guido jumps out from behind Ferruccio, exclaiming, "Good morning, princess!" and surprising the woman and her friend. He introduces her to Ferruccio as the princess who fell out of the sky into his arms. She says that they keep meeting this way, and he offers to make a plan to meet her, but she declines: "No. It's nicer this way."

Guido now approaches a table carrying a tray. The distinguished man sitting there, Doctor Lessing, is astonished when Guido declares, "Obscurity!" It seems that this is the answer to a riddle that the doctor told him only minutes earlier ("The bigger it is, the less you see it"). The doctor is delighted with Guido; it took him eight days to solve the riddle, and it took Guido only five minutes. Guido serves the doctor salmon, salad, and a glass of white wine and then offers the doctor a riddle of his own: "The dwarves and Snow White sit down for a bite. How fast can you guess what she serves her guests next?" The doctor is intrigued, saying that he no longer wants his food; he wants to solve the riddle right away.

The head waiter approaches Guido and says that a man from the Roman Ministry has arrived and wishes to eat, but Guido tells him that the kitchen is closed. "Oh well," says the head waiter. "He would have given you a big tip." "The kitchen," replies Guido, "is open." The man from the Ministry sits. Guido begins to recite the menu to him. Ultimately, he manages to convince the man to order exactly the meal that the doctor sent away, even while he lets the man think that he is making the decision for himself. The man asks for his food as soon as possible, and he is astonished when Guido returns within seconds to present him with his meal.

The doctor exits contemplating the riddle. The man asks whether the doctor is drunk. Guido explains the riddle: the answer is "Seven seconds." Guido then learns that the man from the Ministry is expected at the local elementary school in the morning, the very school where the beautiful woman teaches.

Next, several teachers-the beautiful woman, whose name is Dora, among them-stand before a classroom. The principal tells the students to listen carefully to the man from the Ministry, who will be telling them some very important things about their country. Guido enters and walks straight to the beautiful woman: "Good morning, princess." He begins improvising, asking the teachers questions, one by one. When he gets to Dora, he asks her what she is doing on Sunday. Dora says that she is going to see Offenbach at the theater. Guido attempts to excuse himself, but the principal says that Guido is expected to talk about the race manifesto and will demonstrate to the class that their race is a superior race, "the best race of all."

Guido puts on a remarkable performance for the children: "I was chosen," he says, "by racist Italian scientists to demonstrate how superior our race is." He jumps up on the table and begins to illustrate exactly why he is so superior. "Where," he asks, "can you find someone more handsome than me?" He points to each part of his body, examining its perfection and beauty, which elicits delighted giggles from the children. Just as he is showing his bellybutton and doing a little dance to demonstrate the remarkable ways in which the body can move, however, he is interrupted by the arrival of the real Minister. He excuses himself and jumps out a window, saying, "I'll see you in Venice, princess!"

Analysis

Throughout Life is Beautiful, Guido's remarkable luck and singular skill at entertaining those around him set him apart from the crowd. He is truly unique. Yet, Benigni does not isolate his hero, who also has elements of "everyman" and does not put on airs. While his lighthearted attitude never fades, Guido is noticeably uncomfortable in the glamorous hotel. He has never been exposed to "sophisticated" foods like lobsters, and he fumbles his way hilariously through an explanation of how to prepare one. Later, Guido enchants the local children by putting on a performance in which he challenges the idea of racial superiority: "Look!" he says. "Have you ever seen such a beautiful ear?" Guido is a hero, but he is not a hero along the lines of Achilles or Aeneas. Guido is an everyman--as a hero he has the cunning of Odysseus and the citizen virtue of Hector, yet his courage and attitude towards life--not physical strength, money, privilege, or education--put him in position to care for those he loves.

At times, Guido can even seem hopelessly naïve. It seems possible that Guido takes Ferruccio's description of the Schopenhauer method quite literally and actually believes that Ferruccio awakens because Guido wills him to, rather than because he is yelling in his friend's ear. Yet, given his great abilities, any naivete is probably just an act.

Nevertheless, "the Schopenhauer Method" is a recurring theme throughout the film, and each time Guido employs it, the technique does appear to work after all, through a series of remarkable coincidences. Guido's almost childlike fascination with the Schopenhauer Method is thus portrayed as yet another of his extraordinary qualities: he views the world around him with the eyes of a young boy, and because of his willingness to believe, magical things happen. The magical things happen not just because Guido wills them and makes them come to pass; there may be something in Schopenhauer's suggestion of a larger "will" that controls fate.

The friendship between Guido and Doctor Lessing is cemented by their mutual fascination with riddles. Though Doctor Lessing is an esteemed, highly educated man of decidedly contrary political opinions while Guido is a lowly waiter, humor serves as a universal language, bringing the men together on common ground. These riddles also serve to highlight Guido's mental acuity. Though Guido is presumably a relatively uneducated man, his ability to think quickly and devise solutions to difficult puzzles exceeds even that of a man like Doctor Lessing.

