Fellini is one of the famous European directors who pays the most attention to imagination, especially his unrestrained middle and late works. He hopes to find out the so-called "meaning", "morality" and "concept" simply and clearly from his works. , are very difficult. It is the grand poetry and ambiguous imagination of his works that make him the most outstanding representative of postwar European film art.
So is this film. The film is based on a novel written in the first century AD by a close friend of the famous Roman emperor Nero. Fellini didn't want to make the film into a history textbook that "borrows the past to satirize the present", but wanted the film to be an "ancient Roman fantasy work". Fellini put aside the social ethics and religious concepts that have "evolved" for many years, and tried his best to "simulate" the social weathering of ancient Rome. Even so, the film is, after all, the restoration of an ancient society imagined by today's people. Since its subjective color is unavoidable, Fellini simply does not shy away from implementing his own subjective "poetry" in film language and image concepts. As a line of subtitles in the movie trailer says, "Rome, before Christ, after Fellini."
Although it is emphasized that Fellini's works should not be interpreted in a stereotyped manner, if some of the director's intentions cannot be detected, it will not fail to live up to this grand epic film. Wandering in the hunger and thirst of fleshly desire, Enco can be regarded as the representative of the mainstream state of the younger generation in Rome. He has not been able to get rid of pure fleshly desire and enter the realm of spiritual desire. This is because the Romans cannot reproduce the glory of the Greeks. At the same time, it is also the historical prospect of the emergence of Christ and the unification of Christianity and Catholicism in Europe. Similarly, the Romans' concept of death is also reflected in the film. In such a society where material is more important than spirituality, death must be the greatest threat. Therefore, the rich man will build a mausoleum before his death, and the playboy Ashtu will also be taken away by death. With his carefree life, Omo finally broke through the ultimate limit of death, realized the eternity of the spirit, and let everyone eat the corpse.
At the end of the film, Enke experienced the freedom of the common people, the banquet of the rich and the helplessness of slaves, the desires and satisfactions of the body, and impotence and healing. The big ship to Africa, we have reason to believe, this is a new generation in Rome, a more progressive generation.
