Roberto Benigni Movies
Arguably the most popular Italian screen comedian since the immortal Toto, Roberto Benigni mastered the exacting art of improvisational humor early. Inspired by Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Peter Sellers, Benigni first gained fame in his native country with his own must-see TV series, sustaining his vast following with several hilarious movie appearances. One of his best-known monologues, "Cioni Mario," was expanded into the feature film I Love You Berlinger/Berlinguer Ti Voglio Bene (1977), after which Benigni went on to star in a number of popular films in Italy.His 1991 Italian box office success, Johnny Stecchino, brought him considerable international attention. American filmgoers, however, may have become aware of his brand of comedy earlier with 1988's The Little Devil, which Benigni wrote, directed, and co-starred in with Walter Matthau. He had also been visible -- to art house audiences, at least -- as a convict in Down by Law (1986) and a Roman taxi driver confessing a bit too much information to a priest in Night on Earth (1988), both directed by Jim Jarmusch, before appearing in Wim Wenders' Faraway, So Close in 1993.
Having demonstrated his comedic talents to an worldwide audience, Benigni seemed an inspired casting choice for the pratfalling offspring of Inspector Clouseau in Blake Edwards' 1992 Son of the Pink Panther. Unfortunately, the role created by Peter Sellers may not have been ideal for Benigni and the comedy received little praise. The comedian more than proved himself five years later, however, co-writing, directing, and starring in Life Is Beautiful. The movie -- which had the potentially ungainly premise of a comedy set in a Nazi concentration camp -- proved to be a huge international success, both critically and commercially. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival -- where Benigni, leaping on-stage to accept the award, got down on his knees before presenter Martin Scorsese and kissed his hand -- and ultimately won a number of other awards, including Best Actor and Best Screenplay Oscars for Benigni. Accepting one of his awards, Benigni proved to be one of the more memorable aspects of the 1998 ceremony. Upon hearing of his win, he jumped up on his seat and then took to the stage, where he proceeded to proclaim -- in broken English and at great length -- his great joy and gratitude.
Aside from a supporting role in the 1999 fantasy adventure Astrix and Obelix vs. Cesar Benigni remained relatively low-key in the years following his success with Life is Beautiful. Of course coming off of such success and with rumors abounding, expectations were certainly high for whatever project the eccentric actor would develop next - a factor that may have done more damage than good. Though when he originally concieved an adaptation of the timeless tale of Pinocchio Benigni envisioned the film as starring himself with famed director Federico Fellini at the helm, the director's death left Benigni the director of what would be one of the most expensive films in Italian film history. Immediately lambasted by critics upon release in 2002, the visually extravagant film proved a notable failure at the box office - with the dubbed stateside version of the film taking exceptional heat. By this point no one doubted Benigni's talent, but his misguided execution left many to wonder just how it was that the production spiraled so far out of control. Fortunately fans could take some comfort in Benigni's masterful performance on the television special L'Ultimo del paradiso later that same year. The following year Benigni turned in a memorable performance in old friend Jim Jarmusch's episodic drama Coffee and Cigarettes.