One of the most interesting scenes in the film occurs when Guido, pretending to be a delegate from the Ministry, leads a classroom full of young children in a raucous lesson on the superiority of their race. Even in a situation as fraught with danger and tension as this, Guido is able to find levity and joy. He jumps atop a table, yanking up his shirt to expose the wondrous construction of his bellybutton, and the children burst into laughter--a far cry from the serious class we saw when Guido first walked into the room. The impact of this scene is twofold: first, we see Guido's willingness to attack even the most serious political subjects using humor (a tactic Benigni himself has used), and second, we see his (perhaps not fully conscious) desire to provide those around him with a brief respite from the monotony of their lives. Even though Guido's "lesson" is unlikely to have any real impact on these children's beliefs, he takes what might have been yet another hour devoted to fascist doctrine and replaces it with an enjoyable experience that reveals the hypocrisy and absurdity of fascism in a way that they can understand.

A boat glides across a stage. We are at an Offenbach opera, watching a performance with Dora and Amico. Guido in the audience, too, staring straight at Dora, who is in a box. The woman next to him mistakenly thinks that he is staring at her, but Guido "explains" that he can hear only out of one ear. He begins using the Schopenhauer Method: "Look at me, princess ... look at me, look at me." She finally does, but she seems to think that he is on a date with the woman next to him.

After the show, Dora asks Amico if they can get chocolate ice cream. They cannot, he says; they have to be at dinner at the Prefect's at eight. Dora is clearly unhappy about missing the ice cream. Oreste is also at the opera, and Guido once again tricks him, exchanging their hats and running off.

Outside it is raining, so Dora asks Amico to bring the car to her. He says he will pull up outside and toot the horn. Guido overhears this and begs Ferruccio for his car key. A car pulls up, a horn honks, and Dora runs in. She expresses annoyance that no one came to get her with an umbrella. She begins hiccupping (it seems she always hiccups when she is nervous, and she is unhappy about going to the Prefect's). Suddenly, she turns and sees that it is not Amico but Guido who is driving. She screams but quickly calms down and smiles. "Will you leave me alone?" asks Guido. "You've really got a crush on me."

Suddenly the car begins to shake, the roof pops off, and the engine cuts out. Guido grabs a red pillow attached to a stick that happens to be in the backseat of the antique car and gives it to Dora to use as an umbrella. He then pulls out a roll of red cloth and throws it down the steps towards the piazza so that she will not have to get her feet wet. Dora realizes that her dress is ripped and, as Guido says, her "behind is blowing in the wind."

Minutes later, they walk through the piazza, Dora carrying the pillow so that it covers her rear. It is no longer raining. Dora tells Guido that one only needs the right key to open her heart. Guido suddenly says that he will ask the Virgin Mary to send him the key from heaven. He calls out, "Maria! The key!" A key comes flying down, and Guido catches it. "Is this it?" he asks Dora, who can only stare at him in astonishment.

They approach the theater, and Dora says she has to go. Guido asks, "What about the chocolate ice cream?" but Dora says not to bother the Virgin Mary about ice cream. Guido notices the doctor standing a few feet away and calls out, "Mary! How long before we can have some ice cream?" The doctor strides up to them and says simply, "Seven seconds," leaving Dora astounded once again.

Guido walks her home. Dora apparently lives in a beautiful mansion. Guido tells her that he wants to make love to her over and over again for the rest of his life, but that he would never actually tell her such a thing. Dora tells him that he better run home (he is all wet), but suddenly Guido notices Oreste approaching on a bicycle. "It's my hat that bothers me," he says. "I need a dry hat, but where can I find one?" Dora, joking, calls out to the Virgin Mary to bring her friend a dry hat. At that, Oreste stops in front of them, takes the hat on Guido's head and plops the old one down on him, and bikes off. "Farewell," says Guido, as he dances away down the street.

Analysis

This section of the film focuses on the burgeoning love between Guido and Dora. Guido has a truly unique view of romance: he approaches it almost like a game having the object of winning Dora's affection. He employs many of his skills (both real and imagined)-quick thinking, Schopenhauer's Method, wit, and humor-in his seduction of Dora, and he ultimately emerges victorious. Even though Dora is engaged to a wealthy man and moves in decidedly different social circles than Guido, she cannot help but be enraptured by his joyful approach to life and the magic that seems to follow him wherever he goes.

Very few of the characters in Life is Beautiful are stereotypes; most are layered, deeply complex personalities, with a variety of political beliefs and attitudes towards life. Even in this context, Dora is particularly interesting. She is the romantic heroine and the object of Guido's adoration, but she also has some faults. She seems to be willing in her relationship with a man whom she clearly does not love, and she comes across as somewhat petulant and bratty, at least to Amico. "No!" she yells, when told that she and Amico have been invited to the Prefect's house for dinner. Quickly, however, a different side of Dora emerges when she is around Guido: her eyes light up, and she opens herself to the magical world that he shows her. She also abandons her somewhat stuffy persona. Although she was annoyed with Amico for failing to retrieve her with an umbrella, she soon strolls through the piazza with Guido holding a cushion over her rear to cover the hole in her dress.

