In Life Is Beautiful, Nicoletta Braschi makes a hectic courtship feel believable. We value her calm beside Roberto Benigni, but the writing can leave her with too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
In the courtship scenes of Life Is Beautiful (1997), Roberto Benigni’s Guido supplies the invention and Nicoletta Braschi’s Dora gives us a reason to care whether it works. Her calm is useful beside an actor so busy securing our attention. We were moved by their courtship because she makes Dora’s affection credible without trying to match his energy. Yet the screenplay, by Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami, gives Guido so much to do that Dora can seem to exist chiefly to appreciate him. Braschi helps the romance work, even when the writing gives her too little room.
Her screen debut came in Benigni’s Tu mi turbi (1983), with Johnny Stecchino (1991) another of their collaborations before Life Is Beautiful. She has frequently played the romantic partner of his characters, but that is not the whole career. Jim Jarmusch cast her in Down by Law (1986). In Ovosodo (1997), she plays the teacher Giovanna Fornari, a supporting role marked by quiet resilience. These are useful films to put beside the Benigni collaborations before deciding what kind of actor she is.
After a hiatus, she returned in Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (2018) as the ruthless landowner Marchesa Alfonsina De Luna. That part is a useful reminder that an actor’s calm need not imply a character’s kindness. It also gives us a reason to resist describing her only in relation to Benigni. We would welcome more parts that allow her to be difficult company.
With Dora, the limitation is how little the screenplay lets her do beyond responding to Guido. We believe the affection Braschi gives her, and that matters in a film which offers too much reassurance about the surrounding horror. Our reservations about Life Is Beautiful do not cancel the value of that performance. Nor does her success excuse the writing’s preference for the man doing all the entertaining. Start there for the partnership, then try Ovosodo before deciding that quiet support is all Braschi can offer.
Biography
Nicoletta Braschi is an Italian actress and producer. She has frequently collaborated with her husband, actor and director Roberto Benigni, whom she married in 1991.
Braschi studied at Rome's Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met Benigni in 1980. Her first film role was in his 1983 comedy Tu mi turbi. She has also appeared in two films by Jim Jarmusch: Down by Law (1986) and Mystery Train (1989).
She played Dora in Life Is Beautiful (1997), directed by and co-starring Benigni. Braschi won a David di Donatello award for her performance in Ovosodo (1997). She was a member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2002.
