Autumn 2000
Volume 27, Number 1
Interview with Marcello Pezzetti
Carlo Celli
1
CELLI: What was your reaction to criticism [Life is Beautiful] received?
PEZZETTI: There was some criticism from Italian Jews who stated that one should not laugh about the Shoah. The first to come out with such a statement was Daniel Voegelmann, the owner of the La Giuntuna press of Florence. His father and sister both died at Auschwitz so he felt justifiably involved. I admire him greatly, although we had some debates about the film. He said that one should not laugh about the Shoah, but I do not completely accept this criticism. I am a historian who has studied Auschwitz for twenty-five years. I have worked with survivors and the creation of an archive, and I have also worked as a film consultant. I also made a documentary film on the Italian survivors of Auschwitz, Memoria (1997). What Benigni did was to show that one could laugh in the Shoah but not about the Shoah. He laughs in the tragedy, not about it.
Carlo Celli