Religion is an important scene in Fellini's films. These descriptions objectively presented all aspects of the decline of religious traditions at that time. The opening usually depicts the grandeur of religious activities. For example, in the movie "The Road", Jesomina encountered a mighty crowd and a tall statue, which Fellini wanted to use to highlight its sanctity and importance. But in contrast, the psychology of believers and non-believers is much more complicated. For believers, he focused on describing a fanatical Protestant mentality. Such believers may be the people at the bottom who are sick and suffering. They feel humbled and sinful before God, and worship God's power very much. They hope that God can solve their suffering. The emotion of their belief is very intense and pathological. For example, the mourning people in front of the Virgin in "Night of Kabylia", or the sick person who also worships the Virgin in the rain in "La Dolce Vita". This is slightly different from the peaceful religious mood we usually see. Of course, this may also be because most of these scenes are related to important ritual significance.
And among the slightly younger generation, their faith in religion has waned considerably. Their belief in God is not that God is the foundation of their existence, but that God has the possibility of fulfilling his material-spiritual wishes through his divine powers. For example, in "Night of Kabylia", Kabylia's girlfriend hopes to get a holiday cottage. More often than not, they are unaware that God exists, much less that they need to conscientiously discern whether or not because of this belief. Religion can still function in ceremonial settings, uniting people and encouraging people's lives. But in any case, religion no longer has the kindness of "loving neighbors", and there is only a picture of "I and God". At a social level, selfishness, exploitation, and sin are the norm. In "Sweet Life", the scene about the apparition of the Virgin Mary was completely fabricated by adults and exaggerated by the media to attract public opinion and gain profits. People have completely stood on the opposite side of God's belief!
In Fellini's films, the people of the lower class are mostly poor and hopeful, while the upper class is full of music every night but is extremely corrupt in spirit. But he did not intend to oppose the two in order to achieve some kind of social criticism. For example, in "Night of Kabylia", although the famous director is rich and powerful, he also retains respect for Kabylia, as for philanthropists, they are good people in the upper class. Perhaps, to a certain extent, when the poisonous cancer of decadence, depravity, or poverty has eroded the entire society, Fellini's criticism is no longer aimed at a certain class, but at the entire heterogeneous capitalist culture. However, Fellini still has an answer to the question of what and who to believe. Just as the middle class such as Marcello can only continue to degenerate, and the playwright Sitan chooses to commit suicide, only Kabylia is desperate and firm in her belief, maybe "she" is the hope of society. And if we think about Kabylia's identity as a prostitute, it is not difficult to find that Fellini ultimately has such a humanistic orientation - the hope of our society today is not in the powerful and powerful upper-class audience, but in the There are people with courageous and optimistic characteristics, and they mostly appear in the lower-level identities. Fellini chose to believe in human nature. From this perspective, Fellini's works are also full of realism!
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