Dora and Guido are in the honeymoon of infatuation. Dora seems to wholly accept Guido's failings. As they pull away from the opera, he confesses that he does not know how to drive, and within minutes the car begins to smoke and rattle-and they come to a crashing halt with the roof popped open, exposing them to the downpour. Nevertheless, Dora's fascination with this bizarre man is such that she does not become angry, even though we can imagine the ferocity of her rage had a similar situation occurred with Amico.

Guido approaches this glitch as he does most everything in life: with humor and a determination to find the magic in any situation. One of the most beautiful moments in the film occurs when Guido stops Dora from walking down a long flight of steps, fearing that she will get her feet wet; he unrolls a long bolt of cloth, creating a luxurious red carpet for them to step on as they descend into the piazza.

At the end of this section, even Dora puts her faith in the remarkable pattern that seems to occur whenever Guido is around, calling out to the Virgin Mary to bring her friend a dry hat. Of course, Guido has predicted that Oreste would exchange Guido's hat for his own and has seeded the situation so that the coincidence would occur. Dora's mouth drops open in shock, but she no longer seems to question why such things happen to Guido. It is more than coincidence, luck, and careful planning in such situations; they require Guido's attitude towards the world around him and his willingness to believe that extraordinary things can happen.

Guido walks through a grand ballroom carrying an ostrich egg. He hides his face when he sees Amico. Upstairs, a maid and Dora's mother are trying to get Dora out of bed. Finally, they pull the covers off of her to reveal that she is wearing a beautiful gown. She hiccups and reluctantly walks downstairs. A waiter runs up to Guido and tells him to go outside since something has happened. Outside, Eliseo stands next to his horse, which is painted green. Someone has also written on it, "Achtung, Jewish horse." Guido tells him not to be upset, but Eliseo tells him to get used to it; soon they will start with him, too. "What can possibly happen to me?" asks Guido. "Achtung, Jewish waiter?"

Guido reenters the ballroom, and Ferruccio comes running up to him to tell him that Dora is there. Guido says that he wishes to surprise her, but he hides when he sees Amico coming towards her. Doctor Lessing is also there, and he tells Guido that he has to leave for Berlin immediately. He says that he truly enjoyed his time with Guido, the most ingenious waiter he has ever come across. With one final riddle ("If you say my name, I'm not there anymore. What am I?") the doctor leaves. "Silence!" declares Guido to the concierge. "If you say the word, it's not there anymore. Silence. Beautiful."

The party sits gathered around the dinner table. The school principal from earlier in the film says how shocked she was by a problem given to the third-grade students that involved figuring out how much the state would save if the cripples, lunatics, and epileptics were eliminated. She was shocked, she says, because the problem requires math far beyond a third-grade level! Amico solves the problem, saying that it is easy. Suddenly a cake arrives bearing the words "Good morning, princess!" Dora startles, then stands up to look around her, searching for Guido, but Amico pulls her away onto the dance floor. Confetti in the colors of the Italian flag begins to fall.

Amico makes an announcement that he and Dora are engaged to get married. Everyone applauds: "Kiss her! Kiss her!" As Amico kisses Dora's cheek Guido looks on, aghast, and then trips over an armchair, sending his tray flying. Ferruccio comes up to console him, but Guido insists that he is fine. Uncle Eliseo approaches Guido to ask him whether he is all right. "Why do you ask?" says Guido, who has just placed a small dog onto his tray in place of the spilled food. He is completely at his wits' end and cannot even remember where the kitchen is.

A decorated officer, presumably a Nazi sympathizer, approaches Amico and makes a rude joke about how he no longer has to accompany Amico to the brothel. "What a jolly fellow!" says Dora's mother. Suddenly, Dora spots Guido at the end of the table, cleaning up another mess that he has made, and her face lights up. Guido ducks down under the table, and Dora does the same, crawling between the legs of the other guests to meet him. "Princess," Guido says, "you're here too?" Dora leans forward, kisses him gently, and says, "Take me away."

Drums roll, and the band announces that the hotel has prepared a magnificent surprise. Several porters enter carrying an ornate ostrich-shaped cake that is set down behind Dora. It seems that the surprise is over, but then Guido enters astride Uncle Eliseo's green horse. "Music, maestro!" he cries, and stops before Amico and Dora. He hands Amico a bottle of champagne and tells Dora to get onto the horse. She climbs over the table and sits down in front of Guido, and the two ride out of the ballroom together. Everyone applauds. The champagne cork pops, shattering the egg in the ostrich's mouth, which then falls down onto Amico's head. Amico suddenly realizes where he has seen the strange rider before and runs out of the room, yelling.

In the next scene it is dawn, and Guido helps Dora disembark from the horse in front of Uncle Eliseo's house. As Guido searches for a way to open the house, Dora slowly climbs the steps to the door of the greenhouse and enters. Guido follows behind her-and suddenly it is daylight, and a little boy is running out of the greenhouse and down the steps.

