Roberto Benigni might be criticised for many things, but lack of bravery isn’t among them. When he decided to tackle grim subject of Holocaust through comedic fantasy in Life Is Beautiful, many doubted in such approach being appropriate. Benigni has ultimately proven sceptics wrong with his triumph at the Oscars. His next ambitious project, 2002 fantasy drama Pinocchio, also defied some of the conventions, but the results in the end were completely different.
The film is based on Adventures of Pinocchio, 1883 novel by Italian writer Carlo Collodi, the classic of children’s literature. The plot begins in late 19th Century when elderly Tuscan woodcarver Geppetto (played by Carlo Giuffre) makes a puppet in the form of a boy and names it Pinocchio. The puppet (played by Benigni) comes to life and starts creating all kinds of problems for his father. Although Blue Fairy (played by Nicoletta Braschi) and Talking Cricket (played by Pepe Barra) tell him that he must go to school, earn money in honest way and behave well, Pinocchio prefers to have fun, and that would get him in all kinds of trouble. When he manages to extract himself from such troubles, he gradually begins to see the error of his ways and turns from puppet into real boy.
Benigni’s Pinocchio had serious problem from the start. The comparisons with 1940 Disney’s Pinocchio, one of the classics of film animation, were almost certain to be in favour of the old film, despite Benigni spending much of the budget – the largest in history of Italian cinema by that time – on special effects. But all that was in vain due to Benigni’s ill-fated decision to play title role himself. Benigni, who was fifty years old at the time of production, was simply too hard to accept as young boy and even harder to accept as talking puppet. This is especially irritating in the scene during which Pinocchio appears with Lucignolo, a character who is supposed to be the same age, and which is played by much younger and boyish looking Kim Rossi Stuart. Benigni’s decision to cast his wife and muse Nicoletta Braschi as Blue Fairy wasn’t much better. To make things even worse, his direction somehow makes large budget hidden on screen and Pinocchio actually looks more like cheap television production than ambitious feature film. Even the content disappoints – humour is too infantile for anyone over the age of six to laugh, while some of the scenes might be too disturbing for youngest of children. What is the most tragic is the impression that Benigni genuinely believed in his project. Despite decent box office results in his native Italy, Pinocchio received mixed reviews and in USA, thanks to infamous Miramax version with atrocious English dubbing, was completely rejected and even won Benigni and Breckin Meyer (who provided voice for English version) Razzie for Worst Actor. In 2019 Benigni appeared as Geppetto in much better received version of Pinocchio, directed by Matteo Garrone.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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