An essay on verisimilitude.
... use their imagination, sometimes the horror is greater that way", and in his move he stands by his quote and presents horror by the use of our imagination. Therefore verisimilitude is not presented in his film as in the real event of the holocaust where there was the horror of people being killed frequently. There are many examples of horror not being shown directly in Benigni's film, one of these is the scene where the uncle goes for a shower with other elderlies. Benigni doesn't show the horror that is about to happen but through our knowledge we immediately know their fate. Also the scene where we see: Dora going through the pile of clothes. Through our intertextual knowledge we know that Dora is searching for Giosues clothes because this is the actions of what any mother will do in that situation. Another scene where the horror is not shown directly is when: Giosue asks his father where are all the children, Guido answers that they're all hiding playing hide and seek. But we in fact know the horror that has happened and the children has been killed. All of the above examples don't show the horror of humans being tortured directly, but if we use our imagination the horror becomes more powerful as we are sensitized. The viewer is still being sent the message that the holocaust was a major tragedy where many lives were lost of Jewish race, without showing the horror directly to the audience so therefore showing no verisimilitude of the real event as it's represented as a fable. Meanwhile in Benigni's fable another technique used is comedy as a weapon right through his movie. Benigni's La Vita E Bella uses comedy in a horrific event like the holocaust as a weapon to hide the horror for his son Giosue, and therefore showing no verisimilitude of the actual event where everybody was surrounded by horror. This is presented in the concentration camp where Guido uses laughter as a defence to protect Giosue's innocence against the holocaust and to see this horrific event as a game. This is shown in the film when: Guido interpretates the German soldiers speech so all the Jews know what he is talking about. But in fact interpretates a wrong speech as he doesn't know the German language, for the sake of Giosue so he further thinks that this is just a game where Giosue thinks that the solider is listing the rules of the game through Guido's interpretation. Simultaneously making us laugh and showing no signs of horror to Giosue. Therefore Benigni shows no signs of verisimilitude as he uses comedy and laughter in a tragic event like the holocaust. Where usually the holocaust is presented in a serious way where the movie doesn't treat the holocaust as a game. The viewer reads that La Vita E Bella shows aspects of verisimilitude of the holocaust but overall the movie doesn't represent the reality of the real event. But a movie which tries to show verisimilitude of the holocaust is Schindlers List. Schindlers List is one of my favourite movies and received many Academy Awards due to the fact that Spielberg used Graphic verisimilitude to the whole concept and tried to make the movie seem like the actual event of the holocaust. Spielberg the director of this fantastic movie used various techniques to show verisimilitude of the holocaust. One of the techniques he uses is he presents his movie in black and white creating a effect to the viewer that it's an event from past time but also highlights the innocence of the girl was presented in the only colour, red. Indicating to the viewer that the girl doesn't know the horror that's happening around her. Also the detail of the setting being the concentration camp in Alswhartz?, was created in great detail, trying to position the viewer that this is what it was actually like. The other obvious technique used was the direct horror being presented of the Jews being tortured and murdered frequently. This whole concept of techniques used in Spielbergs masterpiece is to present the verisimilitude of the actual event. Unlike Benigni Spielberg shows the horror direct which I think is a less powerful technique than imagining horror like Benigni forced us to do in his movie. In La Vita E Bella where we learnt about various characters and learnt about their actions we seemed to care about them. But in Schindlers list the viewer doesn't know much about the characters and when they're murdered we aren't shocked by the horror of what just happened as we don't care about the character and are desensitized. The scene where: Schindler looks on with his wife and sees a German solider lining up the Jews ready to be shot, the same bullet goes right the way through killing all of them. But the viewer is desensitized as the amount of horror with people being killed and also the fact that we don't know much about the characters that were killed. But in Benginis film where Guido was murdered which was the only murder we know of, we are shocked and in despair as the viewer has learnt much about his character and seen to care about him. So showing the horror directly to the audience sometimes doesn't play a more powerful role in creating horror. Therefore in Schindlers list, Spielberg does try to show the full horror of the event which shows verisimilitude of the horror that did happen but it's not the actual full magnitude of the horror that did happen as Spielberg was not actually there to witness the real event. So Benigni is suggesting that directors and writers can show unimaginable horror of a real event but you will never quite reach the peak of the actual event. Extending this idea further, another film which also tried to show verisimilitude of a real event is Saving Private Ryan. The movie "Saving Private Ryan", directed also by Steven Spielberg but also won many Academy Awards and received millions of hearts from people who flocked into cinemas to watch this brilliant movie as it was based on a real event of WWII. It was a horrific event where thousands of lives were lost during their battle for the pride of their country. Steven Spielberg tries to show verisimilitude of the real event where the men being murdered shown directly, through the use of techniques to show the viewer the horror that happened. A scene from Saving Private Ryan where: A American soldier was bombed and one of his fellow friend starts to drag him to safety until he notices that he's dragging only half of his friend. This scene of half the body and the bomb blast is created by the technique of the use of special effects where during the landing of Omaha Beach the viewer is bombarded by these effects where thousands of American soldiers died. The movie is further made realistic by the use of the documentary techniques, where at the start of the film Spielberg us...