La tigre e la neve (2005)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Roberto Benigni

Writers:

Roberto Benigni (writer)
Vincenzo Cerami (writer)

Release Date:

14 October 2005 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

A love-struck Italian poet is stuck in Iraq at the onset of an American invasion.

Plot Keywords:

Poet | Iraq | Champagne | Local Blockbuster | Directed By Star

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Roberto Benigni	...	Attilio de Giovanni
Jean Reno	...	Fuad
Nicoletta Braschi	...	Vittoria
Tom Waits	...	Himself / Sè stesso
Emilia Fox	...	Nancy Browning
Gianfranco Varetto	...	Avvocato Scuotilancia
Giuseppe Battiston	...	Ermanno
Lucia Poli	...	Signora Serao
Chiara Pirri	...	Emilia
Anna Pirri	...	Rosa
Andrea Renzi	...	Dottor Guazzelli
Abdelhafid Metalsi	...	Dottore Salman
Amid Farid	...	Al Giumeil
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Israel Aduramo	...	Soldato americano
Mohmed Hedi Bahri	...	Firas scarpe
Franco Barbero
Mohamed Malek Bchatnia	...	Ladro bazar
Steven Beckingham	...	First Sergeant
Ahmed Ben Massoud	...	Vecchio campo minato
David Birkin	...	US Marine
Jorge Luis Borges	...	Himself (archive footage)
Spartaco Calanchini
Simone Carella
Donato Castellaneta
Alexis Conran	...	Private Roadblock
Francesca Cutolo	...	Carla
Francesco De Vito	...	Valeri
Wahjda Dridi	...	Salwa
Stefania Frangipani	...	Fiorala
Simone Gandolfo	...	Poliziutte aeroporto
Ida Grieco	...	Signora zebra
Derek Hagen	...	Soldato americano
Enrico Iannello	...	Poliziutte aeroporto
Enrico Innocenti Barduzzi	...	Poliziutte aeroporto
Laarbi Kmiri	...	Prisoniere
Jonah Lotan	...	American Soldier
Feriel Madaoui	...	Bambino
Susanna Marcomeni
Noah Lee Margetts	...	Private Roadblock (as Noah Margetts)
Rosa Matteucci	...	Presentatrice
Mark McKerracher	...	American Officer
Franco Mescolini
Daniele Miglio	...	Studente
Abdelkader Mokdad	...	Pedrone Scarpe
Eugenio Montale	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jeffery Gordon Pedersen	...	Soldato americano
Jeff Peterson	...	American Soldier
Javone Prince	...	Soldato americano
Adel Rabah	...	Abbas Scarpe
Martin Sherman	...	Soldato americano
Peter Swander	...	Trembling Soldier
Giuseppe Ungaretti	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mariella Valentini
Marguerite Yourcenar	...	Herself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

The Tiger and the Snow (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

114 min | USA:110 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | Arabic | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Netherlands:MG6 | Malaysia:U | Sweden:15 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M | South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

Naples, Campania, Italy

Company:

Melampo Cinematografica

Trivia:

Roberto Benigni named his character "Attilio" as a tribute to poet Attilio Bertolucci (1911-2000) father of famous directors Giuseppe and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Quotes:

Vittoria: Oh my beloved all creation overflows with passion, and like a golden comet in the sky, from my mouth bursts forth this cry: I love you.
Vittoria: I want to make love to you now.
Attilio de Giovanni: That's the best line I ever heard in my life.

Movie Connections:

Features Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966)

Soundtrack:

Granada

No Politics, Just Another Nice Benigni Movie

Roberto Benigni is such a likable guy. He's also one of the most talkative, if you've seen any of his films. Man, this guy rattles off sentences so fast it almost gives me a headache. It's doubly tough when you have to read a lot of subtitles in a hurry to keep up with him! It's also not easy when you're not quite sure what's going on, at least in the first third of the movie as scenes switch with a number of flashbacks. By the 25-minute mark of this movie, I was worn out to sort everything out and follow Benigni's rapid-fire speech. He also has a strange way - at least to us Americans - of expressing himself and his humor. He's definitely different.

No sense going into the rest of the story as other reviewers have capably done that. Overall, it was a nice story and it had some very touching moments. You have to root for Benigni's good-hearted character, "Attilio, "who certainly deserved a better wife than he got. His kids were super, nice girls. Also fun to watch and hear was Tom Waits, who plays the piano and sings throughout the film on-screen. One more thing: there was no preaching about the war in Iraq. The filmmakers were smart enough to let the viewer think for themselves.