In 1920, Fellini was born in an Italian town called Mini. Fellini described that the town has a bright summer day with dazzling sunshine and a gloomy snowy winter, but the conservative Catholic atmosphere has inspired little Fellini's endless imagination. This small town on the Adriatic Sea has become the original scene in Fellini's filmmaking throughout his life. The atmosphere of the small northern seaport and the lazy and casual Italian temperament are permeated in this work. After the 70s has passed, he expressed his deep gratitude to his hometown with "The Past".
If Fellini's entire career as a director is a surging river, then "The Things of the Past" is like a stream that flows slowly, seeping into the soil, and nourishing the hearts of the audience. I have watched a lot of movies in memory, and "Back then" is the most affectionate and least sensational one I have ever felt. It makes the director no longer the unattainable master in people’s minds, but more like an old man in sixties who has been away from home for many years, looking deep into his childhood, his hometown, and the director is like a meek poet. The poetic language of the film tells us a simple and pure childhood. For this film, Fellini once said: "I think I have created almost everything: childhood, characters, nostalgia, dreams and memories, in order to be able to describe the joy they bring." The
film is unique. The "outsider" appeared, and he directly faced the camera and told the audience the people and things described by the director. This outsider jumps out from time to time in the movie and talks casually to the audience, just like a natural conversation between friends. Or the people who participated in the joy of the movie suddenly jumped out of the screen from a certain corner, telling sadly the past youthful past. It's like the director in the movie's extravaganza communicates directly with the audience, maybe he is the incarnation of Fellini. While cherishing the memory, I also tell you cruelly: all this is just a movie, but an imperfect youth with a beautiful appearance. When we reminisce about our childhood, it is inevitable that we will unconsciously add beautiful imaginations. In fact, it is this kind of real and illusory scene that can capture the beautiful feeling of passing, and can accurately convey the director's true and complex feelings: a shallow sorrow, but also a sweet childhood past.
The film outlines the simple civic life in small Italian towns with delicate brushstrokes, and various characters: the protagonist’s middle-class family, the workers who work for his father, the school, the teacher, the children, the prostitutes, the military officers, and the United States of film projectionists. People, street performers...no conflicts, no joy and compassion. I don’t agree with those who think that Fellini’s purpose in making this film is to show a certain deep meaning of Italy under fascism. Of course, he described the objective environment, with the enthusiasm and joys and sorrows of fascist rule, but no turbulent struggles. It is not to show the so-called special meaning through the deep and warm feelings of childhood memories of hometown. In a sense, the small town has nothing to do with politics or fascism. The people in the small town simply live for themselves. It is a pure and clean poem, just like what Mr. Shen Congwen said, there is only a piece of sorrow and joy that each person should be implicated by one person and one thing. The crowd of joyous scenes at the bonfire folk party in the Spring Festival, the elderly and children, men, and women, are the joy of everyone.
A group of innocent and naughty children sometimes teased the blind man playing the accordion, and sometimes looked at the goddess in the heart—Grantis with extremely admiring eyes. There is nothing unnatural and filthy in the beautiful fantasy of women in the depression of growing up under the repression of church schools and parents. There is a section where the director asks the protagonist to look for the beautiful Gladys figure in the snowy picture, but he passes by, which is a symbol of purity in itself. Fellini also used cartoon-like pictures to portray the teachers in the pedantic church schools in the eyes of the children, and the series of unscrupulous pranks. When taking a group photo, they used toads to scare the girls in the front row. They slipped out of the classroom under the teacher's nose. The fat man wrote funny and childish love letters. The short classmate who made the teacher furious and always uttered inaccurate Greek sounds...Although it was full of funny The characters and interesting stories all reveal a strong breath of life. It is this breath of life that moves us and resonates. In this way, Fellini gave us an infinite association with childhood and a real texture under the relaxed and smooth lens. And this kind of emotional transmission has crossed the time and the dimension of space. Even decades later, even in a distant foreign country, we still experience it without obstacles. That alone is so remarkable.
The town is a panoramic display, and the director also meticulously portrays the life of the protagonist's family and vividly different characters. Needless to say, the naughty and ignorant protagonist, his grumpy but very kind father against fascism; a mother who always defends the diligent housework in which the master and father quarrel; and the uncle who can’t control what’s in his hands despite the troubles at home; Abnormally climbed up the tree and shouted that I want another uncle of a woman. They only use few pen and ink to create lifelike characters. Through the display of specific family life fragments, the audience is given a real experience, and the texture of the film is also highlighted. In the memory, there are both big frames and small branches. Through a series of interesting things, it can be seen how high the director's mastery structure is.
Fellini ended his memories with a funeral, followed by the wedding of Grantis, the perfect woman in the hearts of the children. In the last scene, in the empty wilderness, there are only blue sky and the earth, clean and beautiful. Before the people in the small town leave, the children's carnival of saying goodbye to their youth is being staged. The tramp tells us that everything is over and it is time to go home. The dandelions are floating around again like the opening, echoing each other in the distance. The blind man was fascinated by the other songs. It heralds the passing of spring after spring. The tearful Grantis reluctantly bid farewell to the people of his hometown, and the car drifted further away under the lens of the empty outline until it disappeared. The children still chased and yelled, but they couldn't catch up anymore, couldn't catch up with the goddess in their hearts, and couldn't catch up with the fading youth...the melodious background music exudes a trace of sadness. Such rich and profound meaning, this is the youth that Fellini told us about, this is the youth farewell ceremony held by Fellini for himself and for those who have lost their youth when Fellini was in his fifties.
Some people say that Fellini’s magic is: his comic-like group of comical figures have such a strong vitality and appeal; his vastness under the mud has the temperament similar to Shakespeare and Rabelais; he only needs to mobilize simply. Limited film methods have achieved first-class film quality.
Fellini once said: "Dream is the only reality." While savoring "Back then", we indulged in those sweet youthful pictures, but we were sad to say goodbye to youth dreams. These fragmentary fragments are not politically mixed, and they have no social weight. What they record is only a piece of beauty left in the heart, only an unforgettable memory, and only a young and ignorant soul. Just like those dandelions flying all over the sky in the film, they scattered with the wind but took root in a certain heart in a certain place. It's endless and unforgettable.
What is our youth? Someone said this way: Our youth is a woman who lives with us day and night, singing and dancing. On the day she grew up, she was categorically married in a white wedding dress. The woman may not be perfect, but it is this imperfection that gives us the real texture and the possibility of getting close to us, and it leaves us with real melancholy when she leaves. In a quiet falling snow, the youthful peacock quietly opened its screen, blooming alone in the sky full of flies.
No other movie can give us a wild, passionate and sentimental youth like "Back then". The age and country cannot weaken our identity. Eyes are flowing in Fellini's dreamy image, but my heart is nodding: Yes, this is our youth, that's it...
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