Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: Buon giorno, Principessa!

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Bartolomeo: They are looking for someone who speaks German, to translate their instructions.
Guido: Me! I'll do it, I'll translate!
Bartolomeo: Do you speak German?
Guido: No.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: What are your political views?
Other Man: [speaking to his two sons] Benito, Adolf! Sit down! Sorry Guido, what did you say?

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: If you speak my name, I vanish. What am I? Silence.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: [slowly reading signage on confectionery shopfront] "No Jews or dogs allowed".
[turning to Guido]
Giosué Orefice: Why aren't Jews or dogs allowed to go in?
Guido: They just don't want Jews or dogs to go in. Everybody does what they want to, Joshua.
[pointing at store ahead]

Guido: There's a hardware store there. They don't let Spanish people or horses into his store.
[pointing at another store]
Guido: Further ahead, there's a drugstore. Yesterday, I was with a Chinese friend who had a kangaroo. I said, "May we?" "No, we don't want any Chinese or kangaroos here." They don't like them. What can I tell you?

Giosué Orefice: We let everybody into our bookshop.
Guido: No. From now on, we'll write it too. Is there anybody you don't like?
Giosué Orefice: Spiders. What about you?
Guido: [mock-seriously] I don't like Visigoths. Starting tomorrow we'll write: "No spiders and Visigoths allowed." I'm sick and tired of

these Visigoths.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: [pretending to translate] The game starts now. You have to score one thousand points. If you do that, you take home a tank with a big gun. Each day we will announce the scores from that loudspeaker. The one who has the fewest points will have to wear a sign that says "Jackass" on his back. There are three ways to lose points. One, turning into a big crybaby. Two, telling us

you want to see your mommy. Three, saying you're hungry and want something to eat.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Eliseo Orefice: You're serving. You're not a servant. Serving is a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men but he's not a servant to men.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: [narrating as an adult] This is my story. This is the sacrifice my father made. This was his gift to me.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: I forgot to tell you.
Dora: Go ahead.
Guido: You can't imagine how much I feel like making love to you. But I'll never tell anyone, especially not you. They'd have to torture me to make me say it.
Dora: Say what?
Guido: That I want to make love to you - not just once, but over

and over again! But I'll never tell you that. I'd have to be crazy to tell you. I'd even make love to you now... right here for the rest of my life.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: What kind of place is this? It's beautiful: Pigeons fly, women fall from the sky! I'm moving here!

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: We won!
Dora: Yes, we won! It's true.
Giosué Orefice: We got a thousand points and we won the game! Daddy and me came in first and now we won the real tank! We won! We won!

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Guido: [carrying his son through the camp] You are such a good boy. You sleep now. Dream sweet dreams. Maybe we are both dreaming. Maybe this is all a dream, and in the morning, Mommy will wake us up with milk and cookies. Then, after we eat, I will make love to her two or three times. If I can.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

[first lines]
Giosué Orefice: [narrating as an adult] This is a simple story... but not an easy one to tell.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: I didn't like the train.
Guido: [to his son] Me, neither. We'll take the bus back, okay?
Guido: [to the Nazis] Did you hear that? We're taking the bus back!

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Eliseo Orefice: Nothing is more necessary than the unnecessary.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: [watching his father's uncle being sent to another barracks, which is the last time he will see him] Where is Uncle going?
Guido: Uh... oh, he's playing on a different team. Goodbye, Uncle!
Giosué Orefice: Goodbye, Uncle.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: Daddy, I cannot find any of the other kids, and a lady came telling me to take a shower.
Guido: That's a good idea. You go take a shower.
Giosué Orefice: No!
Guido: Go take a shower!
Giosué Orefice: No!

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Dora: My husband and son are on that train. I want to get on that train. Did you hear me? I want to get on that train.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: When can I see Mama?
Guido: When the game's over.

Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful

Giosué Orefice: They make buttons and soap out of us.
Guido: Eh...
[momentarily lost for words]
Guido: What are you saying?
Giosué Orefice: They burn us all in the oven.
Guido: Who told you that?
Giosué Orefice: A man was crying. He said they make us

into buttons and soap.
Guido: [laughs and gesticulates animatedly] You fell for that? Again? I thought you were a sharp boy... cunning, intelligent. Buttons and soap out of people? That'll be the day! You believed that? Hahaha! Just imagine. Tomorrow morning, I wash my hands with Bartolomeo... a good scrub. Then I'll button up with Francesco.
[pretends to button up

concentration camp uniform, from which a button comes loose and falls to floor]
Guido: Darn it all!
[picks up button]
Guido: Look, I just lost Giorgio! Does this look like a person? Hahaha, come on! They were teasing you! And you fell for it! What else did they tell you?
Giosué Orefice: That we get cooked in the oven.


[continues solemnly as Guido starts laughing hysterically]
Giosué Orefice: They burn us up in the oven.
Guido: [laughing and clapping hands] You fell for that too! You just eat everything up! I've heard of a wood oven, but I've never seen a man oven before. Ah ha... "I'm made of wood!" "Take this lawyer... poomp!"
[pseudo-seriously]


Guido: "This lawyer doesn't burn. He's not dry enough.
[continues animatedly]
Guido: Look at that smoke!" Oh Joshua... buttons, soap, we get burned in the oven... Let's be serious now.
[simulates hopping]
Guido: I have a sack race with the bad guys tomorrow...
Giosué Orefice:

[interrupting] That's enough. I want to go home.