Plot Summary for
La vita è bella (1997) More at IMDbPro »

In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank. Written by Anthony Hughes {husnock31@hotmail.com}

The film starts in the 1930s when Guido relocates from the country to a large Tuscan town where he falls in love with schoolteacher Dora. She is already engaged to another guy, but Guido stills fights for her. The story continues 5 years later, during wartime, Guido is married to Dora and they have a son called Giosue. Guido is of Jewish origin, and he is sent to a concentration camp with Giosue and Dora follows them, only to be sent to another part of the camp. Written by Anonymous

It's 1939. The ebullient, playful Guido comes to town. He works as a waiter under the watchful eye of his uncle, an elegant man who is a Jew. Guido falls for Dora, a schoolteacher, whom he calls "princess" and courts by popping up at unexpected times. She dumps her fiancé to choose Guido. The film jumps ahead to the war's last months. Nora and Guido have a child, Giosué, and when Guido and the lad are shipped to a concentration camp, Dora voluntarily follows. Although the men and women in the camp are separated and a child is in mortal peril, Guido finds ways to communicate with Dora, to hide Giosué, and to convince the boy this is an elaborate game, a special contest to win a tank. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

1939 Arezzo, Italy. Guido and his friend arrive in town. Guido, who's Jewish, is a funny, happy, naively sophisticated, imaginative man, who falls in love with a school teacher(Dora). With his wits and his imagination, he wins the heart of the teacher, who in spite of having agreed to a marriage proposal with an other guy, doesn't hesitate for a moment to run away with Mr. Guido, who was just a waiter by then. They have a kid who always enjoys the special imagination of his father. During WWII, the happy family gets swept off to a concentration camp, where the father, in order to make his son believe that the predicament is just an game his family is participating in, uses that very imagination and makes his son believe that it is a game they are playing and the 1st prize is a tank. Various levels of creativity are used by Guido to protect his son in the camp, where the old and the children are killed because they are not strong enough to work. Written by ravishankar

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