Rethinking Life is Beautiful

Abstract

THE AIM OF THIS ESSAY is threefold. It is, firstly, to situate Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997) within recent Italian debates on the Fascist period and approaches to history; secondly, to address the question of an Italian Holocaust; and thirdly, to explore the connections between the film and the work of one of the most well-known witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust, the Italian writer Primo Levi. The discussion will also situate the film in relation to existing traditions of ways of representing the Holocaust, in both Italian and international film-making.