RPE - Holocaust Films

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL:

Begnini's views:

• Nothing in a film could ever come close to the reality of what happened as told in survivor accounts. You can only ever show less than what it was.
• There's no realism in the movie but faced with such unfathomable horror it seemed possible for Guido to cope by believing it was only a game.
• Primo Levi, in 'If This is A Man,' describes a morning reveille at the camp when all the prisoners are naked and motionless and he looks around thinking: 'what if this was nothing but a joke? This cannot be true.'
• The principle of saving children from trauma, of protecting their purity is one of the oldest, greatest and deepest feelings possessed by a man.

Debate

• In the UK Life is Beautiful has been criticised fir mixing comedy with this horrific genocide.
• Bengini claims the film isn't meant to be realistic, but is a fable about love.
• The comedy in Life is Beautiful is used to express hidden meanings.
• Part of the comedy is just to point out how stupid and extravagent many of the laws and attitudes were which were passed at the time. Such as when the Fascists paint Guido's uncle's horse green, because it belongs to a Jew. How can a horse be Jewish? Another episode is when Guido and his son pass a shop, with a sign saying 'no dogs or Jews.' To show the ridiculousness of the sign, Guido jokes to his son, saying they should put a sign on their store saying, 'no spiders or Visigoths allowed.'
• There are many critisisms to Life is Beautiful, because people fin the humour offensive, insulting and rude, especially to those who experienced the Holocaust. The film trivialised the death of 6 million. It strips the Holocaust of any of its…