Life Wasn't Quite That Beautiful: Reaction to Robert Benigni's <i>Life Is Beautiful</i>

Abstract

What I intend to do in this paper is, firstly, to survey the response to the film in the Australian context. Secondly, I will analyse the philosophical positions that inform the various responses to the film: on the one hand there is the obligation to remember and remain true — in as much as this is possible — to the `reality' of Holocaust events; on the other there is the need to leave open the possibility of diversity of interpretation. What will emerge in this analysis is the often irreconcilable nature of these two demands.