Dialogue

Mason: I, I have lot of DVDs, so whenever I feel like watching a movie with a friend I usually have them check out my collection first। Last night…

Marni: Do you have an impressive collection?

Mason: Well, yes, I do, actually. But they picked a weird one, one I haven’t watched in a long time, Life Is Beautiful.

Marni: Oh, God, I love that film.

Mason: Yeah? I bought it right around when it came out, because it was such an incredibly…

Marni: Powerful.

Mason: Powerful, exactly what I was going to say, film. But it’s not one that I watch a lot because it…I don’t know…It’s an upper, it’s a downer...

Marni: It’s kind of something I think you have to prepare yourself for. I mean, you know, do you really… Watching a film about the Holocaust just isn’t something you can watch lightly. It’s…

Mason: But who would have thought they could have made a movie about the Holocaust that was kind of joking. It wasn’t making fun of anything certainly, but, uh…

Marni: ...right…just making light of the situation.

Mason: It’s finding a certain joy, you know, in the human experience...

Marni: That’s a better way to explain it.

Mason: ...that was even present, I suppose, in the most terrible of times.

Marni: Well that’s the beauty of the film. This man was so involved in his son’s life and wanted to make it so seamless for his son, you know, just, “We’re in this new place. It’s horrible, but I’m going to try and transcend this and just create this beautiful thing.”

Discussion

Mason has an extensive collection of DVDs, so he lets his friends pick from them when they watch a movie. A friend of his recently chose Life Is Beautiful, a film that both he and Marni love because it is so powerful, yet light-hearted.

Mason likes the movie because it has funny moments even though it takes place during the Holocaust. Marni agrees. She loves how the father in the film tries to protect his son from horror through imagination and laughter.

Are you able to find moments of happiness even in horrible situations? When have you laughed despite bad circumstances?