Ironic and desecrating, actor and Oscar-winning director, reader and popularizer of the Divine Comedy, the Italian Constitution, the Ten Commandments. It is difficult to summarize Roberto Benigni in a few words, at least as much as to offer a complete overview of an amazing career that led him to win an Oscar and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Today Benigni, one of the most appreciated protagonists of Italian cinema abroad, turns 70. Born in Castiglion Fiorentino, in the province of Arezzo, on October 27, 1952, he moved with his family to Prato when still a child and, after a short transition to the seminary, he graduated as an accountant and, at less than 20 years of age, made his theater debut. He then worked with Giuseppe Bertolucci on films and shows. In 1983 he began his career as a director with "Tu mi turbi" and in 1984, together with Massimo Troisi, he wrote, directed and interpreted "All we have to do is cry", a very successful film. He recited in films directed by Jim Jarmusch and Blake Edwards and collaborated, among other things, with the writer and screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami. Public success comes also with the series of films: "The little devil", "Johnny Stecchino" and "The monster", of which Benigni is the interpreter and director. Then, alongside Paolo Villaggio, he recited in "La voce della Luna", directed by Federico Fellini. However, the consecration arrives in 1997 with “Life is beautiful”, his greatest success story, which tells the drama of the Holocaust with a different approach: it is the story of a Tuscan man of Jewish origin who, deported to a Nazi camp, tries to protect his son from the horrors of the Shoah. As in other films directed by Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Italian actress and producer, and his wife since 1991, also stars. The film received three Oscars, one for the best soundtrack to Nicola Piovani, one for the best foreign film and one for the best protagonist actor in Benigni. The film also won five Silver Tapes, nine David di Donatello and the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 51st Cannes Film Festival. Benigni then directs and interprets "Pinocchio", a film released in 2002 that won two David di Donatello and a Silver Tape, and "The Tiger and the Snow", again directed and interpreted in 2005, which received two Silver Tapes. Benigni also exhibits outstanding disclosure qualities in his unforgettable readings of Dante's Divine Comedy and his successful intervention at the Sanremo Festival in 2011 celebrating 150 years since the Unification of Italy. In 2012, he returned to state television with "The most beautiful in the world", a show dedicated to the Italian Constitution and in 2021 he received the Golden Lion for his career at the Venice International Film Art Exhibition. (Foto Georges Biard)