Benigni married actress Nicoletta Braschi in 1991, and she appeared with him in a number of films, including Johnny Stecchino and Life Is Beautiful. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A love-struck poet travels into the heart of wartime Iraq in hopes of rescuing the woman he loves in Academy award-winning director Roberto Benigni's affecting tale of love and devotion. A kind poet and father to his daughters, a respected lecturer and literary figure to his students, and a complete nuisance in the eyes of his beloved Vittoria (Nicoletta Braschi), Attilio (Benigni) finds his life suddenly turned upside down when he learns that the object of his undying affections has been critically injured in a Baghdad bombing. Now, despite the chaos sweeping through Iraq, Attilio vows to risk everything in order to travel into the heart of Baghdad and deliver the medicine that will awaken the woman of his dreams from a potentially eternal slumber. Jean Reno and Tom Waits co-star in this heartfelt, seriocomic romance, which pits the uplifting power of love against the destructive force of bombs. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, (more)
Federico Fellini was one of the leading figures of the international cinema in the 1960s, whose dreamlike images and indelible characters made La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and Juliet of the Spirits among the most acclaimed films of that era. Fellini himself was a character as unique as any he created for his films, an expansive and outsized visionary who could be either a pleasure or a terror to work with. Fellini: I'm a Born Liar is a documentary on Federico Fellini's life and work by filmmaker Damian Pettigrew, who combines vintage interview footage of Fellini, new conversations with those who worked with him (including actors Donald Sutherland and Terence Stamp), and excerpts from Fellini's films (some of them previously unseen outtakes) to create an insightful portrait of a remarkable creative mind. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Jim Jarmusch's black-and-white feature Coffee and Cigarettes contains three vignettes originally released as short films along with separate yet somewhat related sketches. As the title suggests, most of the vignettes involve famous people smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. The first, "Coffee and Cigarettes," is a six-minute short from 1986 starring Stephen Wright and Roberto Benigni. The 1989 installment, "Memphis Version," stars Steve Buscemi, Joie Lee, and Cinqué Lee. The award-winning 1993 segment, "Somewhere in California," stars musicians Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. The remaining sketches include Cate Blanchett performing a duel role, a conversation with Bill Murray and members of the Wu-Tang Clan, and Alfred Molina and British television actor Steve Coogan as themselves. In its full-length version form, Coffee and Cigarettes was shown at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, (more)
Academy Award-winner Roberto Benigni adapts the classic children's tale by Carlo Collodi for the big-budget family-oriented comedy Pinocchio. In his usual fashion, Benigni directs and stars, this time as the little puppet boy made out of wood. The familiar story begins as a log of pinewood falls out of a cart and lands in front of woodcarver, Geppetto (Carlo Giuffré), who carves the puppet out of longing for a son. When the puppet begins to come alive and cause trouble, Geppetto is arrested and Pinocchio is left to his own naïve worldview. After getting a stern warning from the Blue Fairy (Benigni's wife and producer Nicoletta Braschi), Pinocchio sets out to reunite with his father, become a real boy, and succumb to some desire for adventure. Along the way, he meets a number of characters played by mostly Italian stage actors, including Franco Javarone, Peppe Barra, and Kim Rossi Stuart. The popular Italian comedy team Fichi d'India plays the roles of the Cat and Fox. Released by Miramax in the U.S., the film received an English-dubbed soundtrack with the voice talents of Glenn Close, David Suchet, and Breckin Meyer as Pinocchio. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, (more)
- 1999
Asterix and Obelix, the French comic book heroes created by René Goscinny and Albert Underzo (their adventures have sold 280 million copies to date in Europe), are brought to the big screen in their first live-action adventure. Set in 50 B.C., Asterix (Christian Clavier) and Obelix (Gérard Depardieu) are a pair of comedic heroes living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar (Gottfried John) and his aide de camp Detritus (Roberto Benigni) discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them. Shot in Brittany, Bavaria, and Arpajon, Asterix et Obelix Contre Cesar brings these cartoon characters to life on a grand scale; it was reportedly the most expensive French-language film ever, at a cost of 274 million francs ($48 million). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christian Clavier, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
