La vita e bella

Italian Movie Week continues as i have decided to fill my evenings with a mixture of The Useful and The Pleasant - useful as i get to practice my listening and comprehension in Italian and i become a little bit more informed when it comes to Italian culture so i would no longer hear comments like "You would't understand, it is typically ITALIAN". It is also pleasant as i get to lay around in my bed and squeeze all the fluffiness out of Hugo Bob.
Roberto Benigni is one of the best known Italian actors, in Italia and abroad. But still he does not have the same recognition as Mel Gibson, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, or, my personal favorite, Jude Law. -->
And it is only because he is not as good looking as the ones i have mentioned above. No, he is the typical Italian - curly, not too tall, skinny and light skinned. But his talent... let's just say that i am a fan.
"La vita e bella" - "Life is beautiful"- had a lot of surprises. Shame on me, i have heard so many good things about the movie, yet i never tried to find out more about the plot and the actors. So yes, i had no idea what the movie was about, but at least now i can say that i watched the original version and i can insist that a lot of things get lost in translation so that is why i had postponed watching it.
The first thing that struck me was the typically Italian settings. No wonder, the action takes place in Tuscany. The narrow streets, steep landscape and lack of trees, original renaissance architecture, small shops, wide squares, horrible parking and small romantic cafeterias with many tables for 2.
The movie is very light and easy to watch, even if one has to keep his eyes on the subtitles.
The humor, the energy, the joyfulness, the will of life and the perspicacity of the main character make him conquer the heart of his "Princess", as he calls her throughout the whole movie. Also, his imagination, his incredible strength and optimism makes him overcome the difficulties that come his way, thus the movie's title "Life is beautiful" does not reflect the positive aspects of life itself, but the fact that one's life is as he wants it to be, as he wants to see it. One may choose to wear pink glasses and that does not interfere with being responsible, ambitious and successful. One can go through life being an optimist, and thus enjoy every second of sun and rain, never give up hope and overcome disappointments by smiling and thinking ahead, wishing for better times that will surely not hesitate to arrive. Even if the attitude of the main character can be seen somewhat as an avoidance of reality and deep denial - only in one scene of the movie was it clear that Guido realized the true proportion of the happenings around him - i think that a positive view towards the things might not change any of them, but they sure make one more capable of thinking clearly as optimists always sleep better.
It is a tragicomedy - but i remained with a pleasant feeling. We all know that in life, when one cannot change the things around him, he must change his attitude. We all know that if we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, we are looking the wrong way. We also know that a smile is more powerful than 1000 frowns - yet so few of us practice this sport regularly. Why is that?