La Vita è Bella

(I'm allowed to say it in Italian because I passed Italian this semester.)

Early in the semester my pledge class was driving to Cincinnati and we started talking about movies. Actually, they started talking about movies and I mostly just sat there. I am by far the most cinema-knowledge-challenged member of the four of us; they all have huge dvd collections and could go on for hours about the movies they've seen. (On a sidenote, I've watched seven movies this week so maybe if I keep it up this summer I'll be able to catch up with them.)

Then we started talking about our favorite movies, and Mike said one of his favorites was the Italian film La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful).

"Have you ever seen Life is Beautiful? That is such a good movie."

"No, but it's about the Holocaust, right? What's it like?"

"Yeah...I'd say it's a romantic comedy."

"A romantic comedy? Set in a concentration camp?"

"Yeah, it's a really happy story."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No! It's about this guy and this woman he falls in love with. And then they have a son, and they go to the concentration camp but they try to stay together. It's one of those 'feel-good' movies."

"Right. I'm sure. A feel good movie about World War II."

So, we made a lot of fun of Mike for this little exchange. Last night I decided to watch it, and the plotline alone--how a man's bravery and love saves his son's life--is heart-warming. I'll give him that. But I'm still not going to go with romantic comedy.