Roberto Benigni on CC

Follows is an excerpt from an interview with Italian director/actor Robert Benigni about his movie 'Life Is Beautiful' from Salon; go to http://www.salonmagazine.com and click 'entertainment' for the whole interview and Charles Taylor's review of the movie:

While Benigni says that he is the first comedian to make a film about the Holocaust, he's well aware that Charlie Chaplin preceded him by more than 50 years with his 1940 spoof on Adolf Hitler, 'The Great Dictator.' In fact, the number on Guido's prison uniform in 'Life Is Beautiful'

Thanks, Hannah. I haven't been able to see 'Life is Beautiful,' but I watched 'Johnny Stecchino' just last week and was thinking that, without being overtly Chaplinesque, Benigni does display many wonderful elements of film comedy that I thought were just gone forever.

(and a warning... for those of you who might feel inclined to check out Benigni... stay far, far away from 'Son of The Pink Panther'!)