Roberto Benigni Biography

Roberto Benigni (October 27, 1952) actor and film director. He was born in Misericordia, Arezzo, Italy. Thanks to the film Life is beautiful (1997), three Oscar winner of the Hollywood Academy won full recognition. He was part of the generation of Italian comedians of the early nineties, Benigni began his acting career in experimental theater and was inclined to the comic facet that he would take advantage of in his professional life.

His work on the screen as an actor began in 1970. He assumed roles in films such as Hot Beds (1979), by Luigi Zampa, or The moon (1979), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, performed leading roles in films that did not transcend either locally or internationally, although their level was prominent. He was contacted by Federico Fellini and Jim Jarmusch to collaborate on The Voice of the Moon and Under the Weight of the Law (1986) and Night on Earth (1992), respectively.

By that time he was developing his skills as a director. In this sense, at the beginning of the eighties, he debuted with Tu mi turbi (1983), it soon forged some successes of Italian cinema such as Non ci resta che piangere (1984, co-directed with Massimo Troisi), Johnny Palillo (1991) and The monster (1995). His works were described as Tuscan humor, Benigni managed to create a comic, desacralizing and funambulesque prototype. He handled very carefully the body expression of the actors, also played with words to obtain surreal or grotesque comic effects.

As we mentioned earlier, Life is beautiful was the film production that earned him popularity and respect from the circle. The story is told in a small town in Italian Tuscany, where Guido (who wants to become a bookseller) and his friend, the poet Ferruccio, live worried about love and money, without realizing the increasingly threatening anti-Semitism that the government Fascist and his alliance with the Nazis are unleashing. It is a tape that easily moves the fibers of its spectators because it combines a historical event and a story that is born in the imagination of the Italian director.

The film is full of drama but at the same time a tender sense of humor; what at first seems like another story about the Jewish holocaust becomes a song of hope. The truth is that Life is beautiful, managed to be matched to the works of the master Charles Chaplin,

especially: The great dictator (1940), for his diatribe against Nazism, and the kid (1920), for the delicacy with which he deals with the relationship with a child.

Then, the success of this last film produced a revaluation of his works, as well as an interest in his person. In June 1999, Ben Gurion University of Israel appointed him an honorary doctorate. He later participated in the French blockbuster Astérix and Obélix against César, in which he played the popular Astérix. As the director, Benigni has signed in recent years Pinocchio (2002), had no good comments in the United States, and the tiger and the snow (2006). His last performance was in A Roma with love. He has won the Oscar Awards, BAFTA Awards and Actors Guild Awards.