Life Is Beautiful

Four riddles, three answers

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12547825
AutoresSteve Siporin (autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume7
Fascículo3
Páginas345-363
Data de publicação2002-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Modern Italian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1354-571X • E-ISSN: 1469-9583
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1354571021000026607
OpenAlexW2012733935
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas18

Four riddles occur in the dialogue of Roberto Benigni's 1998 film, La vita è bella ( Life Is Beautiful ). Solutions to the first three are provided almost as soon as they are uttered, but a fourth riddle, spoken at the film's climax, remains unanswered. Exploring possible meanings of the fourth riddle illuminates the film's meaning. Although the riddles may seem to be relatively unimportant bantering between two of the major characters (Guido, the Italian Jew, and Captain Lessing, a German Nazi officer and physician), they are critical to the unfolding of the plot and significant in the portrayal of the two characters who employ them. Most importantly, they act as condensed expressions of the film's themes, complementing and giving deep texture to its narrative expression of the same ideas. Through the riddles and other folk and children's genres - such as game and folktale - La vita è bella asserts not only that art helps us survive, but that the humblest art is the daily weapon against the most formidable attacks on the human spirit

Art · BELLA · Expression (computer science · German · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Nazism · Plot (graphics · Educational and Social Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Philosophy