Great Moments In 21st Century Film

Roberto Benigni.

I could leave it at his name, but instead I'll explain. He's an Italian writer, actor, director. I won't say too much about him, other than that he's an international treasure, a true poet and one of few people of whom I would say their heart is made of gold. His wife is his eternal muse. He is one of a handful of actors I've witnessed who can speak in a foreign language and still communicate precisely to those who don't speak the same tongue. I just watched his 2005 film The Tiger And The Snow. It's about a poet/professor who is in love with a journalist and repeatedly attempts to win her affection. The journalist travels to Iraq, just as the Iraq War is starting, to write an article about an Iraqi poet who is returning to his homeland. She is the victim of a bombing and goes into a coma. Benigni's character travels (by any means necessary) to Baghdad to be with her. In an attempt to save her life he pleads with an Iraqi pharmacist for advice on how to cure her of her coma with the limited resources available in a bombed out city. When Benigni delivered this speech to the pharmacist, I pretty much lost it:

"If she dies, they can close this whole show of a world. They can cart it off, unscrew the stars, roll up the sky and put it on a truck. They can turn off this sunlight I love so much... You know why I love it so much? Because I love her when the sun shines on her.  They can take everything away. These carpets, columns, houses. Sand, wind, frogs, ripe watermelons, hail, seven in the evening. May, June, July, basil, bees, the sea."

I have felt that before... that at the loss of someone they might as well "unscrew the stars" and pack up "this whole show of a world."