Analysis

This section opens with an ominous portent of what is to come: Eliseo's horse has been spray-painted with the words "Achtung, Jewish horse," and Eliseo tells Guido to be careful. This scene speaks to the shock that many Holocaust victims experienced when the attentions of the Nazi soldiers turned on them: what, they wondered, could they possibly have done to deserve such treatment? Guido similarly laughs off the warning, though it is his style to laugh. "What can happen to me?" he asks. "Achtung, Jewish waiter?" Guido is an ordinary man-a good man, as we have seen-yet even a simple bookshop owner is not safe from the scourge of fascism.

Guido continues to turn negative experiences into positive ones. He uses the green horse to rescue Dora from her stifling existence as Amico's fiancée. When he rides the horse into the ballroom, gathers Dora, and sets off into the coming morning, he transforms all the negative parts of the day into a "knight on horseback" moment. Still, the strange circumstances of the event make fun of the courtly ideal. Guido can find levity and hope in even the most oppressive, frightening circumstances.

The portentous moments that foreshadow the events to come become more prevalent as well. At dinner, Dora's colleague repeats a mathematics problem that was given to students asking how much money would be saved if the "cripples," "lunatics," and "epileptics" were "eliminated." Dora is rightly shocked, but her colleague is shocked in a way that increases Dora's shock-the teacher complains that the problem is too difficult for third graders! No one else at the table seems offended by the idea that third graders would be asked to consider the economics of genocide. Even Amico, Dora's fiancé, is blasé about the idea, calmly explaining that the problem as such is not very hard to solve.

Moments later, Dora is shocked again when an official makes a lewd joke about her fiancé, but Dora's mother laughs and declares, "What a jolly fellow!" Dora's peers could not be more different from the kindhearted, innocent Guido. Thus, when she sees Guido at the party, she at last realizes that by going with him and leaving her old life behind, she is hardly giving up anything. This idea turns out to be false, however, for Dora's peers could save her from the fascists, while being associated with Guido will lead her deep into the horrors of the Holocaust.

The moment when Dora finally succumbs to Guido's pursuit is a perfect encapsulation of the unique nature of their romance. Dora notices that Guido has dropped to his knees to clean up a mess (or to hide), so she climbs under the table to join him. The two would-be lovers approach each other on hands and knees, entirely unbeknownst to the guests dining above them. Dora has joined Guido's world, one that thrives beneath the staid society life in which she grew up. Guido and Dora are literally right under their noses, but the other diners are so ensconced in their own lives that they cannot imagine anything as fantastical as two lovers meeting under a table.

When Dora and Guido return to Eliseo's house on horseback, it is a moment of pure magic. The early morning light gives the scene an almost unreal quality, suggesting that the two of them have entered an otherworldly place created by their love. Dora, far more lovely and calm than we have seen her before, wanders towards the greenhouse, filled with a newfound curiosity and appreciation for the beauty of life. This moment, however, marks the end of the first half of the film. The half that is characterized by fantasy, light, and humor is ending. Soon the new family will be forcibly removed from this magical world and taken to a place entirely devoid of beauty and light.

The boy running out of the house, we quickly realize, is Giosue, the son of Guido and Dora. It is several years since the restaurant episode. The happy family climbs aboard Guido's bicycle, heading to school to drop off Dora. Guido and Giosue ride through the piazza towards Guido's place of work-it seems that he has finally realized his dream of running a bookstore. They pause in front of a bakery, where Giosue reads out a sign: "No Jews or dogs allowed." Guido explains that everybody does what they want to-for example, he says, no Spanish people or horses are allowed into the hardware store. He suggests that they make a rule that no spiders or Visigoths should be allowed into the bookstore.

At the bookstore, two men in suits enter looking for Guido. They tell him that he has to go to see the Prefect, and Guido protests that he has already been then. He then takes note of the ominous air about the two men and consents. He leaves Giosue to tend the store and says that he will be right back. Giosue runs to the door, nervous at the sight of two men leading his father away, but Guido looks back at his son and does a funny walk to make him smile.

Giosue returns to his duties minding the store. A well-dressed woman enters and says good-morning to him. She selects a book and pays for it. She then hands Giosue a letter for his mother and tells him to say that it is from Grandma. "I've never seen my grandmother before," Giosue says. The woman says that he will meet his grandmother tomorrow, and she will bring him a present. She turns to exit. "You forgot your change, Grandma!" Giosue calls out. At the end of the day, Guido is locking up the store. He pulls down the grate to reveal that the words "JEWISH STORE" have been scrawled across it in big, black letters.

