"Travel is very rewarding, he makes us think, we travel out of our imagination, that's what its power is, our travel from birth to death, people and animals, cities and things, is out of imagination, all people can imagine , just close your eyes, it's on the other side of life."
The female choir in the church sang the first Italian music in the morning. In front of the fountain outside the church, a group of tour groups and middle-aged Asian tourists fell to the ground without warning. This is the first film about life. One scene, with David Lang's "I Lie", the pure vocal background is sacred and beautiful, and the entire accidental process is described as unusually calm. Immediately, it was the birthday party of Jep, a writer of high society, with exaggerated makeup and eye-catching costumes of celebrities. Everyone is celebrating Jep's 65th birthday. The grandfather with money and power seems to be the winner in life. At this time, the film puts forward the central idea of the whole film in the form of a personal monologue " What is your favorite thing in life? "
The theme expressed by the film is very grand, the first serious afterthought, I would like to briefly summarize it from 5 aspects:
1) Diversity of life
It begins with two seemingly unconnected acts, the somber-looking singing girl in the church, the exaggerated music and dance at the party, the two lifestyles of different classes and status, the two ways of showing life, the way each person lives from birth to old age. The process is definitely a long journey. The journey referred to in the opening subtitles refers to the adventure of a foreign country, and it also implies the journey of a person's life. It is the passers-by and bystanders who appear in our life. So is it conceivable that everyone has their own customized journey, what we cannot choose is birth, our genetic constitution and appearance, what we can choose is the way of life, the place to live, the friends we get along with, this is the uniqueness of life Everyone is a brand.
From Jep's point of view, this somewhat unruly old man, who became famous in Rome at the age of 26, soon realized the social status brought by power and fame, and skillfully navigates the hypocrisy and lies of the upper class. Human nature, interpreting and satirizing human behavior from a humorous perspective, mocking and directly mocking the pseudo-literature of actresses during interviews, exposing friends' decent family status at friends' gatherings, gossip and lies in interpersonal communication, He can see through it easily. Jep's directness obviously hurts actresses and friends. Otherwise, who would like to admit that their seemingly happy family has already lost a common language with their lover, and that a seemingly strong professional is actually very fragile at heart. Behind those adults who seem to be emotionally stable, there may be a lot of unspeakable helplessness. It's just that Jep hopes that vulnerable friends, you don't need to put on a hypocritical air to cover up your inner instability to win people's attention. The people who are loving you also understand you best.
2) The ability to be happy
Jep said: "I came to Rome at the age of 26. At that time, I couldn't wait, and I almost didn't realize it. I was caught in a vortex of luxury and luxury, but I didn't want to live a luxury life. And it worked, I didn't just want to party, I wanted to have the right to beat people."
Does happiness necessarily come from money and power? The film gives a few extreme angles of satirizing luxury: a beautiful woman sitting in a Rolls-Royce with a painful expression, a black-robed and veiled wife in a high-end restaurant, next to a local Arab husband who eats alone, a group of High-sounding elites admire the reluctant freehand performance of a talented painter.
What makes Jep really happy is meeting the nuns and children in the church to play in the garden, the elegant and beautiful Mrs. Aldan, and the strange buildings in the garden behind the party. The background music is also very suitable for the scene. More It is a calm natural sound, very sophisticated.
More angles of the film are aimed at the elderly around 60 years old. We often say that it is easy to be happy when you are young, and it is enough to get the hug of the mother of the doll you like. The higher we come, the more difficult it is to be happy, we need more new things to satisfy ourselves, such as going to a new place to go to school, meeting new friends, starting a family, sharing joys and sorrows with another life, when boredom strikes , the birth of a new life brings changes to life, watching him grow day by day and gradually become similar to himself, the change of new life also drives our emotional changes day after day, which is also indispensable in life Life stage, but Jep chooses another road less traveled, obviously understanding loneliness from his perspective is particularly heavy. While we are social animals, destined to connect with others, happiness is feeling connected, free, and empowered.
3) love
Jep's young love, Alyssa, died. Her husband found Jep crying and complained that his wife who had been married for more than 30 years said in his diary that he was not the one his wife loved the most, but he said that he would always live in love for her. And a few months later, Jep found him and wanted to ask why Alyssa didn't choose her back then, and found that her most sincere husband at the time had a new lover to fill the vacancy in her life. Instead, I felt that it was the calm Jep. Still in love with Alyssa, still appearing in his fantasy. It is difficult for us to say how long his love lasts, and it is also difficult to say whether it is reasonable for her husband who has been with Alyssa for more than 30 years to have a new lover immediately. This is also the most difficult part to explain. Jep's Final Fantasy.
4) About the ultimate proposition of loneliness
The film shows loneliness all the time. The most lively person at the dance is also the one who needs K fans to stay excited behind the scenes, but weeps under the moonlight. Jep in a suit and leather shoes was scattered by the riverside alone in the early morning, facing three workplace friends of the same age who wore sportswear and ran all the way to make fun of trivial work. Jep has many friends, but few. The wealthy Mrs. Viola lost her only son and sat lonely at the huge dining table. Overcoming loneliness that the film wants to express is probably the ultimate proposition in human history.
5) Faith is also the original intention
The last grand theme, about Sister Mary, "Do you know why I like to eat vegetable roots? Because vegetable roots are important."
The lines that made me laugh a little bit at the end, when I used a one-minute close-up to describe the nearly 100-year-old Sister Maria climbing the stairs of worship alone, I was moved by it, and the last stubbornness was also the original belief.
"Usually the end of things is death, but first there is life, hidden in these words, hidden in these noises, silence is emotion, love is fear, the radiance of beauty, wild and impermanent, and then the filth And the miserable hearts are all buried under the embarrassment of being born, the appearance is decorated with glitz, and in the end, it is just a trick..."
Summarize:
I watched the whole film 5 times. The first time was at the train station. I watched it with a vague understanding. I was shocked and moved. The framing and composition completely satisfied me, an architecture lover. Some viewers quickly said that this is simply a utopian conception. Indeed, life can be a gorgeous robe or a piece of chicken feathers in one place. The movie "City of Absolute Beauty" is very emotional to the audience. It will be an emotional catharsis pool.
The film does not mention travel, but reflects a person's life journey on the side. I think travel is a necessity for everyone. He has nothing to do with age or gender. What we have to do is to experience and feel life. The journey of life is very exciting and also It can be very bad, depending on how we choose, in conclusion, the most important thing is to see the truth of life and still love it...
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