Benigni's life-affirming lie: "Life is beautiful" as an aesthetic and moral response to the Holocaust

The cinematic narrative of 'Life is beautiful' conflicts with historical reality. This alteration of the reality of the Holocaust has fed the often angry reception of the film among critics who consider historical reality to be a primary concern of Holocaust art. Some have charged Benigni's film with distorting this reality and injuring its historical memory. This charge seems to embody the assumption that the audience's historical understanding of the Holocaust would be modified through the identification with the child's point of view. This is a simplistic position that underestimates the sophistication of both the film and its audience