What did he say? Here are excerpts from the speeches made on Oscar night by Roberto Benigni, whose “Life Is Beautiful” won three awards last Sunday:
For Best Foreign Language Film: Thank you! Thank you! Sophia, I leave here the Oscar but I want you! I want to be rocked by the waves of your beauty! Come here! Thank you! Thank you! This is a moment of joy, and I want to kiss everybody because you are the maker of the joy. He who kisses the joy as it flies leaves an (lives in?) eternity sunrise, said the poet. And this is wonderful to be here. Wonderful — I feel like now really to, to dive in this ocean of (Italian word), of generosity. This is too much, your generosity, and, uh, how do you say when the rain, the, the hailstorm! It’s a hailstorm of kindness of gratitude for you. . . . Also I would like to thank my parents in Vergaio in the little village in Italy; they gave me the biggest gift, the poverty, and I want to thank them for the rest of my life. Really, but thank you mamma and babbo. Thank you! And thank you for your love, because it, if I am here, it is because people love the movie so it is always the question of love. I would like to dedicate this prize to those that, because the subject of my movie, those who are not here; they gave their life in order that we can say, “Life is beautiful.” . . .
For Best Actor: Thank you! This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English! No, I don’t know! Oh, how can I, I am not able to express all my gratitude, because now my body is in tumult because it is a colossal moment of joy so everything is really in a way that I cannot express. I would like to be Jupiter and kidnap everybody and lie down in the firmament making love to everybody because I don’t know how to express — it’s a question of love. You are really, this is a mountain of snow, so delicate, the suavity and the kindness, it is something I cannot forget. From the bottom of my heart and thank you for the Academy Awards for the, who really loved the movie. Thank you to all the, in Italy, the Italian cinema, grazie a l’Italia who made me, I am really, I owe to them all my, if I did something good, so grazie a l’Italia e grazie a l’America, land of the lot of things here. Thank you very much and, I hope — really I don’t deserve this, but I hope to win some other Oscars! Thank you!
