Early roles In 1980 he met
Cesenate actress
Nicoletta Braschi, who became his wife on 26 December 1991 and who has starred in most of the films he has directed. In June 1983 he appeared during a public political demonstration by the
Italian Communist Party, with which he was a sympathiser, and on this occasion, he lifted and cradled the party's national leader
Enrico Berlinguer. It was an unprecedented act, given that until that moment Italian politicians were proverbially serious and formal. Benigni was censored again in the 1980s for calling
Pope John Paul II something impolite during an important live TV show (
Wojtylaccio, meaning 'Bad Wojtyla' in Italian, but with a somewhat friendly meaning in Tuscan dialect). Benigni's first film as director was
Tu mi turbi (
You Upset Me) in 1983. This film was also his first collaboration with Braschi. In 1984, he played in
Non ci resta che piangere ('Nothing Left to Do but Cry') with comic actor
Massimo Troisi. The story was a fable in which the protagonists are suddenly thrown back in time to the 15th century, just a little before 1492. They start looking for
Christopher Columbus in order to stop him from discovering the Americas (for very personal reasons), but are not able to reach him.
Hollywood roles in 1990 Beginning in 1986, Benigni starred in three films by American director
Jim Jarmusch. In
Down By Law (1986) (which in Italy had its title spelt "Daunbailò", in Italian phonetics) he played Bob, an innocent foreigner living in the United States, convicted of manslaughter, whose irrepressible good humour and optimism help him to escape and find love (the film also starred Braschi as his beloved). In
Night on Earth (1991) he played a cabbie in Rome, who causes his passenger, a priest, great discomfort and a heart attack by confessing his bizarre sexual experiences. Later, he also starred in the first of Jarmusch's series of short films,
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). In 1990, he was a member of the Jury at the
40th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1993, he starred in
Son of the Pink Panther, directed by veteran
Blake Edwards. Benigni played
Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau's illegitimate son who is assigned to save the Princess of Lugash. The film bombed in the US, but was a hit in his homeland. Benigni had a rare serious role in
Federico Fellini's last film,
La voce della luna ('The Voice of the Moon') (1990). In earlier years Benigni had started a long-lasting collaboration with screenwriter
Vincenzo Cerami, for a series of films which scored great success in Italy:
Il piccolo diavolo ('The Little Devil') with
Walter Matthau,
Johnny Stecchino ('Johnny Toothpick'), and
Il mostro ('The Monster').
Life Is Beautiful at the
1998 Cannes Film Festival Benigni is widely known outside Italy for his 1997
tragicomedy Life Is Beautiful (
La vita è bella), filmed in
Arezzo, and co-written by Cerami. The film is about an Italian Jewish man who tries to protect his son's innocence during his internment at a
Nazi concentration camp, by telling him that
the Holocaust is an elaborate game and he must adhere very carefully to the rules to win. Benigni's father had spent three years in a
concentration camp in
Bergen-Belsen, and
La vita è bella is based in part on his father's experiences. Benigni was also inspired by the story of Holocaust survivor
Rubino Romeo Salmonì. Although the story and presentation of the film had been discussed during production with different Jewish groups to limit the offence it might cause, the film was attacked by some critics, who accused it of presenting the Holocaust without much suffering, while others argued that a comedy about such a subject was not appropriate. More favourable critics praised Benigni's artistic daring and skill to create a sensitive comedy involving the Holocaust, a challenge that
Charlie Chaplin confessed he would not have taken on with
The Great Dictator had he been aware of the true horrors occurring in ghettos and concentration camps in Europe at the time. In 1998, the film was nominated for seven
Academy Awards. At the
1999 ceremony, the film was awarded the Oscar for
Best Foreign Language Film (which Benigni accepted as the film's director),
Best Original Dramatic Score (the score by
Nicola Piovani), and Benigni received the award for
Best Actor (the first for a male performer in a non-English-speaking role, and only the third overall acting Oscar for non-English-speaking roles). Overcome with giddy delight after
Life Is Beautiful was announced as the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Benigni climbed over and then stood on the backs of the seats in front of him and applauded the audience before proceeding to the stage. After winning his Best Actor Oscar later in the evening, he said in his acceptance speech, "This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English!" To close his speech, Benigni quoted the closing lines of
Dante's
Divine Comedy (
Divina Commedia), referencing "the love that moves the sun and all the stars". At the
following year's ceremony, when he read the nominees for
Best Actress (won by
Hilary Swank for ''
Boys Don't Cry), host Billy Crystal playfully appeared behind him with a large net to restrain Benigni if he got excessive with his antics again. On a 1999 episode of Saturday Night Live'', host
Ray Romano played him in a sketch parodying his giddy behavior at the ceremony.
