Parents Guide for
Vita è bella, La (1997)

No nudity, sex, or any scenes implying that sex has occurred. The main character, Guido, repeatedly tells Dora, the woman with whom he is in love, that he wants to make love to her in one scene. There is one scene where the main characters kiss briefly. One character refers to a brothel during a conversation with another man.

There is quite a bit of violence implied in the last half of the film, when the characters are in the concentration camp. There is no gore, however, and the actual violence itself takes place off screen. For example, one of the characters is killed in the later part of the movie, but the viewer only hears a machine gun go off briefly and the character does not reappear. Being set in a concentration camp, the viewer realizes that many people are dying, but none of the deaths are shown. A large group of men is shown undressing (no nudity in this scene) in order to go into the "showers" (gas chambers), but the actual shower is never shown. Many references are made to death by extermination, gassing, ovens, etc. in conversations. At one point, a character sees a huge pile of human skeletons, but this is through a dense fog and there is no blood or gore shown.

There is no profanity in this film.

Wine is served with several meals throughout the film, and guests at a party drink champagne. There is no drunkenness or abuse of alcohol in the film. One of the supporting actors smokes at a party. A few of the soldiers may be shown smoking in the background, but none of the main characters use tobacco products. There is no drug use or abuse in this film.

Much of the material is intense due to the nature of the film. The first half of the film is completely free from frightening/intense scenes, but some may view some of the scenes in the latter half of the movie as intense due to the setting (concentration camp). Due to the main character's determination to make his son believe that they are simply playing a "game," and are, in fact, there willingly, many scenes that might otherwise be frightening/intense are made humorous, poignant, and/or bittersweet. Toward the end of the film, the main character tries to free his wife and sneaks through the camp in order to do so. Some viewers may feel this is an intense scene, but it is not frightening.