A Separation (2011) - ★★★★★

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writers: Asghar Farhadi
Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini, Sarina Farhadi

This film is intense, mentally and emotionally. At first it almost begs you to pick a side by showing each characters personalities so effectively. By the end of the film, you're left debating whether there was a right or wrong side. It's one of the most thought provoking and brilliant modern films I've seen, and surely deserved to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.

Life Is Beautiful or La Vita è Bella (1997) - ★★★★★

Director: Roberto Benigni
Writers: Vincenzo Cerami, Roberto Benigni
Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini

Life is Beautiful happens to be one of the most beautiful films ever made. It's one of the most unorthodox war films in the way that it is a comedy for a large portion, a romance for another, and a drama for the rest. Its genius lies in the way it makes a person love the characters, as well as the story. It sucks you in from start to finish, and leaves you in awe of the ending. It is just brilliant.

Set in 1930s Italy, the film begins with Italian-Jew Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) and his funny antics. He then meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), who he falls in love with instantaneously and courts her until they are married. Together they have a son Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), and live happily together keeping a bookstore until the occupation of Italy by German forces. This is a film about a father trying to hold his family together and help his son survive the horros of a Jewish Concentration Camp. He protects his son by telling him that it is a game where you win points by hiding, being quiet and making sure you don't get caught, and if he gets to one thousand points, he will win a real army tank and they can go home.

The characters appear to love each other more than life itself, which is why this film affects me so much. Roberto Benigni gave the best performance of the year and won an oscar for it, which is no surprise to me. He was the heart and soul of the film, and played such a lovable and respectable man. His character would have to be one of the most noble I've ever seen, and definitely one of the best fathers in movie history. He moved heaven and earth to protect his son using extremely clever methods, even when hope seemed lost.

Nicoletta Braschi was also extremely good as Nora, who was not a Jew but elected to go to the concentration camp with them, because she could not face life without them. She would have moved heaven and earth to protect them as well. There was one scene where she could hear music from an opera she saw with Guido. In this scene she produced so much silent emotion, that she could have won an oscar for it. Giorgio Cantarini plays one of the cutest, most innocently brilliant children I've ever seen in a movie. I loved this character to death.

As you can see, this film is so effective in the way it makes a person love the characters. The music by Nicola Piovani fits the story so well, and is one of the greatest movie themes of all time. I found the dialogue to be witty and the events unpredictable, making this film all the more enjoyable and interesting. One of the best things about this film is that it highlights the way regular, good people like Guido were sent to concentration camps even though they had done nothing except be Jewish.


Life is Beautiful is a film about the struggle of a man to hold his family together in the most dire situation imaginable. It has the power to make a person feel overjoyed, and overwhelmed with despair. Some say it's insensitive, and too happy to be set in such a horrific time and place. All I see is a beautiful story, an unforgettable story... one that was executed perfectly.

Cinema Paradiso (1988) - ★★★★★

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writers: Guiseppe Tornatore
Stars: Salvatore Cascio, Phillipe Noiret, Marco Leonardi, Antonella Attili, Pupella Maggio

I saw this film for the first time today. It is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. There were a few scenes that had me in tears, not because it was sad or joyful, but because of their sheer beauty. I loved this film for everything it was. The reason it affected me so much is because of how much the main character, Salvatore 'Toto' De Vita, reminded me of myself. His passion and sheer love for the cinema, along with many showings of classic films, swept me away in this magical film.

It is about a boy who grew up in a Sicilian Village who reminisces about his childhood and relationships with Alfredo (Phillipe Noiret), the projectionist at Cinema Paradiso. Under the fatherly influence of Alfredo, Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio) fell in love with the cinema, spending many hours discussing films and being taught the skills of being a projectionist. It showcases the changes in the world of cinema through the memories of this boys life.

The music composed by Ennio Morricone is among the most astonishingly beautiful pieces that I've heard over the years. It creates such magic in the movie, bringing about so many emotions in me, and truly enhancing the emotions shown in the characters. The cinematography displayed the Sicilian Village in so many beautiful locations, which had me feeling like a local as I became more familiar with the setting. Giuseppe Tornatore really created a masterpiece of cinema with these two aspects of the film alone.

For me, the greatest part of Cinema Paradiso was the relationship between Alfredo and Toto. The father-son love between the two felt so real, mainly because of the incredible acting of both Noiret and Cascio. One of my favorite characters of all time would have to be Alfredo, who was always there with a kind word and a life lesson for Toto. The character was meticulously acted, with so much soul and warmth generated from the expressions of Philippe Noiret. I might also add that Cascio played Toto brilliantly as the young boy swept up in the magic of film. Together, these two had such great chemistry, and it's hard to imagine the film without these actors.

The reason I was in tears was a combination of things. In one scene for example, Alfredo adjusted his projector to play a film outside his window for the viewing of many people who couldn't get in to the cinema. As he was doing this, the breathtaking music played, Toto watched in wonderment, and Alfredo suddenly became a man that brought joy to many disappointed people. It was definitely one of the most beautiful movie scenes I've ever seen, and I'll never forget the emotion that it evoked inside of me.

If you're a fan of the cinema, you'll love this movie. You'll love it for the music, the cinematography, the acting, the story, and most of all, the homage it pays to the classic films that we all know and love. Never has a film ignited so much passion for cinema in me, which is why I call it one of the greatest movies of all time.