In this WW II tragicomedy, famed Italian funnyman Roberto Benigni (The Monster) portrays Guido, who moves during the '30s from the country to a Tuscan town, where he is entranced by schoolteacher Dora (Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's real-life wife). Dora likes Guido, but she remains faithful to her pompous fiancé, so Guido has an uphill struggle. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attitudes lead to attacks against Guido's Jewish uncle (Giustino Durano). Leaping ahead to five years later, during WW II, Guido and Dora are married and have a son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini). After they are imprisoned in a concentration camp, Guido goes to elaborate lengths to keep his son from understanding the truth of their situation. He tells the boy that they are competing with others to win an armored tank -- so everything from food shortages to tattoos is explained as necessary for participation in the contest. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, (more)
- 1994
- R
Grossly mistaken identity provides the impetus in this Italian farce. Loris is an anti-social fellow with a high sex drive. During a party he is pointed towards an "easy mark." Unfortunately he approaches the wrong woman. When he discovers his mistakes, he nervously apologizes for the attempted liberties. A run-away chain-saw becomes involved and the frightened woman ends up filing a police report. Her report leads police boss Frustalupi that he has finally found the crazed sex killer the "Mozart of vice" whom Frustalupi has hunted for the last 12 years. Situations go from bad to worse as the police begin surveillance upon Loris whose every action becomes misconstrued by them. Things get even stickier when they put policewoman Jessica on the case as undercover bait. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, (more)
Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Otto Sander, Peter Falk, (more)
After the death of Peter Sellers in 1980, writer/director Blake Edwards assembled a new "Pink Panther" film from outtakes of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (the result was called The Trail of the Pink Panther) and later made two attempts to revive the series with another actor. In this case, Edwards cast Roberto Benigni as Jacques Gambrelli, a hopelessly inept French policeman who turns out the be the illegitimate son of Inspector Clouseau. Gambrelli becomes involved with the investigation of a kidnapping involving the beautiful Princess Yasmin (Debrah Farentino) literally by accident, when he crashes into a car driven by Police Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). Gambrelli soon becomes smitten with Yasmin, while the investigation suggests that the kidnapping was set up by her mother, the Queen (Shabana Azmi), and her lover, General Jaffar (Aharon Ipale). Claudia Cardinale who played a different character in the original Pink Panther returns, while Burt Kwouk returns as the violent Korean manservant Cato. Roberto Benigni's Gambrelli proved no more successful at the box office than Ted Wass's Clouseau-like Clifton Sleigh in The Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), though after his multiple-Oscar winning success with 1998's La Vita e Bella, Roberto's probably gotten over it. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Herbert Lom, (more)
- 1991
- R
Comedian Roberto Benigni wrote and directed this Italian farce, in which he stars as Dante, a bus driver who is the exact double of the infamous gangster Johnny Toothpick (Benigni again). After Dante meets Johnny's girlfriend Maria (Nicoletta Braschi), he travels to her Palermo villa, where it quickly becomes apparent that Maria is setting up Dante to take the fall for Johnny's illicit behavior. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, (more)
Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode takes place at dusk, as high-powered casting agent Victoria (Gena Rowlands) gets a ride from L.A. International Airport with tomboy driver Corky (Winona Ryder), who would rather go on driving her cab than take up Victoria's offer to make her a superstar. In New York City, novice East German cabbie Helmut Grokenberger (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has difficulty working the foot pedals to his hack, and his passenger, YoYo (Giancarlo Esposito), ends up driving himself to Brooklyn, picking up the shrill-voiced Angela (Rosie Perez) along the way. In Paris, an African cab driver (Isaach De Bankolé) ejects a collection of drunken African diplomats from his cab and picks up a beautiful but surly blind girl (Béatrice Dalle). In Rome, cab driver Gino (Roberto Benigni) engages in a heartfelt monologue confessing his past sexual exploits to his passenger, a priest who is dying of a heart attack in the back seat. The film winds down in the last melancholy vignette, taking place in Helsinki, as taxi driver Mika (Matti Pellonpää) picks up three inebriated workmen who regale him with hard-luck stories. But Mika has a much harsher story of his own to tell. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, (more)
- 1990
Sergei Profokiev's 1936 composition Peter and the Wolf incorporates orchestral music accompanied by dramatic narration of the classic Russian folk tale. Rocker Sting, of The Police, narrates this particular version, with musical accompaniment by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of Claudio Abbado. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sting, Roberto Benigni, (more)
- 1989
