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La vita è bella (1997)
Offensive
Let us put aside for a moment whether slapstick makes for a 'good' movie. Let us put aside the question of whether slapstick is appropriate for a movie about the Holocaust. Let us even put aside the question of whether you can have a movie about love and life and hope--even call the movie, with no sense of irony, 'Life is Beautiful'--when you're talking about one of the ugliest periods of human history.
The most basic problem with this atrocious movie is its dishonesty. Benigni and his apologists would claim that this is a fable, a work of fiction, that is not about the Holocaust. However, if the Holocaust is brought up, the movie is (at least in part) about the Holocaust, regardless of what a director may imagine. Moreover, even a work of fiction, which by definition need not be factual, must be true and honest. It cannot conflate the historical anomaly and at the same time diminish the historical majority. [These ideas are an adaptation of an article by Holocaust author Cynthia Ozick.]
Specifically, 'Life is Beautiful' is whitewashed of any Jewish influence, a fact probably stemming in large part from the movie's being based on the experiences of Benigni's own fascist father (who was arrested when Italy defected to the Allies late in the war). The names are not Jewish. There is nothing Jewish about the behavior or the experiences of the lives of the characters. And indeed...
SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER ...the main survivors of the movie, Dora and Josue, are both Christian, whereas the only theoretically Jewish character, Guido, dies.
Also, just to mention briefly the obvious stuff, the concentration camp looks more like summer camp, the Nazis are portrayed (the little that they are at all) as buffoons, and there is no real sense of terribleness or atrocity. (If Benigni wants to make a powerful point about love, why does he have to diminish the horror of the camp to make it?) Even the dead bodies in the fog appear like something out of a Dali painting.
Train de vie (1998)
One of the greatest films ever!
This movie is a great, fresh, original look at events surrounding the Holocaust. Mind you, this film does not look at the Holocaust itself, but at events surrounding it. It is an epitome of Jewish humor; anyone who finds this movie offensive does not understand this. The movie balances hope and honesty about tragedy beautifully, uses humor in a respectful context to make important deeper points (that is, it is not slapstick), and incorporates brief statements on love and theology. The various emotions that the movie evokes, often depending on the viewer's own mood at the time, allow the movie to be watched repeatedly and for new levels of meaning to reveal themselves. Roberto Benigni may have stolen the concept of "Life is Beautiful" from Mihaileanu's "Train de Vie," but the films cannot be compared. Whereas Benigni glibly believes that love and laughter can conquer all, even the Holocaust, Mihaileanu understands that they can only help one survive separately from the more practical and real danger of physical death. In other words, love and laughter are directly part of the point of "Life is Beautiful"--ends in themselves--a somewhat offensive concept. In "Train de Vie," on the other hand, they are on the side and only serve as foils, as means to ends. The ending of "Train de Vie" further eliminates any glib concept of easy survival that is present in "Life is Beautiful." A must see, especially for anyone who has seen and disliked "Life is Beautiful."