A misty eye is as good as a cry

What’s the last movie that made you cry?

They say boys don’t cry. Right?

Wrong!

I’m not a little boy any more; I’m rarely overly emotional, and I may not bawl my eyes out, but some movies do indeed make them go all watery. I don’t exactly remember when it started. If my memory still serves me, it could have been when I watched the 1997 film Life Is Beautiful, with Italian actor Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the script, directed and played the leading role.

That is still my all-time favourite film. It won the Academy Award for Best Film, while Benigni won for Best Actor. The film is set during World War II and has a connection to a book – I Was a Boy Who Survived Auschwitz, a memoir by Rubino Romeo, an Italian Holocaust survivor.

The most recent film that has moistened my eyes is The Book Thief, released in 2013. It’s really unfortunate that I only discovered this film a few weeks ago in my Disney+ streaming feed, but I’m so glad I did. I had heard about it when it was released all those years ago, but it didn’t really catch my interest at the time.

Coincidentally, The Book Thief is also set during World War II and has a book connection, too. The film is based on the international bestselling 2005 novel of the same title by Markus Zusak.

The film is about Liesel Meminger, a young girl who is brought to a foster home in 1939 Nazi Germany by her mother after her father was arrested on suspicion of being a Communist. Liesel, the titular book thief, steals her first book from the gravedigger during her brother’s burial when she is on her way into foster care.

She develops a close relationship with Hans Hubermann her foster father who helps her to learn how to read and write. Through the film Liesel steals other books, once from a public Nazi book-burning ceremony, and later from Mayor’s wife whom she befriends.

Duing the film Liesel also makes friends with Rudy Steiner a neighbour who can run very fast and Max Vandenburg who is given refuge from the Nazis in the basement of her foster parents home, an act of immense risk to own safety.

The film is a poignant story of love and loss during the war and the theme of human mortality is often raised by the narrator which is Death himself.

There were several moments in the film which almost brought me to full-on tears; I can’t lie. If you haven’t watched this film yet, I can highly recommend that you do so as soon as possible.