FILM 1289: LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

TRIVIA: Guido's wife, Dora, is played by Roberto Benigni's real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi.

Roberto Benigni says the title comes from a quote by Leon Trotsky. In exile in Mexico, knowing he was about to be killed by Joseph Stalin's assassins, he saw his wife in the garden and wrote that, in spite of everything, "life is beautiful".

Roberto Benigni's Oscar for best actor marked only the second time that an actor had directed himself in an Academy Award winning performance. The other was Laurence Olivier for Hamlet (1948).

Roberto Benigni's Oscar win for Best Actor was the second time a performance completely in Italian had been awarded. The previous winner was Sophia Loren for Two Women (1960).

FILM 1218: TOYS

TRIVIA: Jamie Foxx's film debut.

Robin Williams states that dying his hair orange, and the costume he wore, made him feel like The Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963).

It took director Barry Levinson over 10 years to develop the film. It took 10 months to shoot.

Much of the look draws its inspiration from surrealist painter René Magritte. This is most obvious in the break in scene where Leslie and Alsatia pretend they're doing a music video featuring raining men in the background.

The scene where General Zevo is trying to kill a fly with his gun is a reference to a Confucius quote: "Never use a cannon to kill a fly."

As of May, 2001 the Zevo Tombstone (the stone elephant) resides at Planet Hollywood in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

The words used by the General in an attempt to stop the rampaging sea creature are "Klaatu, Barada, Nikto", the same words used to command the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).