When Does Guido Demonstrate His Love For His Family
Name_____________
Period_____________
Date_____________
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL Discussion Questions 1.
How did you feel when you had finished watching the film? What was your overall impression of its mood?
2.
Why do you think it is described as a ‘fable’ in the first sequence?
3.
What was your reaction to Guido as a character in the first half of the film? 4.
How does the relationship between Guido and Dora develop? Do you find it realistic?
5.
What suggestions are we given of the emergence of the war and its increasingly hostile attitudes towards Jews?
6.
When does Guido begin hiding the reality of the situation from his son, Giosué?
7.
What do you think is Guido's motivation for hiding the truth about the …show more content…
How does Guido demonstrate his love for his family? Why is he
prepared to risk so much?
9.
What do you make of the view that
Life is Beautiful trivialises the
Holocaust?
10.
‘You are a number; you are a slave; you are subhuman.’ Guido translates these words of the guard as: ‘You are at play; we work for you; you are, ultimately, winners.’ These words are also echoed at the end of the film. How appropriate are they?
11.
Guido's friend Ferruccio summarises the philosophy of Schopenhauer as, ‘I am what I want to be.’ Does Guido really think he can influence events? Why do you think Guido creates reality as he wants it to be in the concentration camp?
12.
Many of us may not experience the same depth of inhuman treatment as Guido, his family and the other prisoners of this concentration camp, but what insight does it give us into our own reactions to situations we face?
13.
Guido is in a situation which is almost without hope, but despite the efforts of his captors to strip him of his humanity, it is exactly what he retains. In what sense is this a triumph for him?
14.
Guido appears to abandon the external reality of his situation to try
and cope with it. Would you have reacted in the same way?
Period_____________
Date_____________
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL Discussion Questions 1.
How did you feel when you had finished watching the film? What was your overall impression of its mood?
2.
Why do you think it is described as a ‘fable’ in the first sequence?
3.
What was your reaction to Guido as a character in the first half of the film? 4.
How does the relationship between Guido and Dora develop? Do you find it realistic?
5.
What suggestions are we given of the emergence of the war and its increasingly hostile attitudes towards Jews?
6.
When does Guido begin hiding the reality of the situation from his son, Giosué?
7.
What do you think is Guido's motivation for hiding the truth about the …show more content…
How does Guido demonstrate his love for his family? Why is he
prepared to risk so much?
9.
What do you make of the view that
Life is Beautiful trivialises the
Holocaust?
10.
‘You are a number; you are a slave; you are subhuman.’ Guido translates these words of the guard as: ‘You are at play; we work for you; you are, ultimately, winners.’ These words are also echoed at the end of the film. How appropriate are they?
11.
Guido's friend Ferruccio summarises the philosophy of Schopenhauer as, ‘I am what I want to be.’ Does Guido really think he can influence events? Why do you think Guido creates reality as he wants it to be in the concentration camp?
12.
Many of us may not experience the same depth of inhuman treatment as Guido, his family and the other prisoners of this concentration camp, but what insight does it give us into our own reactions to situations we face?
13.
Guido is in a situation which is almost without hope, but despite the efforts of his captors to strip him of his humanity, it is exactly what he retains. In what sense is this a triumph for him?
14.
Guido appears to abandon the external reality of his situation to try
and cope with it. Would you have reacted in the same way?