I saw this "thing" (it doesn't deserve to be called a film) when it was released and I was absolutely dumbstruck at the favorable reaction it received; I continued to be amazed when it actually was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and actually won Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for Benigni.
This movie sounds only wrong notes from beginning to end. Perhaps the Holocaust has become too far removed in history to allow modern audiences (especially American ones) to realize that it has been wildly mythologized and horribly distorted in this trash.
Those who "just loved" this movie -- as well as the members of the Academy who nominated it for Best Picture, etc. -- should talk to some of the quickly disappearing Survivors of the death camps; it will make them realize what a cinematic abortion Benigni has wrought. The "dramatic" moments are laughable, and the "comedic" moments are embarrassingly "cute". Benigni's "acting" (as well as that of his wife Nicoletta Braschi) is totally amateurish too. Those who compare Benigni to Chaplin have probably never seen a Chaplin FILM
This movie sounds only wrong notes from beginning to end. Perhaps the Holocaust has become too far removed in history to allow modern audiences (especially American ones) to realize that it has been wildly mythologized and horribly distorted in this trash.
Those who "just loved" this movie -- as well as the members of the Academy who nominated it for Best Picture, etc. -- should talk to some of the quickly disappearing Survivors of the death camps; it will make them realize what a cinematic abortion Benigni has wrought. The "dramatic" moments are laughable, and the "comedic" moments are embarrassingly "cute". Benigni's "acting" (as well as that of his wife Nicoletta Braschi) is totally amateurish too. Those who compare Benigni to Chaplin have probably never seen a Chaplin FILM
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