Sunday 11 November 2018 at 5pm - 7:30pm

Italian film screenings: La vita è bella

Churchill Room, London House

**Italian film screenings are back!**

Next Sunday join the Italian and Film Societies at 5 pm in Churchill room for an afternoon film screening with tea and Italian biscuits! For our first meeting of the year we have selected for you the Academy-award winning movie ‘La vita è bella’ (1997). 

Written and directed by Italian comedian Roberto Benigni, and photographed by master cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, it is a film of two distinct halves. 

We begin in late 1930s Tuscany, where the clownish Guido (Benigni) arrives in the town of Arezzo. Dreaming of opening a bookshop, he finds temporary work as a waiter and begins to woo blushing schoolteacher Dora (Braschi) who's engaged to the local Fascist official. Punctuating this fairy tale love story are moments of Chaplinesque slapstick, including the Jewish Guido's bravura impersonation of a school inspector.

The two lovers marry and have an adorable child Giosué (Cantarini), but then several years later the family are deported to a German-run concentration camp. There the father pretends to his son that the brutal conditions and screaming guards are part of an elaborate and bizarre game where points are awarded for good behaviour and first prize is a tank.

A fable rather than a slice of historical realism, the film is intended as a tribute to the powers of imagination, innocence, and love in the most harrowing of circumstances. 

Tea and biscuits will be provided, but please bring your own cup. The screening will end at around 7.15/30 pm, right in time for dinner in the Great Hall and then Jazz Night in Willie G: perfect Sunday, right? 

We look forward to seeing you all soon! 

Your Italian and film Societies