El tren de la vida

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.

It's amazing how many people seem to be complaining about the unrealism of this film. Given that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that the film is not trying to be realistic from scene 1 onwards, the question is not whether the film tried to be realistic and failed, but whether a film about the Holocaust must try to be realistic to be any good.

The trouble is that unless as part of the performance the entire audience is deported in cattle-trucks, slowly starved, and then gassed, it is rather difficult to see how any film can be realistic about the Holocaust. So, if there are to be movies about the Holocaust at all, or if they are to do much beyond telling us that the Holocaust was ghastly (we knew that, didn't we?)

they have to give up on trying to be realistic, and try to look at the Holocaust in an indirect way. This is where I think "Train de Vie" succeeds, for example by the deliberate parallels between the society inside the train, and the society that helped caused the Holocaust. I could list them at length, but if you've seen the movie and didn't notice them, you won't be convinced by anything I say, and if you haven't seen the movie, I'd rather leave you the pleasure of discovering them for yourself.

I never actually thought of the film's relation to "Life is Beautiful" until reading the IMDB comments, after I'd seen both films. Well it's very hard to compare the two films, but I don't think "Train de Vie" needs to be ashamed of the comparison. True, Roberto Benigni does not star in it, and that is a heavy handicap for any film. On the other hand I think I like the exuberant un-reality of "Train de Vie" better. After all the portrayal of the Holocaust in "Life is Beautiful" is just as unrealistic as that of "Train de Vie"; the only difference is that "Train de Vie" revels from the first scene

to the last in its unreality. If we must be unreal, let us at least enjoy it.

There's quite a bit going on in "Train of Life" but it's worth following. The premise is that a shtetl (Jewish community) fears it will be deported to a World War II concentration camp. The village fool, Shlomo, comes up with the idea to purchase a locomotive, train some of the villagers to talk/act/dress like Nazis and head for Palestine in hopes they can fool the real Nazis.

Okay, the premise is far fetched. That's a given. But for this film, it works. The close-knit village buys into the plan and sets to work creating the ruse. Shlomo rises about his "village idiot" persona and finds new worth. The fake Nazi commander, Mordechai, begins to take his role a little too literally. There's a subplot about some of the young men converting to Communism. And a small band of resistance workers who try to blow up the train.

But the star of this film is not one person, it is the village. They've banded together to survive, which isn't lost amid the humor. There's true fear and hope. Some may feel the villagers are made fun of and lampooned, but there's a healthy respect for the Jewish customs and family closeness in this film. Watch the scene where the villagers prepare for the Sabbath during their journey and you'll see what I mean.

Too many films to count have focused on the reality of the Holocaust. There's no deny that it was a horrific event that should never be forgotten. This film does not desecrate or abandon that truth. It simply adds a new dimension worth exploring.

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!

I saw this movie on Showtime, after a late night shift. Never went looking for it. I found the movie reveting.

I saw some comments about "Life is Beautiful", and the comparison. A more apt comparison would be, I believe to "Fiddler on the Roof". In the same sense, perhaps not as musical though, the story seems to weave through the life and times of a community facing oncoming winds of change.

In a way, with the arguments of the imitation Nazis, and the "revolutionary" communists, the pattern of life is both touchingly human, and comically sarcastic of how men are "seemingly" separated with each other.

Although the Jewish communal environment seeps through the wonderful story, the later union with the gypsies who are also seeking a haven, relents to truly human and comic parody of the WWII era.