by ROBERTO BEGNINI
( Italy )
The weather in Cannes has been so beautiful that it is a shame to go into the theatres! But for this film, you won't regret it, even if you live in Hawaii. At this screening, don't look for special effects or huge bombing. Actually, it is a story set in Italy, in the thirties about a family who face the antisemitism and the concentration camps. The story begins with two men in a car : one is asleep, the other is driving. The sun shines, the man who is driving is telling poetry... and he suddenly says that there is no more brake in the middle of his rhymes. The car goes fast and faster down the road, they go through a village, in a very funny scene and they succeed at least to stop near a farm. While the driver tries to mend the car, the other one ( who is played by Begnini ) goes to the farm there is a little girl in front of some fruits and vegetables in a wheelbarrow. He begins telling her he's a prince and that he's waiting for his princess. And suddenly, he hears screams from the barn : he looks up and a lady falls into his arms. He shouts : " Princess ! " And during the rest of this first part of the film he courts this lady, who is a teacher at school and must be wed to a rude man, who with Roberto had had some little problems before. There are very funny and sweet scenes in this part which looks like a little like a kind of " Laurel&Hardy in love " And at last, he rescues her from this rude man and marries her.
The time goes by and we find them back with a baby boy, who is about 5. But the antisemitism has grown in Italy and they are ( not the wife ) Jews. So Roberto and his son are taken away by the fascits and led to a train. At this moment, the mother arrives, and in a very moving scene, she asks to the officer to go with them. All the family is parted, just Roberto and his son are still together. But to protect them from the horror of what is a concentration camp, he tells him it is a big game, where the Nazis are the Bad Guys who check if the rules are respected, and the winning prize is a real, not a toy, tank.
It is a very very moving film with a lot of humour and poetry. After the screenings, even the gala screening, everybody was in tear, or almost. It is a fable, optimistic and funny, about life, humanity and love.
At the press conference, a journalist told it was a " clownishness " and that it was most inappropriate to this topic… He was booed by everyone ! And indeed, it is one of the most poetic film in Cannes and wonderfully played. On the Croisette, this day, everybody had sun glasses, and it was not because of the sun !
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I shall leave you for now Harry, I'll try to send you another mail today. Bye,
coxinelle ( which in english means : ladybird )