Back at home, Doro and Guido are setting up for Giosue's birthday party. Dora tells Giosue to take a bath, and when Guido says that Giosue took one on Friday, Dora tells her husband that he should change his shirt. "I changed my shirt on Thursday!" he protests. When Dora again tells Giosue to take a bath, he stomps his foot on the ground petulantly and crawls into a cupboard to hide. Guido sets some flowers on the cabinet and hears his son hiccupping from inside. He takes this opportunity to surprise Dora by using the Schopenhauer Method ("Come, flowers! I want the nightstand to come here"). The idea is to bring the cabinet over to them, and Giosue simply puts his feet through the bottom of the cabinet and walks them over. Giosue pops out of the cupboard: "Good morning, princess!" he cries, smiling and throwing out his arms.

Later, Dora and her mother walk up to the house but quickly realize that something is very wrong. The house has been ransacked, and Guido and Giosue are missing. The shot changes, and we see that they are in the back of a truck along with Uncle Eliseo and a number of other people. Giosue asks his father where they are going, and Guido, after searching for an answer for some time, says that they are going on a trip for his birthday. "It took me months to plan the whole thing!" he says. "It makes me laugh. My pop planned something like this for me. Boy, it was so ... was it funny!" When Giosue falls asleep, Guido catches Eliseo's eye: "Where are we going?" he asks, serious now.

As Giosue and Guido wait in line to board a train, Guido continues the charade. He tells Giosue that they are right on time, and when Giosue asks him whether there are seats, Guido looks at him in shock: "Seats? It's obvious you've never been on [a train]! No, everyone stands real close together." He even yells out to the guards to save some room for them-they don't want to have to go home. When one of the guards roughly shoves Guido into the train compartment, he just smiles and thanks him. As the heavy wooden door slides shut, he looks down at his son and rubs his hands together in feigned excitement.

Dora stands before a soldier, telling him that there has been a mistake: her husband and son are on the train. "I want to get on that train, too," she says. The soldier tells her to go home, but once again Dora's stubborn streak rears its head, and she insists that she must get on the train. The soldier stops the train, and she boards. Guido and Giosue watch through a tiny window. "Mama!" cries Giosue with a smile.

It becomes night, and the train pulls into a large courtyard surrounded on all sides by tall, imposing buildings. Some time later the passengers disembark and are separated into groups by gender and age. Guido hands Giosue to Eliseo and rushes through the crowd, searching frantically for Dora. He finds her but is pushed aside by a female guard. As Eliseo, Giosue, and Guido walk through the courtyard, Giosue says that he did not like the train. Guido calls out that they want to take the bus on the way back. "What game is this?" asks Giosue. "That's it!" says Guido. "It's all organized. It's a game. It's hard. It's not easy. If somebody makes a mistake, they are sent home. But if you win, you get first prize!" Eliseo leans forward and says that the winner gets a tank-a real tank-and Giosue's face lights up in excitement. Eliseo is led away with the other older men.

Analysis

The life Dora and Guido have created is apparently filled with the magic with which it began. Giosue is very much like his father, and he is a perfect audience for Guido's performances. Giosue loves when his father rides his bicycle fast, and he shows his admiration for Guido by mimicking him, such as when he says to his mother, "Good morning, princess!" He also has his mother's affliction of hiccupping whenever he is made to do something he does not want to do. He is the embodiment of their common life and love.

Although Guido, Dora, and Giosue's life is idyllic, the specter of fascism is becoming more and more threatening. Guido still manages to deftly deflect the intrusions of a hostile world from his son's life. When Guido tells his son that they will put up a sign outside their store saying "No spiders or Visigoths," he is making light of a dismal truth about the tension and hostility in Italy. Still, it is clear that he cannot change this situation; one day, Giosue will learn the truth. It is just a matter of time.

Throughout the movie, Guido has been able to manipulate his surroundings to create a beautiful world for himself and his loved ones. Now, however, he is in a concentration camp, and, for the first time, a positive outcome seems impossible. When he tells Giosue that they are going on a trip for fun and that everything is a giant game, there is a sense of impending doom. The Fascists are in control now, not Guido, and it seems as if their story can only end badly. The ethics of Guido's strategy suddenly come into question: if they are going to die, is Guido's decision to deceive his son cruel? As the stakes are raised, can his magical charade continue? How can he maintain his son's morale in such a bleak situation? The audience at once fills with dread at Guido's and Giosue's situation and with exhilaration at Guido's determination to find beauty even in the darkest of places.

In the first half of the movie, Guido jokes that writing "Jewish waiter" on him is the worst thing that the Fascists can do. When they actually write "Jewish store" on the entrance to his bookstore, he does not realize the error of his optimism. Even when he and Giosue are in the concentration camp, his awareness of the gravity of the situation is rarely apparent. He is always playing the part of the excited director of Giosue's birthday surprise. His optimism is so constant that one wonders how it could be entirely an act; it must be at least partly genuine. This is another example of fantasy becoming reality. By pretending to be happy and excited for Giosue's sake, Guido actually increases his own ability to deal with the difficulties confronting him. Though the specifics of his elaborate act are fictitious, the spirit behind it is real. By resolutely conveying his optimism to those around him, Guido actually becomes more optimistic, or as optimistic as one can be in such a place.

