LA VITA E BELLA (cert PG) Running Time 119 minutes. Starring Nicoletta Braschi and Horst Buchholtz. Directed by Roberto Bengini. Release date TBC.

THE first half of La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful) is classic comedy and farce. Set in the Tuscan town of Arezzo in 1939, Guido (Bengini) comes to stay with his uncle - who is a waiter at a grand hotel - to open a bookstore in the town.

After falling head-over-heels in love at the first sight of Dora (Braschi), he drives into town one day ahead of a royal party and is mistaken for a fascist nobleman.

Because of this, Guido rides off with the beautiful Dora having swooped her up on the back of his horse from a garden party.

The film then jumps ahead four years where the Nazis are now all over the place. Jews are being persecuted and Guido and his passive wife have a bright young son, Giosue, whom they have brought up to think of anti-Semitism as a matter of taste.

Suddenly, the film cuts to father and son in the back of a truck with other Jews heading for a train being followed by Dora who insists on going with them.

Guido tells his son that they're going on holiday and that they're playing a game at the camp and that the first prize is a tank. The prisoners arrive at the camp where a kindly German doctor Guido has met previously gets him a job as a waiter in the staff quarters.

Doors are not locked and Guido manages to keep his son clean, warm and hidden. This film is quirky, easy-to-watch and enjoyable. The film attempts to deal with the atrocities of the period with sharp humour and farce that would make Chaplain proud.

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