04/10/2005

To the magical notes of the piano of a poet of rock, Tom Waits, opens the new film by the poet of laughter, Roberto Benigni. "So close your eyes, open your heart to one who's dreaming of you," sings Waits and Roberto closes his eyes, dreams of his beloved and searches for the key to our hearts.

Distributed by 01, The Tiger and the Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile] opens in Italy on October 14 (on a record 600 screens) and is fable about love and war with a poet protagonist who defies the dramatic conflict in Iraq in order to find the woman he loves (Nicoletta Braschi). If the plot reminds you of Life Is Beautiful, you’re not far off, though the films have their proper differences. In The Tiger and the Snow, the real main character is poetry, intended here as the ancient Greeks considered it: poiein, creation. And the war in Baghdad is only a pretext for showing the contrast between good and evil, the beauty of verse against the vulgarity of violence. Benigni visualizes poetry and renders it visible, through an Italian and an Arab poet (French star Jean Reno, of Moroccan/Andalusian origins), and by superimposing images of Jorge Luis Borges, Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Marguerite Yourcenar over the narration.
As in Life Is Beautiful, the protagonist-poet wants to keep the person he loves far from the affront of evil. To those that want to accuse the film of being too sanctimonious, Benigni responds with zeal: "It certainly isn’t an ideological film. Love is stronger than ideology against war. The strength of emotion is more subversive. Many films aim at the head, this one is aimed savagely at the heart. It tears into the deepest part of our souls and enters our conscience. I want to move people, to tell a beautiful love story with myriads of sparks shooting all around. War can only be evoked but, for the first time, a comedian parodies a kamikaze, which is powerful, from a stylistic point of view. It makes you laugh, penetrating unknown areas. The perspective on Iraq, as well as towards any being that suffers, is one of pity. Because you need courage to love, you’re naked when you love, you’re born for the first time. You discover death. I personally don’t like dying at all, I think it will be the last thing I do."

The Tiger and the Snow, produced by Melampo, is sold worldwide by Focus Features International and will be released in France in December by Pathé, while it has not yet been sold in the US. However, numerous distributors are interested in the film.

(Translated from Italian)