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Laughing in the face of adversity is the best way to triumph over it. This is the sentiment shown in the movie Life is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella), directed and starred in by Roberto Benigni. The first half of the film is an enchanting look at Guido's courtship of Dora in 1939 Italy. At the very start, we already see how comic and funny Guido, a fast talking, life-embracing waiter-to-be, is. He meets the love of his life Dora when she literally falls out of the sky into his arms. Making it appear coincidental, Guido manufactures a series of meetings with Dora, where he gets to amaze, dazzle and win her with his wit and magic. Life appears to be going fairly well for Guido even though Mussolini has just signed a pact with Hitler to implement his Nazi policies with regards to Jews. Fast forward years later and they have a son named Giosué. However, the world has changed drastically too. It's almost the end of World War II, but that makes the position of J