La grande bellezza, absolutely beautiful.
The beginning of the film seems disconnected from the whole story. Japanese tourist dies suddenly after taking pictures under the chants of the women's choir. In the distance, the white buildings that have stood for thousands of years are quietly fermenting in the Mediterranean sun, and the women in the high places continue to sing. I have to think of a line from "Duino Elegy": Beauty is the beginning of the horror we have to endure. In the silence and peace, this righteous death is terrifying. Because death is triggered in a place that seems least likely to bring death. What exactly do tourists see in Rome? The following fragmented scenes give us the answer.
The protagonist of the film, Jep, is a 65-year-old man. A novel 40 years ago made him famous, and he became the king of the Roman upper class. During these 40 years, he never wrote a book again, working as a reporter in the editorial office. Sleeps during the day and hangs out in the various parties in Rome at night. In such a party, there is only noise and desire. Indulgent people on the dance floor seem to hang in an inverted shot, like bats sucking the blood of reason. So everything was swallowed up by glitz and madness. After dawn, the tide of madness ebbs. A dwarf with the height of a girl climbed up in the mess, looking for the crowd of the night before in the empty rooms.
At parties, Jep indulges. But in the warm afternoon of Rome, Jep would be alone in the ancient alleys of Rome, and when passing the monastery, the little nuns in clean white robes would look at the world beyond the sacred with curious and clear eyes. In the monastery's garden, the nuns run after each other. A mother is also looking for her daughter outside the monastery. Jep walked into a chapel and found the girl on the next floor under her feet. The girl asked who he was. Then he answered for him: You are nothing. Jep bows his head as if to explain something, but the soundtrack overshadows Jep's voice.
Andrea interrogates Jep in the restaurant with the author's famous quote about death, and Jep only teaches him a little bit: don't take it seriously in life. Andrea pointed out Jep's hypocrisy: just because you don't know doesn't mean others don't.
niente none, answers throughout the dialogue in each scene. This kind of nothingness is a trace of beauty dying when tradition is smashed by modernity. Nothing is an extinct beauty. Contamination, escape, and death, these are the only three destinies left in Rome. But no matter which one you choose, what you will face in the end is nothing under the beauty of vanity.
Andrea committed suicide. Jep casually talks to Romana about the funeral and tells Romana not to cry. During the funeral, Jep, who personally carried the coffin of the deceased, became a violator of his own statement. He was not weeping for the dead, the mantle of his false life was pierced as the weight of death weighed on him, and the naked nothingness was revealed. He was weeping that he was going to die in nothingness. Jep couldn't be more casual. After 40 years of dancing with nothingness, aging and death are on the cards.
Jep tries to think between parties, mocking the hypocritical Stefina while acknowledging the hypocrisy of his work on a night of celebrity gossip. On the terrace under the bright Mediterranean moonlight, celebrities are placed on a flashy and nothingness platter. They are rooted in the nothingness and lead a meaningless life.
Jep is struggling, and Elisa, Jep's first love, dies. Indifferent to love, he saw the ocean from the empty ceiling. He is trying to give meaning to all that is not. This ocean is where they meet. Elisa's husband cried after reading his wife's diary: Elisa only loved Jep in her life. When Jep asked to see Elisa's diary days later, the diary was discarded by her husband. The evidence of love is nowhere to be found, and the evidence of the beautiful first love herself has since disappeared.
So he turned to memory to find meaning. In his recollection of his first love, she turned to avoid his active kiss, backed away, unbuttoned her shirt, and turned away, leaving young Jep standing there. Leaving the old Jep to reminisce about this extinct beauty.
Jep goes to a circus and asks if he can disappear like a giraffe. Disappear, thus dancing with nothingness, no longer falsely pretending to live meaningfully. To this, the circus responded: It was just a trick. How ironic that Jep, who has the nihilistic values of life like a play, can't hide his true existence in front of the real trick. When Jep leaves the circus, the giraffe behind him disappears out of thin air. Even the real existence will be covered up by the nihility of magic; even people, soaked in nihilistic values, will no longer exist in the huge magic scene in Rome.
In deeper despair, Jep invited 104-year-old Saint Maria to his home. A splendid home, a rich meal, but the saint speaks of poverty in a hoarse and subtle voice: we cannot talk about poverty, we have to live in poverty. In this regard, the cardinals who were present were invited to join in: what a powerful voice. Not tire of continuing to introduce the practice of various dishes.
After 70 years of charity work in Africa, the saints returned to their hometowns and received foot-kissing rituals from the Pope, bishops and nuns in the church. The camera recorded all the kissing sessions. Finally, the saints kicked off the straw sandals on their feet. The petite shoes fell on the ground of the church, making a sound in the silence. Like the dwarf, the saint's body is the same as that of a girl. After the party of nothingness and the ritual of nothingness, they all talk to Rome with childlike searches and temptations. But the echo was only silence.
Then the camera showed the saint standing motionless in the garden, allowing the audience to take pictures with her. It is as if taking a photo that is close to the divine can lead to divine redemption. At Jep's house, the saint has not touched the hearty dishes. For many years, she has only eaten 40 grams of vegetable roots a day. Facing Jep, she said: "The reason I only eat vegetable roots is because the roots are important. Rome, which has lost its roots in the madness of nothingness, is a pompous hanging garden.
We followed Jep to see countless women's bodies at parties. With the keys to all Roman castles, a tourist-like nighttime tour of Rome's hidden art. Having lived in Rome for so many years, Jep is still a tourist, he has never lived in the roots of Rome. One of Jep's jokes came true: the most tourists in Rome are tourists. Were the Romans themselves not tourists in their own city? The things they hang around can enjoy anywhere in the world: sex, money, power. Even religious groups have fallen into the maelstrom of worldly nothingness.
At the end of the film, Saint Maria walks on her knees on the holy steps of St. John's Cathedral. She does it herself, and uses the most vulnerable parts to bear the weight of the most sacred existence of her own. Every step up is a sublimation of her existence. She smiled as she climbed to the top and faced the statue of St. John. Because this beautiful city still has its beauty. At the age of 104, she is disappearing in Rome with this beauty.
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