The elfin, irrepressible and very popular Italian comic Roberto Benigni and the similarly popular Paolo Villaggio star in this, the last of celebrated director Federico Fellini's films. The film's dreamlike story follows the meanderings of the moon-struck (or lunatic) Salvini (Benigni). As it opens, Salvini is out in a local wood near his village, appreciating nature, when he spies a group of men standing around looking intently at something. They are watching the window of a house where a portly woman is putting on a striptease for their pleasure. While he watches this, he has a memory of his grandmother. One adventure follows another, but Salvini is never crushed by events which would leave anyone less in love with life in the madhouse - because he is already slightly mad. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Paolo Villaggio, (more)
- 1988
Father Maurice (Walter Matthau) is called on to perform an exorcism of a demon from a fat lady in this offbeat comedy. What emerges is Giuditta (Roberto Benigni) a narcissistic, fun-loving devil with a penchant for nonsensical sayings, and the devil attaches himself to Father Maurice for a series of comedy gags. Giuditta falls for the gambler Nina (Nicoletta Braschi) and impedes the priest's romantic progress with the beautiful Patrizia (Stefania Sandrelli). Maurice discovers that Nina and the expressionless Cusatelli (John Lurie) are two demons sent to retrieve the wayward Giuditta. Matthau and Benigni provide the majority of the laughs with Benigni doubling as director and devil. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Walter Matthau, (more)
Jim Jarmusch follows his groundbreaking Stranger Than Paradise with another rambling, character-driven film with a twisted sense of humor. Set in a seedy New Orleans summer, Down By Law details the meeting of three unlikely convicts and their just as unlikely escape. Zack (Tom Waits) is an out-of-work DJ who is accused of murder when a body is found in the trunk of a stolen car he was hired to drive across town. Jack (John Lurie) is a pimp set up for a fall by a competitor. These two sullen souls are locked in a cell with Roberto (Roberto Benigni), a cheerful Italian immigrant who happens to have killed a man. The chemistry between the members of this loosely bound "team" is fascinating: Zack and Jack are forever laughing at Roberto, yet they rely on his energy and good will to escape their dire situation. The three mismatched miscreants eventually bust out of jail and head into the Louisiana bayous. Tired and hungry, they separate to search for food: Waits goes one way, Lurie another, and the frightened Benigni decides to risk stepping into a ramshackle diner. Somehow or other, he winds up in the arms of gorgeous Italian girl Nicoletta Braschi -- and is even able to provide new clothes and escape routes for his astonished comrades! ~ John Voorhees, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Waits, John Lurie, (more)
- 1986
Roberto Benigni), perhaps Italy's greatest stand-up comic of all time, keeps audiences doubled over with laughter in this fast-paced documentary compiling some of the best moments from his improvised routines. Along with his performances are equally entertaining interviews with journalists. A few leaps of non-logic take Benigni from non-sequitur to a comically skewed view of reality that milks many sacred cows for all they're worth. He refers to Pope John Paul II as "the greatest living Pope in Italy," and suggests that Italy could solve its economic woes by annexing Switzerland. Since Benigni's humor is spontaneous and primarily verbal, relying on puns and wordplay in Italian, this documentary will be best appreciated by native speakers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni
- 1984
Two of Italy's top comics, Massimo Troisi and Roberto Benigni teamed up to write (with Giuseppe Bertolucci), direct, and star in this comedy about two men accidentally thrown back to the year 1492. In a series of comic sketches, two friends, Saverio (Benigni) and Mario (Troisi) suddenly find themselves in 1492 while on a drive in the Italian countryside. Saverio is enthusiastic, but Mario just wants a ticket home, until he meets the nubile Pia (Amanda Sandrelli). Then Saverio suggests that if they can prevent Christopher Columbus from sailing to the New World, America would never be discovered and the Native Americans would not suffer. Along with this scheme come skits like Saverio explaining a few modern machines to Leonardo Da Vinci. In-between these highlights are lower ebbs in the comic flow, making the end result slightly under the capabilities of both comedians. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Massimo Troisi, Roberto Benigni, (more)
- 1984
This is a slapdash comedy that has several popular Italian television stars in cameos, as well as references to television in the plot (director Renzo Arbore is more involved in the TV medium than in film). The rather weak humor lies in ad-libs and improvisation rather than in a carefully scripted, well-routed scenario. Renzo Arbore plays a film director who has had the good fortune of getting his hands on a Federico Fellini script - it blew out of Fellini's apartment window and into the car the director is driving. Arbore is also a talent scout pushing an aspiring singer named Lucia (Pietra Montecorvina). She does gain some attention with a loud protest song that highlights the rivalry between the north and south in Italy, performed while at the San Remo song festival. The two meager plot lines exist only as vehicles for the improvised humor - and when the actors do not improvise that well, the movie suffers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Renzo Arbore, Roberto Benigni, (more)
