When "The City of Absolute Beauty" just won the best foreign language film, I looked for it, in addition to "Absolute beauty", I didn't see anything else, I liked it, but this like, I can't convert it into words and tell it to others. But after reading and remembering The man Paulo Sorrentino, later watching his "Youthful Exuberance", watching his Pope series, watching his "The Result of Love"... The more I look at it, the more I like it, his style, whether it is composition, shots or soundtrack, is very on my point, after watching these and then remembering "The City of Absolute Beauty", so I re-watched it again, this time I dare not say that I understand it all (this kind of words, I don't dare to say it ten times and a hundred times), at least in addition to beauty, I have seen more things, such as ugly. Therefore, some films still have to be tasted repeatedly.
About beauty, beauty is Rome. Empty streets, sculptures in a maze, birds resting on their feet, giraffes in squares... These pictures are in a beautiful state under the unique composition and movement of Sorrentino's Italian style. People who are familiar with Italian and French films may unconsciously think of Fellini and the New Wave in the process of watching, think of "Eight and a Half" and "Last Year in Marionbad", but after watching it, what lingers in their minds is the back and eyes of the protagonist Jep.
About ugliness, ugly is life. Night and night singing, the heart is still lonely; friends are accompanied, only for the warmth of the group, over time, the warmth fades, all remains indifferent and mean.
At a certain stage of life, it is inevitable that it will always lose, lose friends, lose feelings, and even lose the first love that has been lost again, which is the life of the protagonist jep of the film. A well-known journalist, who has a successful book, in and out of high society, fame and fortune in life, just such a person, after the 65th birthday, the world-weary mood reached its peak. The most direct embodiment of world-weariness in jep is probably indifference, indifference to others, and indifference to things. Acquaintances die, friends leave, it seems that they have nothing to do with him; saying "not every man who approaches you wants to sleep with you", and finally getting the girl into bed, such a role, is not pleasing.
The story divides Rome into two, the hustle and bustle of Rome and the quiet of Rome, two Romes correspond to two kinds of life, one noisy and one quiet, interspersed with narrative, noisy is the life experienced by jep, quiet is the life observed by jep, noisy is unchanged, quiet has its own advantages. This narrative of movement and stillness, starting with the tourists and choir at the beginning, continues until the end of the film, circulating every day in such a life, and even the people who watch it are tired, let alone the people in the film.
The best part of the film is that the camera is transported, there are very few still shots, mostly moving shots, which can be understood as using the perspective of the protagonist Jep to see everything, the camera mostly follows jep's line of sight, the rhythm of the group drama is to pile up quick editing first, after a group portrait of a red man and green woman, cut to jep's face full of folds, fake smile to deformed face, the solo scene is mostly jep's back into the camera, with an over-the-shoulder shot, revealing jep's calm face, and then transitioning from this calm to the beautiful Rome, At this time, the audience sees what Jep sees: nuns working in the sun, men practicing in the morning, quiet streets, fountains in the square. The tranquility after the hustle and bustle leaves the most beautiful Rome and the most empty heart. Over-engaged audiences can easily be infected by this emptiness.
European directors are very good at making stream-of-consciousness films, fellini in the last century, Bergman, etc. are masters of playing with emotions, Sorrentino can make such a masterpiece in the context of the gradual decline of Italian cinema, re-evoke the audience's memory of Italian cinema, no matter in that sense, it is a great success.