The further one moves away from the truth, the stronger the curiosity, and as one gets closer and closer to the truth, the curiosity gradually dissipates and the moral drive gradually strengthens. The desire to peep is replaced by a sense of morality as the gaze advances, and the "gazing" allows us to see, approach, and understand, and generates moral concerns, as well as deep anxiety and unease due to our immense sense of powerlessness as spectators. —— "The Ethics of Eyes" Li Yang
The background of the film "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" is World War II, and the advent of the war changed everything. Because of the war, the heroine Malena lost the protection of her husband and father, two men. As an outsider, in the social survival rule dominated by male-dominated discourse, she is like a sheep, walking alone in a sinister and sinister way. in the jungle. She was alone and helpless.
After Malena's husband went to the battlefield, she walked through the town square many times before and after, each time symbolizing a different situation in her life. From the first time she walked through the square, the "words" that continued to surround Malena gradually shaped her into a beautiful slut. Most of the time, Malena's character is either in the sexual fantasies and stalking of boys, or in the broken mouths of men and women in small towns. She is not "absent", and the camera is always in the distance. peeping at her. The camera is like the eyes of boys, the eyes of town residents, and the eyes of the audience. In this film lacking her own perspective, Malena's beauty is the result of the interaction of "voyeurism" and "multi-dimensional perspective". The film describes it as an object of male desire, and she is an absent symbol of "beauty" (sexual desire).
More than 50 minutes after the movie, the heroine Malena spoke some lines in the courtroom for the first time, but she only passively answered the judge's inquiry. The second time she spoke directly, it was a brief conversation with residents and boys when she returned to the town and went to the market alone, and the film ended soon after. In this nearly 109-minute film, what we see is the whole process of "beauty" being slandered, possessed, destroyed, and trampled upon by humiliation. The audience and the boy know everything with the camera, and "we" stand by and do nothing. At the back of the film, the anonymous letter that the boy gave to the heroine's husband is the boy's greatest courage and the most admirable behavior, and it is also the audience's wish outside the screen.
Due to the difficulties of current affairs and the heavy pressure of life, and the last glimmer of hope placed on the lawyer has also vanished, the heroine is sinking in the hope of all. On this day, she shortened her hair, dyed it, and appeared in the square wearing more revealing clothes. She sat down and accepted her fate. The men around were scrambling to light a cigarette for her. At that moment, Malena burst into tears, revealing the lust and ugliness of men. Before and after she fell, she was living in endless verbal violence, which reflected men's obscenity and women's ignorance and jealousy. After Italy's defeat in the war, the violence of language rose to the violence of action in the fierce emotions of military and civilian carnivals. In a series of fast-cut shots, we saw the cruel scene of "beauty" being completely destroyed, so brutal and non-negotiable. The women's hearts finally let out the breath they held in their hearts, and their actions seemed to show that beauty was something that was born wrong. This "crusade" against Malena was an atrocity of the common people. The men and women in this town destroyed Malena bit by bit.
Such an ugly story is not "Beautiful Tales", the title "Beautiful Tales of Sicily" is an irony to the whole. If there is really a trace of beauty, it will stop at the boy's various sexual fantasies about the heroine. This is a boy who has entered adolescence, and the normal green behavior. Even in the sexual fantasy, there are traces of "heroism" everywhere. The boy imagines himself as the male protagonist in the famous works in the history of movies. In this film, not only the female Malena is "absent" in the film, but the women in the whole film are in the "silence" of the object. We can spy on the sexual fantasies of boys: a series of seemingly natural cultural systems constructed around patriarchy. This is exactly what the film is about to illustrate criticism.
One day after the war, in the eyes of everyone, Malena's husband, who had died in the battle, suddenly appeared in the town, and he broke an arm. After the husband found Malena, the two walked through the square for the last time in the movie holding each other. Malena was dressed in plain clothes, and her face seemed to be a little older. She returned to the social role of "wife". In the last scene, after many fantasies and voyeurs, the boy communicated with Malena for the first time. It was so brief and polite. This was the taste of youth for boys. We don't know whether the women in the small town sincerely accept the return of Malena, let alone whether the boys will lose their "integrity" and "braveness" when they grow up, and are unconsciously included in the "male world". We know that as viewers, when we "peep" and "judge" with the characters, we must have a heart of compassion, both in reality and on the screen.
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