Dora's decision to follow her husband and son on the train is at once sad and beautiful. Her bond with her husband and son is so strong that she is willing to give her life (one can guess) just to be by their side. She is a very different woman from the spoiled girl who fell out of the barn into Guido's arms. She is braver now, and she is able to follow her good heart. Fate, however, is still leading her life in a direction that she does not want. Instead of a fiancé she does not love making decisions for her, now the Fascists are forcing her into difficult situations. She can stay in Italy since she is not Jewish, being separated from her husband and son, or she can follow her loved ones, risking her own life in the process. Her insistence on getting on the train with Guido and Giosue reveals her determination to guide her own life, not simply to abandon her future to fate. She refuses to let the Fascists separate her from her family, defying their power to control the lives of others. Her decision to get on the train is at once a declaration of love and a statement about a person's ability to control her own destiny.

Guido and Giosue walk into an overcrowded dormitory filled with gaunt, sad-eyed men. Guido makes a production about selecting their bed, but Giosue looks upset. He is hungry and tired and wants to see his mother. Guido tells him that they will see her again after they get a thousand points and win the game. Giosue says again that he wants a snack, and Guido asks the man in the next bed, Bartolomeo, if the man with the bread and jam already came through. Bartolomeo nods, a slightly sardonic expression on his face. Several guards enter and yell something in German. Bartolomeo tells Guido that they asked if anyone speaks German since they want to explain the camp rules. Guido, of course, raises his hand and "translates" the soldier's instructions so that they sound like the rules of a fun game, much to Giosue's delight. "You lose points for three things!" Guido says. "One, if you cry. Two, if you want to see your mommy. Three, if you're hungry and want a snack. Forget about it!" When the guard makes his exit, Guido "translates" his parting words as, "Sorry I have to go so fast. But we're playing hide-and-go-seek." He walks over to Giosue and grins: "I told you we were going to have fun!"

Guido and Vittorino, another prisoner, lug anvils through a stiflingly hot room. Guido's façade has disappeared: he is exhausted and convinced that he cannot go on. Bartolomeo walks by, his arm sliced open and bleeding profusely. At the end of the day, the men shuffle despondently back into the dormitory, where Giosue is waiting patiently. Guido is last to enter, and when Giosue leaps into his arms, he stumbles and almost falls to the floor. All the other men fall asleep, but Guido regales Giosue with tales of his day: he "signed them up" for the game and got a number, which he also had tattooed on his arm "just in case." Giosue says that he saw some other children who knew nothing about the game, but Guido replies that they're "sly as foxes" and are just trying to trick him. Guido says that he had a great day playing hopscotch, tug of war, and ring around the rosy. "Boy, was it fun!" he says. "I can't wait to start all over again tomorrow."

In another part of the camp, Dora shuffles down a flight of stairs with the other female prisoners, one of whom explains to her that the reason why the old women and children do not work is that they are taken to the showers and gassed. Dora stares out the window, thinking of her son.

Guido is back at work, carrying anvils up a flight of stairs, when Giosue appears. Giosue says that the guards made all the kids go to take a shower, but that he does not want to. Guido orders him to take a shower, but Giosue stamps his foot and yells, "no!" When Giosue asks his father what he has been doing, Guido replies that they are building the tank for the first prize winners. Guido tells him to hide, and they will go home together when he is done.

Eliseo and the other old men file into a room, where they are told to disrobe for a shower. One of the female guards stumbles, and Eliseo kindly helps her to her feet, but she only fixes him with a cold look. Back at the dormitory, Guido tells Giosue that he must hide there all day long and that he must be careful not to be seen by "those mean guys who yell." Meanwhile, Dora and the other women silently sort through a huge pile of clothes, the clothes left by the old men, women, and children who have been gassed.

Guido pushes a wheelbarrow filled with rags alongside his fellow prisoners. From inside the wheelbarrow comes the sound of hiccups. He passes an open door and, after ensuring that nobody is inside, tells Giosue to follow him. He turns on the loudspeaker, and his voice is broadcast throughout the complex: "Good morning, princess!" he cries out, and his voice echoes across the brick buildings, finding Dora where she sits sorting clothes. "You're all I think about, princess!" Giosue takes the receiver and yells, "Mama! Pop wheels me in the wheelbarrow, but he doesn't know how to drive. We laugh like crazy!" Dora walks towards the sound of her husband's and son's voices, her eyes sparkling.

