Re: Offical TL:DVD club selection and procedures
Well, if this is going to be the discussion thread, here are my thoughts.
First, I've been wanting to see this movie for a really long time. I'd never seen any Fellini's films and for some reason this one appealed to me more then 8 1/2, which I will probably now see soon.
I really liked this film.
RE: Diebitter's review
I thought it was a lot more then a bunch of disconnected episodes showing people with empty lives. These episodes showed a glimpse into Marcello's life as he searched for meaning in his work and in his life. He wants to be a serious writer, but is just floating through life writing meaningless journalism about people with empty lives. The difference between him and them, at least at the beginning, is that he is looking in on this lifestyle from the outside, his participation in it seems like the exception. At this point, he still has ambitions of living a more meaningful life.
The scene where Steiner has just killed himself seems to be the deciding point for him. He sees that his friend who is a serious writer was so afraid of the world that he killed himself and his children and basically gives up on his search for meaning.
In the final scene he has now become part of the society that before, he had been observing from the outside. When he sees Paola in that final scene, he is separated from her and can't hear what she is trying to tell him. She is young, innocent and full of life and he has become as empty as the people he once wrote about and loathes himself for it. He is completely lost and there isn't any hope or even desire in him now to live a meaningful, "moral" life.
There were a couple of things that I didn't really "get."
The second scene with Maddalena (and then the ghost hunt?) didn't make a whole lot of sense for me.
And there are two things I think I'm missing about the final scene. First, what did the dead (stingray?) represent? It had to be more then just a reason for them to go to the beach.
Second, are we supposed to take something specific from the final shot of Paola staring directly into the camera? Or is he just trying to show the beauty of innocence? The difference between her and Marcello?
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