Der Tiger und der Schnee

Roberto Benigni is such a likable guy. He's also one of the most talkative, if you've seen any of his films. Man, this guy rattles off sentences so fast it almost gives me a headache. It's doubly tough when you have to read a lot of subtitles in a hurry to keep up with him! It's also not easy when you're not quite sure what's going on, at least in the first third of the movie as scenes switch with a number of flashbacks. By the 25-minute mark of this movie, I was worn out to sort everything out and follow Benigni's rapid-fire speech. He also has a strange way - at least to us Americans - of expressing himself and his humor. He's definitely different.

No sense going into the rest of the story as other reviewers have capably done that. Overall, it was a nice story and it had some very touching moments. You have to root for Benigni's good-hearted character, "Attilio, "who certainly deserved a better wife than he got. His kids were super, nice girls. Also fun to watch and hear was Tom Waits, who plays the piano and sings throughout the film on-screen. One more thing: there was no preaching about the war in Iraq. The filmmakers were smart enough to let the viewer think for themselves.

This film seems to be made for Roberto Benigni's fans. If you didn't like his previous films, don't bother with this one. The other comment that must be made is: this is not "Life is Beautiful". That film was simply wonderful, and I don't think it will ever find a match. Regardless this issue, "La tigre e la neve" is a very good movie. Benigni continues to show his amazing ability in order to mix comedy with drama, making the story very interesting and enjoyable. As a negative issue, we can point out that Benigni is a bit repetitive (it's his way of communicating), and might be a bit annoying for some people. The plot is quite simple: a man discovers that the woman he loves is seriously injured in a hospital in Baghdad, during American invasion in '03. He decides to travel to Iraq in order to help his loved one. The film has a good script, and is adequately seasoned with very good photography, music, and an unavoidable message of hope. Highly recommended for people looking for a story plenty of romanticism with a conceptually brilliant ending.

I think the difference between the great and the normal artist lies in how they can re-produce the magic moments of art. The film "The life is beautiful" (TLIB) from Benigni was a nice surprise for me several years ago and now I thought let's see, what else he can do. To be absolutely honest this film is not as good, as the (TLIB), but I felt the magic once again. This film was not so deep, maybe, but it has something that I've never found in (american) comedies. There the source of the humor is often disgusting and it completely misses the real, intelligent humor, which can be found here. I definitely liked this film with all of errors and weaknesses in it. It's worth of watching.

A pleasant, perhaps very pleasant, two hours spent watching Benigni do his stuff in Italy and Iraq, though I have yet to decide if I really wanted to see another film about him chasing the woman of his dreams, especially as I can never decide if said actress is limited in her acting ability, or if she finds herself constricted by the rather reductive roles she finds herself interpreting. That said, Reno is excellent as the Iraqi poet in exile in France, firstly as a thought-provoking contrast to Benigni's over-the-top enthusiasm, and secondly because he is the politics that are touted when they describe the film as political. The poet's reaction to his return to his native land after many years in exile is an understated, but strongly felt, message. Of course there is also a message, and many jibes, in the humor of Benigni... about young American soldiers in Iraq, the chaos that still reigns in the country after the fall of the old guard and the naivety with which westerners view both culture and war. Great to see Tom Waits on screen again, though with an uncharacteristically romantic song, and for those who are interested, Waits does play 'the musician' and not a speaking role. The jury's out on how convincing the parent-child relationship was, Benigni seemed to be speaking to two small children, not teenagers. And Fox, though a good actress, played a rather mono-dimensional love interest here. I had the pleasant surprise of coming across them making this film while I was passing through Fiumicino airport earlier in the year- the humor that draws people into the cinema halls is even more vibrant live.

Anyone who calls this film superficial, banal or trivial has spectacularly missed the point and is exactly the same type of person who was levelling precisely the same kind of criticism at La Vita è Bella. Now, though I do like Benigni (in my opinion La Vita è Bella is a masterpiece and films like Il Piccolo Diavolo, Johnny Stecchino and Il Mostro are exceedingly worthy comedies - that said I thought Pinocchio was an expensive disaster), I will try to be as objective as possible. In La Tigre e la Neve, Benigni repeats the masterfully delicate feat he accomplished in La Vita è Bella: he touches on complex, spikey issues (in La Vita è Bella it was the holocaust, here we have the war in Iraq) in a fable-like, simple manner - he doesn't politicise the film, and he doesn't delight in the gruesome (and very real) aspects of war. Yet this is NOT trivialisation of the subject matter. To believe that is to believe that the true horrors of war (or the holocaust) can only be conveyed on the screen by a documentary-style approach, and that cannot be the case. Benigni is far more effective - he does not shock the audience with visual representations of war, but his comedy in the face of war creates a subtle paradox that makes the whole film even more touching. La Tigre e La Neve is a fable about love, love in the face of adversity, stubborn optimism, hope and desperation and relationships between people of different races and creeds. Don't expect to see a Michael Moore rant at the injustice of war - Benigni is far more subtle. Perhaps the only criticism I have is that Nicoletta Braschi's performance is not always one hundred percent convincing, but Benigni and Reno more than make up for it. I truly hope it makes it on an international level - definitely a film to watch.