Roberto Benigni
Roberto Benigni
Roberto Remigio Benigni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRIis an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He co-wrote, directed and acted in the 1997 film, Life Is Beautiful, which garnered him the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also portrayed Inspector Clouseau's son in Son of the Pink Pantherand has collaborated with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch in three of his films: Down by Law, Night on Earthand Coffee and Cigarettes...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth27 October 1952
CountryItaly
I am overjoyed and extremely grateful to receive this extraordinary honor. These awards fill my heart with happiness, knowing that people throughout Europe have been touched by our film.
The soldiers are seen as a 'presence'. There are no judgments made, for sure,
I would like to tell that I was really loved, with the simplicity, ... What is more simple than to tell to a little boy, 'This is not the truth, it is a game?'
My previous movie before 'Life Is Beautiful' was the same; they didn't release it so much in United States.
I grew up in Tuscany in a very poor family. My father was a farmer and my mother was a farmer, but, my childhood was very good. I am very grateful for my childhood, because it was full of gladness and good humanity.
When we talk to somebody and we want to be nice or polite or show our more beautiful side, we try to use the best words that we know. This is what poets are doing. They are cleaning the words, they are inventing the sentiments, they are giving us a way to communicate.
I would like to thank my parents in Vergaio, a little village in Italy. They gave me the biggest gift: poverty.
The most important thing is to continue to be yourself. The day after the Oscars, you have to get on with your life. To be honest and true to yourself.
Sometimes poetry, it is incomprehensible. But we need incomprehensible stuff! It is very healthy to talk about incomprehensible things! It is very healthy! We need it!
The Divine Comedy' is very sophisticated but also very popular.
My duty is to try to reach beauty. Cinema is emotion. When you laugh you cry.
Only comedians can talk about death, life, God and Virgin Mary. If I was a tragic actor, I couldn't allow myself. But with this accent I can do it. I can talk with death in person because I am a clown. Yes. And I am proud to be a clown - very much.
For me, Fellini was like a watermelon. It is there. A watermelon cannot die.
This is a terrible mistake, because I used up all of my English.