Back in the barracks, the men come in out of the rain, and Guido realizes that several men, including Vittorino, have died. Later, the prisoners are being inspected by a doctor, and Guido recognizes that the doctor is Doctor Lessing. Guido quietly recites the riddle to him, "If you say my name, I'm not there anymore," and then answers himself: "Silence." The doctor recognizes him but moves on to the other prisoners before returning with instructions for Guido. Later, Guido returns to the barracks, telling Bartolomeo that Doctor Lessing has asked him to wait tables at a dinner that night, and he hypothesizes that the doctor might help him escape with Giosue. At this, he realizes he cannot find Giosue and calls out for his son. Hiccupping, Giosue comes out from hiding and solemnly tells his father that "they make buttons and soap out of us." Guido laughs, telling Giosue that he has fallen for the trickery of his opponents, and he says that the idea is ridiculous. Giosue says he wants to go home, so Guido says that they will, and he begins packing their things in earnest. He laments the loss of the prize and says that they probably would have won the tank. But they will leave on the bus this very second. Giosue changes his mind and decides he wants to stay.

Analysis

It has become clear that the "game" Guido has concocted for Giosue is not only to keep him in good spirits; it is designed to protect him. Guido's job has become twice as hard. He not only wants to keep his son happy, but he also has to do so while shielding him from the harsh realities of the camp and keeping himself alive. For the first time, we see Guido in despair. He knows they are going to die in the camp, and he is not sure he can go on. Nonetheless, his determination to protect his son is unflinching. When he regales his son with stories about the fun he has had each day (when in reality he has been enduring cruel labor and torture), his face betrays his true feelings, but he never lets his son notice this despair.

When Giosue runs away from the prospect of a shower (actually a gas chamber), the dramatic irony has an effect close to comedy. Guido and Giosue are both unaware of the dangers of the "shower," and Guido's fatherly advice is actually a death sentence. Giosue's childish stubbornness is the thing that saves him. The gravity of this situation, however, significantly tempers the comedic effect. This scene is indicative of the bold nature of the film; it juxtaposes standard comedic form with the bleakness of the Holocaust. On one hand, maintaining levity and spirit in the face of death and torture shows that the human spirit can endure anything. On the other hand, however, this scene sharpens the pain of the Holocaust by placing it in a comedic light. Guido's unique outlook and fortuitous coincidences like Giosue's hatred of showers remind the viewer that most prisoners in the concentration camp are not lucky enough to have fate on their side.

When Guido recites a riddle to Doctor Lessing, the concept of silence comes up again. Earlier, Eliseo said that silence is sometimes the best weapon. Eliseo, however, never puts up a fight, and he is gassed. His strategy does not save his life, raising the question of whether Eliseo was wrong. Doctor Lessing is also silent about the Nazis' treatment of the prisoners in the camp. He is silent about his friendship with Guido, only willing to talk to him in private. Whereas the doctor's voice could have saved Guido, his silence damns him instead. Silence, it seems, is not a good weapon.

In contrast to the silence of Doctor Lessing, Uncle Eliseo, and all the prisoners, Guido is always energetic and talkative. He never directly disagrees with or fights against the guards; he usually goes along with what they tell him to do, pretending that the things they tell him to do are expected and sometimes even fun. Although this can be construed as a type of silence, Guido finds other ways to speak out. He risks his life to speak to Dora over the loudspeaker, and he talks with Giosue to keep his spirits up almost constantly. Guido's voice is a very important part of his personality and his role in the camp. He uses it not to contradict the guards or speak out against the Fascists but to bolster the morale of his loved ones. He realizes that he cannot stop the Holocaust from happening by himself, but he can try to help those who are important to him. His actions imply that even though one voice may be too small to stop something with as much inertia as the Holocaust, it can still do good.

The next day, Guido is preparing to wait tables. He sees German children playing hide-and-seek outside. He sneaks back to the barracks and brings Giosue to see that there are other children having fun. When the mistress of the children spots Guido and Giosue, Guido tells Giosue to go with her but never to speak, so as not to give away the fact that he is not German. At dinner that night, Guido waits tables while Giosue eats with the German children, obediently not saying a word. When food is set down before him, however, he accidentally says, "Thank you" in Italian, catching the attention of the other (German) waiter. When the waiter brings over the headmistress to inspect the situation, they find Guido teaching all the children to say "Thank you" in Italian. Guido is chided for speaking to the children, but Giosue is saved from discovery.

Later, Doctor Lessing says he has something important to talk to Guido about. He pulls Guido into a corner away from the crowd. Rather than helping Guido devise a plan for escape, however, Doctor Lessing recites a riddle that has been vexing him, expressing his hope that Guido will be able to help him solve it. Guido fixes Doctor Lessing with a strange, sad look and leaves the dinner looking downtrodden-even, perhaps, completely hopeless for the first time in the film. Within moments, though, he is back to his old form, finding a recording of the opera that he and Dora saw together in Italy and playing it out the window so that it can be heard by the entire camp. Dora hears the melody and walks to her window, practically in a trance. As Guido walks Giosue home, he takes the wrong way in the fog and is horrified to find a huge pile of bodies.

