Italian actor Robert Begnini stars in, co-wrote and directed this unlikely comedy in which a Chaplinesque hotel waiter tries to use humor to shield his wife and son from the perils of life under Mussolini’s fascist Italy and then the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. The film, which won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, explores the ability of laughter to move the human heart and the power of imagination to uplift the human spirit. Begnini received three Oscar nominations (director, original screenplay) and won for best actor. — Laura Emerick
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