The main plot line of the story is very simple, a group of ascetics abandon the worldly desires, the process of "ultimate". The complexity is the tone and metaphor. In the film, the director mixed all the "religious" elements of occultism, Buddhism, Christianity, witchcraft shaman and so on. In fact, they all pursue the same ultimate and truth. Of course, the journey towards the sacred mountain is like the journey of a Buddhist or Hindu ascetic in pursuit of truth.
The beginning is interspersed with four scenes: the resurrection of Jesus, the massacre of the Nazis, the carnival ritual, and the Roman gluttony. The resurrected Jesus can't even speak, and expresses emotions in a roaring way, which is the most primitive state of mankind. Therefore, after waking up, he encountered four mutilated, undeveloped "selfs". Under his leadership, he saw the world of riots and sex, a chaotic carnival. There are many fragments that clearly imitate religious scenes, including the Christ on the cross, the weeping Virgin, etc. Jesus was opposed to statues. They borrowed the form of a thief and made a statue of Jesus. The "deception" of religion is obvious.
The thief of Christ, who was bewitched by money, climbed up the tower and duel with the alchemist. He pulled out the filth behind the thief, refined his feces into gold, and invited him to embark on a journey to find the truth together, and introduced him to him. Other companions.
Briefly record the metaphors behind several ascetics on different planets:
Venus
The world in the age of mechanical replication. Human beings are manufactured by factories, and they are all programmed and identical people from clothing to appearance. Everything is fake, everything is self-righteous, self-thinking that there are multiple choices, quite the feeling of "Brave New World". Of course, sexual desire is emphasized.
Mars:
This is a world where sexual desire is king, turning people back into a world of beasts. The new generation is addicted to splendid pop culture and violence (like the United States in the 1960s, Rock and roll, Buddhism (Zen), Christ... They can all be used as weapons. Trends may be weapons of resistance. At that time, the so-called "Hundred Flowers" of different cultures in American society may have a deeper meaning in "resistance" rather than construction.
Jupiter
The world where the husband and wife live together looks like a European setting, and the apparently normal family is behind derailment and chaos (mostly like the so-called "upper society" in literary works). Maybe the museum scene is about the trend of postmodern art at that time? Using the body as an exhibit, behind it is the worship of sexual desire (there is a group of worshippers behind the museum). He even created the "love machine", even the machine is making love, a strange installation art. Applying fantasy to desire and putting it on display in a museum, it is also like consumerist packaging, beautification, and defamiliarization, turning into a dazzling business.
Saturn
The owner said "my customs is children" this is a world that seems to "cater" children. The beginning of the article is the clown carnival and the dwarf Santa Claus. The circus and the toy factory are the core structures here. The paradox is that there are old gun soldiers standing outside the factory, the factory workers are old people, and the "toys" produced are all firearms. On the surface, the children are caring and shouting, and the old people are silent and tame, but the rulers behind the real power are the old people. The protagonist is a funny clown in front of the children, but in the factory, he turns into an elite female politician. Children think they have mastered the world and created a new culture. In fact, they are just being tempted and ruled. Popular culture determines what they should like. They spent fifty years brainwashing and transforming children into military forces, making them think that they could fight for honor and create a "voluntary" illusion. The brainwashing and cultural erosion of business culture is about this path.
Uranus
He is the master of the planet, but he is a slave (the old woman told him that the window is too small and he doesn't like it), he is the president's fictional adviser, who wants to save the country's trade and lives in a world where money is supreme. The feast of the banquet is the capitalist era in which the cake is full of dummy, and people cannibalize people.
Neptune
This is a rather Spartan world, and the brainless screaming and carnival state of the people implies: there can only be one brain here, a world under totalitarian rule. Boys need to castrate their reproductive capacity to the highest one, "learn to believe in me" and swear allegiance, as if the ancient lord mastered the reproductive rights of the whole clan. In the Holocaust scene, men are keen to promote, show, and practice violence here.
Pluto
He is an architect, of course, but he sells gluttony and sex, that is, human desires, in a more gentle way.
They burned money, physical bodies and other "images", embarked on a journey of asceticism, went to nature, and searched for the holy mountain. Along the way, he faced suffering and death, experienced various religious rituals, and went through hardships and dangers. Distinguish the truth of words at the foot of the sacred mountain, breaking the illusion of the world, all kinds of sweet traps, avoiding all kinds of "holy mountain" of rhetoric, the last hurdle is to face the deepest desires and fears in my heart, sexual desire, and money , Violence, etc., the fellows failed one by one. On the ship, the Christ thief abandoned his incomplete self. From abandoning money, flesh, and original desires, to finally cutting off the external "phase", he finally walked to the holy mountain.
Here the director stood up and showed the audience the truth of "reality": stepping out of the movie, overthrowing the set, and expanding the perspective, allowing the audience to return to our reality, and the whole play ended.
There are countless hints about religion, especially the Tarot card. I can say that I don't understand all of them. I have been half-understanding of other religious metaphors, but it does not affect the sense of fantasy that I experience. This is indeed the art of the visual age. The visual impact of the color of the scene is extremely strong, the importance of language and plot is almost minimized, and the shock and impact brought by intuitive intuition are the most important.
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