Guido and Giosue are woken up by a commotion outside. Guido goes to the window and asks Bartolomeo what is happening, and Bartolomeo says that the war is over and that they are "getting rid of everything." The trucks have been leaving full of people and coming back empty. Guido, thinking of Dora, asks, "What about the women?" Guido takes Giosue and manages to escape the barracks in the commotion. He tells Giosue to hide, explaining that he will gain enough points to win the competition if he is not found. He tells Giosue not to come out until no one else is around. Guido wraps a rag around his head and covers himself in a blanket so that he looks like a woman. He sneaks over to the women's barracks to warn Dora not to get on the trucks, but before he can find Dora, he is spotted. He runs but is caught and marched away by a man carrying a machine gun. Guided by the soldier, he passes by Giosue's hiding place. He turns his head to give his son a wink. Guido and the soldier turn the corner, and machine gun fire is heard. The guard walks back out-without Guido.

The next day, the last of the guards are leaving. After they abandon the camp, hundreds of surviving prisoners shuffle into view. Once everyone has left, Giosue comes out of his hiding place and walks around the empty camp. He hears a rumbling sound that grows louder and louder-and suddenly a tank turns the corner, headed towards him. "It's true!" yells Giosue, joy breaking across his face. An American soldier opens the hatch and asks Giosue to get in the tank. Giosue rides out of the camp in the tank. As the soldiers pass a line of refugees from the camp, Giosue recognizes his mother and cries out, "Mommy!" The tank stops, and Giosue runs to Dora. He tells her that they got 1,000 points and won the competition. She responds, "Yes, we won."

Analysis

The doctor's relationship to Guido brings up the theme of silence again. Though Doctor Lessing is friends with Guido, he does nothing to help him, and until Guido breaks the silence, the doctor simply treats him like any other prisoner. Lessing is not outraged at the treatment of his friend, and he does nothing to stop it. Earlier in the film, Guido's Uncle Eliseo asserted that sometimes silence is the best weapon. Now, it has become clear that silence far more often permits great evils to take place.

The juxtaposition of Guido's made-up world of fun and games with the death and misery of the camp is almost ridiculous. Earlier in the film, when Guido said, "What's the worst they can do? Paint me yellow and write on me, 'Jewish waiter?'" the audience's awareness that the Fascists would do far worse imbued the scene with a terrible poignancy. Now, in the camp, Guido's machinations have a similar effect. The evils that the Fascists perpetrate are thrown into sharp relief, and the horrors that they are willing to inflict on their fellow man are so terrible as to be almost comical. Guido makes keys fall from the sky and believes in the Schopenhauer Method, but when his son suggests that the Fascists are making buttons and soap out of Jews, he laughs at the ridiculousness of the idea. The truth about what Fascists do is more outlandish than any scheme Guido has attempted.

When Guido and Doctor Lessing rendezvous in a corner during the dinner party, Guido expects his old friend to acknowledge the gravity of his situation and help him find a way to escape from the camp. But Lessing instead asks him to help solve a riddle. Doctor Lessing was Guido's last hope of getting out of the camp alive (although it turns out that some of the prisoners do emerge alive), and the fact that the doctor is blind to Guido's reality (and humanity) is crushing to Guido. To the doctor, Guido is little more than an encyclopedia. This scene is one of the saddest and most poignant in the film: Guido is looking at the doctor, clearly hoping for a solution to his life-and-death situation, and Doctor Lessing is instead making animal noises and pleading with Guido, "Help me ... I can't even sleep." The total absence of guilt or a sense of responsibility condemns Guido to almost certain death, but the doctor does not realize this, being wholly obsessed with a trivial riddle. The incongruity of Guido's dire situation and the doctor's priorities is shocking, revealing the degree to which the doctor is also out of touch with reality. He is either retreating from the traumatic truth of the Fascists' treatment of the Jews, or he simply has a dangerous inability to empathize with others. In either case, his character symbolizes the myriad ways in which individuals contributed to the horrors of the Holocaust: some by directly perpetuating acts of evil, and others by simply standing idly and doing nothing to help.

Throughout Life is Beautiful, Guido has deftly shaped his surroundings to fit his fanciful stories and games. He has an uncanny ability to make pre-existing circumstances fit his stories, almost as if he is creating coincidences instead of happening upon them. When he and Giosue arrive at the concentration camp, however, the viewer anticipates a disappointingly tragic end to the "game." Guido himself almost won. Despite the fact that Guido dies, Giosue and Dora survive, and every piece of the fiction he has created for Giosue falls into place. When the tank drives up, Giosue truly believes that he has won the prize his father promised. Remarkably, Guido's fantasy has become a reality. Since the Fascists exert such powerful control over others, it is practically magical that Guido has almost completely shielded his son from the horrors of the camp and kept him alive despite the mortal dangers that took Guido's life. The tank showing up and completing the "game," however, is indeed a coincidence that Guido could not have planned. This is a bleak reminder that even Guido's prodigious talent cannot fully control such a tragic situation. Though things turned out well for Giosue and Dora, they just as easily could have turned out very badly. The coincidence of the tank, while inspiring, is also a reminder that many others did not have such luck. Even immense energy and willpower are not necessarily sufficient to ensure survival in such a dangerous world.

• Biography of Roberto Benigni
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