- 1983
Four different comedy vignettes highlight the particular, idiosyncratic viewpoint of Roberto Benigni, a television comedian who originally wrote these four segments with Giuseppe Bertolucci for home TV. In the first sketch, the year is 5 A.D. and Benigni has to baby-sit for his old girlfriend Mary so she and her husband Joseph can have a night out. As Benigni is giving their child Jesus a bath, he muses philosophically about the nature of God and without a word, the little boy stands up on the bath water and leaves the outlines of his face on the bath towel. In the next segment, Benigni is in a quandary because his guardian angel, disillusioned with their relationship, has fallen in love with God and left him. In the third vignette, Benigni faces all-powerful banking bureaucrats in a bid for a loan to buy a house -- not an easy task because he is bully-proof, which alienates the chief fiscal bully, and the consequences are anything but a friendly loan. In the last sketch, Benigni is a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and his antics (like talking into his sword on phone calls) drive his fellow guard to distraction. As the two verbally joust during the night, they bring up the topic of a certain fellow who knows if God exists or not. The subject of God is almost omnipresent in Benigni's comedic repertoire. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Giacomo Piperno, (more)
- 1981
An off-beat comedy that takes a close look at the homeless and the hungry, Minestrone pulls off its wry and acerbic vision thanks to Sergio Citti, director and co-author of the script (with Vincenzo Cerami). Roberto Begnigni as Maestro contributes his own comedic talents to the film. The story centers around three characters who are brought together through the common human need to survive. Francesco (Franco Citti) and Giovanni (Ninetto Davoli) first meet at a garbage can, fending off a hungry dog for the scraps of food inside. The two men become friends, and soon get thrown in jail for causing a traffic snarl as they look up at the sky. Once in jail, however, they get to know the "upper crust" Maestro who cops his meals by walking into good restaurants dressed to the hilt and leaving without paying the bill. The three hook up as pals, and the story continues as their adventures take them out into the world again, giving the audience a chance to see society's role in the larger issue of hunger. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Franco Citti, (more)
- 1981
The Pope (Manfred Freyburger) is disturbed by the fact that today's youth are not as spiritually inclined as they should be, and so he decides to set up a Vatican television station and entice them back into the religion of their ancestors. In order to particularly grab the wandering flock, a priest invites the comedians from "The Other Sunday," an actual comedy program on Italian television, to perform on this new channel. He sets up a show that parodies an over-the-hill transvestite group, the Flagg Sisters, played by themselves. This understandably upsets one of the more eminent Cardinals (Luciano De Crescenzo) who tries every means he can to stop the show. Nothing succeeds, and he can only assemble with all the other devout men of God to view the first live broadcast. Worked into the plot are several outrageously incongruous scenes that casually juxtapose the secular and sacred, including God at the wheel of a Fiat - what else would He drive? In a real-life event that matched the humor in film, the producers were slapped with a lawsuit brought by indignant plaintiffs charging "offense to the state religion" - and were found not guilty. The offended parties had not noticed that Italy's constitution expressly forbids any state religion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luciano de Crescenzo, Renzo Arbore, (more)
- 1979
Roberto Benigni and Dominique Laffin co-star in this symbolic social drama about a well-meaning teacher and his young pre-school class. Although his unconventional techniques enthrall his young students, his methods stir controversy among the more traditionally minded parents and school administrators. A trip to a nearby factory enlightens the kids but draws criticism from the parent's of the children who work there. The concerned teacher is questioned by police when he helps a young five-year-old fiddle player who runs away from home. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Dominique Laffin, (more)
- 1979
- R
Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is his biological father, the truth is that he was sired by Caterina's former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher. Joe is moody and rebellious and needs a strong father figure to guide him and keep him in line. But Douglas is ineffectual and emotionally weak, and when Joe witnesses Douglas committing suicide, it sends the young man over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career, which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy, with Joe in tow; Joe falls in with a dangerous crowd and becomes addicted to heroin, while Caterina, hoping to lure her son back to a safer and more healthy lifestyle, tries to become closer to him, which leads to a flirtation with incest. Jill Clayburgh's performance earned her a 1980 Golden Globe nomination. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, (more)
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