Roberto Benigni

Clowning with something terrible behind it. Benigni performs his own films as an innocent who cannot stop talking, and the comedy is a device for approaching what the film is actually about — an occupation, a diagnosis, a war — without ever looking straight at it.

Signature

• Directs himself as the lead, in unbroken verbal cascades.
• Physical comedy played at full commitment against a grim setting.
• Sentiment declared openly rather than withheld.
• A love interest addressed as an ideal, often played by Nicoletta Braschi.