Plot
A love-struck Italian poet is stuck in Iraq at the onset of an American invasion.
Release Year: 2005
Rating: 6.9/10 (6,701 voted)
Critic's Score: 22/100
Director:
Roberto Benigni
Stars: Roberto Benigni, Jean Reno, Nicoletta Braschi
Storyline Love and injury in time of war. Attilio de Giovanni teaches poetry in Italy. He has a romantic soul, and women love him. But he is in love with Vittoria, and the love is unrequited. Every night he dreams of marrying her, in his boxer shorts and t-shirt, as Tom Waits sings. Vittoria travels to Iraq with her friend, Fuad, a poet; they are there with the second Gulf War breaks out. Vittoria is injured. Attilio must get to her side, and then, as war rages around him, he must find her the medical care she needs. In war, does love conquer all?
Writers: Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami
Cast: Roberto Benigni
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Attilio de Giovanni
Jean Reno
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Fuad
Nicoletta Braschi
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Vittoria
Tom Waits
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Himself
/
Sè stesso
Emilia Fox
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Nancy Browning
Gianfranco Varetto
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Avvocato Scuotilancia
Giuseppe Battiston
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Ermanno
Lucia Poli
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Signora Serao
Chiara Pirri
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Emilia
Anna Pirri
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Rosa
Andrea Renzi
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Dottor Guazzelli
Abdelhafid Metalsi
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Dottore Salman
Amid Farid
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Al Giumeil
Israel Aduramo
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Soldato americano
Mohmed Hedi Bahri
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Firas scarpe
Opening Weekend: €14,941
(Netherlands)
(16 April 2006)
(12 Screens)
Gross: $24,000,000
(Worldwide)
(28 December 2006)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
USA:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Roberto Benigni named his character "Attilio" as a tribute to poet Attilio Bertolucci (1911-2000) father of famous directors Giuseppe and Bernardo Bertolucci.
Quotes: Attilio de Giovanni:
I told myself: "There must be people whose job it is to use the right words, put things in a way... who when their heart beats, can get other people's hearts to beat." Attilio de Giovanni:
That day I decided to become a poet.
User Review
Another Benigni classic
Rating: 10/10
Anyone who calls this film superficial, banal or trivial has
spectacularly missed the point and is exactly the same type of person
who was levelling precisely the same kind of criticism at La Vita è
Bella. Now, though I do like Benigni (in my opinion La Vita è Bella is
a masterpiece and films like Il Piccolo Diavolo, Johnny Stecchino and
Il Mostro are exceedingly worthy comedies - that said I thought
Pinocchio was an expensive disaster), I will try to be as objective as
possible. In La Tigre e la Neve, Benigni repeats the masterfully
delicate feat he accomplished in La Vita è Bella: he touches on
complex, spikey issues (in La Vita è Bella it was the holocaust, here
we have the war in Iraq) in a fable-like, simple manner - he doesn't
politicise the film, and he doesn't delight in the gruesome (and very
real) aspects of war. Yet this is NOT trivialisation of the subject
matter. To believe that is to believe that the true horrors of war (or
the holocaust) can only be conveyed on the screen by a
documentary-style approach, and that cannot be the case. Benigni is far
more effective - he does not shock the audience with visual
representations of war, but his comedy in the face of war creates a
subtle paradox that makes the whole film even more touching. La Tigre e
La Neve is a fable about love, love in the face of adversity, stubborn
optimism, hope and desperation and relationships between people of
different races and creeds. Don't expect to see a Michael Moore rant at
the injustice of war - Benigni is far more subtle. Perhaps the only
criticism I have is that Nicoletta Braschi's performance is not always
one hundred percent convincing, but Benigni and Reno more than make up
for it. I truly hope it makes it on an international level - definitely
a film to watch.
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