Beyond Life Is Beautiful , February 2006 Benigni played one of the main characters in
Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar as Detritus, a corrupt Roman provincial governor who wants to kill Julius Caesar, thereby seizing control of the
Roman Republic. That same year, he gave a typically energetic and revealing interview to Canadian filmmaker
Damian Pettigrew for ''
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar (2002), a cinematic portrait of the maestro that was nominated for Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. The film went on to win the prestigious Rockie Award for Best Arts Documentary at the Banff World Television Festival (2002) and the Coup de Coeur'' at the International Sunnyside of the Doc Marseille (2002). In 2003, Benigni was honored by the
National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), receiving the Foundation's NIAF Special Achievement Award in Entertainment. His film
La tigre e la neve (
The Tiger and the Snow, 2005) is a love story set during the initial stage of the
Iraq War. 2020 On 15 October 2005, he performed an impromptu
striptease on Italy's most watched evening news program, removing his shirt and draping it over the newscaster's shoulders. Prior to removing his shirt, Benigni had already hijacked the opening credits of the news program, jumping behind the newscaster and announcing: "Berlusconi has resigned!" (Benigni was an outspoken critic of media tycoon and then former Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi.) The previous day, he had led a crowd of thousands in Rome on Friday in protest at the centre-right government's decision to cut state arts funding by 35 per cent. On 2 February 2007, he was awarded the degree of
Doctor Honoris Causa by the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. On 22 April 2008, the degree of
Doctor Honoris Causa was conferred on him by the
University of Malta, celebrated by a
Settimana Dantesca including Benigni's first stage appearance at a university and the premiere of his performing with Dante scholar
Robert Hollander. In 2012, he starred in the
Woody Allen film,
To Rome with Love. In 2019, he starred as
Geppetto in
Matteo Garrone's 2019 adaptation of
Pinocchio.
TuttoDante , June 2008 Benigni is an improvisatory poet (
poesia estemporanea is a form of art popularly followed and practised in
Tuscany), appreciated for his explanation and recitations of
Dante's
Divine Comedy (
Divina Commedia) from memory. During 2006 and 2007, Benigni had a lot of success touring Italy with his 90-minute "one-man show"
TuttoDante ('Everything About Dante'). Combining current events and memories of his past narrated with an ironic tone, Benigni then begins a journey of poetry and passion through the world of the
Divine Comedy.
TuttoDante has been performed in numerous Italian piazzas, arenas, and stadiums for a total of 130
shows, with an estimated audience of about one million spectators. Over 10 million more spectators watched the
TV show, ''Il V canto dell'Inferno'' ('The 5th Song of Hell'), broadcast by
Rai 1 on 29 November 2007, with re-runs on
Rai International. Benigni began North American presentations of
TuttoDante with an announcement that he learned English to bring the gift of Dante's work to English speakers. The English performance incorporates dialectic discussion of language and verse and is a celebration of modernity and the concept of human consciousness as created by language. Benigni brought
TuttoDante to the United States, Canada and Argentina in the TuttoDante Tour between 2008 and 2009 with performances in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Benigni was feted in San Francisco at a special reception held by the National Italian American Foundation in his honour on 24 May 2009. Following his U.S. premiere Benigni performed his last presentation on 16 June 2009, in
Buenos Aires, Argentina where he was awarded
Honorary Citizenship of the City of Buenos Aires in a ceremony held at the
Legislative Palace in homage to the notable
Italian diaspora and culture in Argentina. ==In other media==