Zug des Lebens

This film is often compared to LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, and with good reason. They are both comedies that take on the treacherously delicate subject of the Holocaust. Also, Benigni turned down the opportunity to make this film and then "borrowed" the idea of a Holocaust comedy to make his film. Which is fine with me because in his hands, the film would have sunk into offensive silliness. Benigni is Italian, which means he is great at Italian humour. But he hasn't an idea as to what real Jewish humour is like. This film is a quintessentially Jewish film. It is about the old world Jewish experience that can only be understood and articulated by a Jew with old world roots. Unfortunately, much of the old world Jewish lifestyle and humour has been lost to recent generations. To some viewers, the characters in this film may seem like characters out of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. But despite the broad characterizations for the benefit of Jewish humour, the characters here are all quite human and honest. Jewish humour by the way, depends on flagrant exaggeration and waggish expression. The film even uses a great analogy of this when it explains that Yiddish is basically German with a sense of humour. Take away the exaggerated humour, and you've got basic German.

The story is about the inhabitants of a French shtetl (Jewish village) who decide to deport themselves to Palestine before the Nazis come and deport them to concentration camps. They buy a train, tailor a few dozen Nazi uniforms and flee across the continent, sidestepping real Nazis and French resistance fighters who think that the train of Jews is a Nazi train. There is a subplot involving an outbreak of communism among some of the Jews on the train that gets a little tired. But then that does live up to the film's title. This train of life is a microcosm of society, with all of its pettiness and short-sightedness.

This is a beautiful film that is much funnier and bittersweet than LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL without the unnecessary manipulations to pull on our heartstrings. For those who want to taste the real Jewish experience, I recommend this highly!

ADDENDUM: There are many who feel that it is sacrilege to make any type of comedy about the Jewish experience during WWll. To make light of suffering or to drastically bend or cover up the truth for the sake of "entertainment", is sacrilege. But this film does not do any of those things. It retains the humour and the dignity of a culture that was almost made extinct. It provides us with a great tribute to the spirit and perseverance of those people.

The village's dumb named Scholomo(Abelanski) comes running and shouting that the Jews from near little towns are being deported towards unknown locations. That same night the Jewish council of wise men (presided by Clement Harari) is reunited to find a manner to save the villagers. They determine that people will be shielded from the horrors around them and somehow finds a way to do it. Then Scholome proposes an original idea, organize a false deportation train so which they can flee the Nazis passing the Russian frontier and escape to Palestine. Some Jewish are dressed in German uniforms(Rufus) and others posing as fake prisoners. Their efforts sometimes are pure fantasy , though with ruse they pull off the feat to keep the faith on their dreams.

This is a story about love, war and sacrifice , well starred and directed. Extraordinary movie with comedy upon an irrepressible group who refuses to ever give in to adversity and some moment is spoken in Yiddish and German language with subtitles. A beguiling and unique fable that celebrates the human spirit and the freedom. This amusing picture contains some of ¨Fiddler on the roof¨(Norman Jewison,1971), including violin performance , ¨Life is beautiful¨ (Roberto Benigni ,1997) and ¨The last train¨(Joseph Vilsmaier, 2006). Excellent performances by all cast, as Harari as veteran rabbi trying to preserve Jewish heritage against growing odds, Rufus as Jew posing as Nazi officer, Michel Muller as Jewish infected with the fast-spreading germ of communism, and Agatha La Fontaine as gorgeous youngster, among them. Emotive and hearty score melodically performed by Goran Bregovic, Emir Kusturica's usual. Director Radu Mihaileanu tirelessly maintains the humorous ingenuity and shapes simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy. Rating : Better than average. Well worth watching.

This is a magnificent film. Like "Life Is Beautiful" it manages to be a comedy about the Holocaust but also a sensitive and thoughtful study of it. It's beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, superbly directed. I can't think of a film I've seen this year that is more entertaining and more thought provoking. It's a comedy, it's a fantasy, it's a musical, it's a drama, it's a romance, it's an allegory and, yes, it's a tragedy. It's also wonderfully European with none of the predictable Hollywood cliches but with fascinating symbolism and revealing studies of human dynamics. But not the least artsey-dartsey. And how I'm tempted to give away the ending. But no! I wouldn't want anyone to miss that cinematic fist in the gut. Wow!!! The whole hour and a half is crystalized in a five second closeup. You won't be prepared for it! This is one of the few films I've ever given a ten!

This is one of the best humor movies I've ever seen. It's really hard to mix a war plot with nice fine humor. Some try it but the result is very bad. This movie is an exception, it's great and funny.

I think the soul of this movies is it near naive humor. There is no that boring kind of "intelligent and cool humor for intelligent and cool people". It's plain humor works fine.

But don't think this movie is just humor because it has a humanitarian story bellow the humorous cover that touches the heart. It's about human beings doing their best to escape from death.

The soundtrack of this movie is great. I love the music, it's fabulous.

It's a great movie worth of seeing.

I was disappointed recently as I read poor reviews of one of the best films I've ever seen. I saw this film twice at the Sundance Film Festival and was impressed and enjoyed the sensitive and comedic depiction of WW2 and populations facing war, however, you must stay to the very end, and let the final scene sink in to get the complete effect. This is not a heartwarming story of the holocaust, but a fantasy that thrusts the viewer back into reality and the horrors of the holocaust with a final shot that is one of the most heartwrenching and shocking scenes I've seen. Don't compare it with "Life is Beautiful"- many have done this and they are not similar. This film deserves better.