You must GIVE BACK THAT OSCAR! (Part 1)

Everyone makes mistakes now and then....ESPECIALLY the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  Through the years, one will notice some shocking errors, which can only be blamed on the tenor of the times, shameless campaigning on the part of the studios and/or the performer involved....or could it be a simple miscount on the part of Price-Waterhouse?  In any event, as we count down toward this year's Academy Awards (February 27th) we are going to highlight five examples of these shameful errors on the part of the Academy and are putting out a request for the person(s) involved to simply and quietly return their mistakenly-awarded Oscar to the Academy....no questions asked.  Let us begin:

1998:  Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella)

Perhaps inspired by Jerry Lewis and his legendary, unfinished disaster, The Day the Clown Cried (Lewis's self-written/directed/acted film about a clown in a concentration camp during World War II), the previously unknown (in America), Roberto Benigni wrote, directed and starred in this dreadful, false tale that seemed to fool critics and audiences alike into thinking that this dreck was "art".  It isn't.  It uses the Holocaust as a cheap cinematic device, completely trivializing the horrors of war while hiding behind the veil of being "a fable".  It rings false at nearly every turn, and Benigni's Italo-campy antics get annoying after roughly 2 1/2 minutes.  The film won the "Grand Prize of the Jury" at the Cannes Film Festival that year and went on to win the "Best Foreign Language Film" at the 1998 Academy Awards.  Benigni, in an unprecedentedly tacky display, walked on the backs of the auditorium seats and then proceeded to bunny-hop up the aisle, while receiving a huge standing ovation (his first of two that night).  He then launched into a babbling acceptance speech that made absolutely no sense...even compatriot Sophia Loren, who presented the award, looked utterly baffled.

Then it came time for the "Best Actor" award.  It was a tight race that year, with most money riding on either Edward Norton for American History X or Ian McKellan for Gods and Monsters, with Benigni considered an unlikely winner.  But when Helen Hunt (her name may be coming up later in this list....) opened the envelope, there he was again.  More standing ovation.  More crazed antic babbling.  


The years have not been kind to Life is Beautiful.  For me, if ever there was a film that screams "lost something in translation," this is the one.  Its forced, contrived sentimentality at the expense of those who actually endured the Holocaust--who would no doubt unanimously agree that there were no moments of jolly antics--is utterly painful to watch.  And Benigni's double-caffeinated, soppy Pagliacci performance is most certainly not of award-winning caliber.  Give them back, Roberto.  Give them both back, and we'll just pretend it didn't happen, okay?  Grazie....
And the award actually goes to: 

Edward Norton, American History X