As one of the pioneers of Italian neorealism, Fellini shifted from focusing on external reality to focusing on Jean's reality. In his works, the human heart is an island, and the external world is like a circus carnival.
The ubiquitous cameras and reporters in the film make it impossible for all kinds of characters to escape, and all the carnival and nothingness are exposed under the lens.
As a reporter, the male protagonist Marcello has encountered all kinds of complex people. Through Marcello's perspective, we can see the inner reality of different groups of people.
Some of them put their demands on religious beliefs. From the flying Jesus at the beginning of the film to the Virgin Mary at the back, they put their unidentified emotions in religion, and are eager to find identity and belonging in religious belief. .
Some, like female stars, pin their inner loneliness on love, and find a trace of joy in all their rambunctious behaviors with Marcello.
Others use their loneliness and emptiness with the carnival of the ball feast to relieve loneliness in a flashy banquet, but in the end it is an endless emptiness.
Some are like Marcello's father, a man who seems to be funny, talking about "beautiful legs" and chatting up modern girls in nightclubs, but in the end, he escaped and left.
Some, like Marcello's fiancee Emma, a woman with a strong desire to control, poured all her emotions into Marcello, but only intensified the contradiction between the two sides.
Even if he is as successful as Steiner, he runs a literary salon, seems to have a high status, and has a happy and sweet family, but he also has sorrows and fears that ordinary people cannot understand. In the end, he shot and killed his own pair of children and then committed suicide.
After experiencing all kinds of things, Marcello said goodbye to his career as a journalist.
The restaurant girl who appears at the end of the film, who Marcello praised as an "angel", may be the one who really has a sweet life.
Life is like in Fellini's works, full of carnivals everywhere, but everyone's inner loneliness will not be attributed to carnivals after all, but indulged in the sweet smile of a certain girl.
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