Countries & Movies: Italy
The list of the best Italian films according to FilmGourmand is headed by Roberto Benigni's film "Life is Beautiful".
The film, released on Italian cinema screens on December 20, 1997, gathered an incredible collection of film prizes at international film festivals in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, UK, USA, and, of course, in Italy. In total, the film received 70 top film awards and was nominated for another 51 film awards. Among the film awards received by the film are the prestigious Oscars and Cesar as the best foreign film, Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival jury.
The festival success of the film coincided with great success with the audience. 83% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users worldwide rated this film 8 or higher. Hence the financial success of the film: with a budget of $ 20 million, film box office for the first year exceeded $ 228 million.
But, in fairness, it should be noted that the film was not accepted by all 100 percent of the audience. Roger Ebert, who gave the film three and a half stars out of 4 possible, wrote in his review "At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Benigni told me that the movie has stirred up venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy. At Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust." Although, perhaps, the fury of the leftists (read - the Stalinists) was caused by the name of the film, borrowed from Leon Trotsky, who, being already in Mexico and foreseeing a quick death at the hands of the NKVD agents, wrote: “Life is beautiful. May future generations cleanse it of evil, oppression, violence and enjoy it completely.” Ebert therefore noticed: "What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity."
However, critical attacks on the film took place not only in Italy or France. At Kinopoisk they are also many. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of critical arrows are fired by these reviews of the film about the allegedly "excessive and inappropriate clowning", "overly benevolent portrayal of the Nazis in the film", etc. etc. In a word, about everything that was clear to all adequate moviegoers at the end of the twentieth century and that was formulated by Ebert: "Benigni isn't really making comedy out of the Holocaust, anyway. He is showing how Guido uses the only gift at his command to protect his son. If he had a gun, he would shoot at the Fascists. If he had an army, he would destroy them. He is a clown, and comedy is his weapon. ... The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But "Life Is Beautiful" is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now."
And we would add on our own that this is a film about true fatherly love. Love that can turn hell into a circus.
...And one more observation- question about this globally recognized movie masterpiece. It has already been said above that the box office of this film worldwide exceeded $ 228 million. The share of our country in this box office is 230 thousand dollars. Or 0.1%. Of course, this negligible amount can be explained by the low solvency of our population, “pirate” intrigues, and similar excuses. But with the same solvency of the population and with the same “pirates”, such a “masterpiece” as “Pledge This!” raised $ 1,462,231 in our country. Or more than 83% of the total box office grossing of this film across the planet. How to explain such a gap: the "special" level of mental development of our population or the special policy of film distribution organizations following the recommendations of government agencies such as the Ministry of Culture, etc.?
Taking into account all the above indicators of success, the rating of the film, according to the FilmGourmand Methodology, is set at 11.610. Thanks to this rating, the film "Life is Beautiful" took first Rank not only among Italian films, but throughout the Golden Thousand.
In addition to the film "Life is Beautiful," the Golden Thousand included other 65 Italian films. A list of these films can be found here.