Ruth Ben-Ghiat analyzes the “slippage” between reality and fiction in Benigni’s Life is Beautiful in which fantasy rules.  She points out the various elements of surrealism in the picture that undercut the film’s realism such as the scenes from the concentration camps and the narrative technique which favor a fable story line.   However, Ben-Ghiat spends most of her energy revealing the history behind World War II Italy, a history which includes fascism and anti-Semitism, and an Italy that Benigni never denies in Life is Beautiful.    She focuses on the Italian POWs and the culture of victimization in order to provide insight into the film.

 Ben-Ghiat looks to Life is Beautiful as an example of the Italian embellishment of private memories from World War II.  She claims that Italians told stories of the War in a lighthearted often humorous manner, morphing haunting tales of trauma into a more accessible version.  With this in mind, the film draws attention to the inaccuracy of memory and history.  She believes that future generations understood the war memories as fables much like Benigni’s film which is told from the perspective of Giouse, a narrator who evokes a sense of childhood innocence.  Yet, Ben-Ghiat also draws attention to what she believes is Giouse’s bittersweet tone, a condemnation of the political regime responsible for his father’s demise. 

Moreover, Ben-Ghiat views the film as an accurate picture of the fascism and racism that defined Italy’s WWII era, a history that is often repressed or denied by Italians.  She comments on the ambiguity of Jewish identity in the film as Guido’s Judaism is never bluntly stated and his wife Dora is a non-Jew.   In this way, she believes the film speaks to the Italian fascist regime’s religion-free victimhood, as the nation, not just the Jews suffered at the hands of the regime.