Dionysos

Subtly experimental, notably reductionist, especially in the use of relatively uniquely grasped temporal ellipses continuously hidden within sharp, seemingly conventional cuts: the editing thus beneath its apparent traditional shell conceals more betrayal than the capricious characters of the narrative. On the other hand, it divulges nothing more than the mystery of its temporal contraction to the viewer, leaving them with a slightly frustrating sensation after viewing the film, that it could have harbored a greater potential than what's realized here: in vain, we anticipate the emergence of a self-contained poetic surreality akin to Jakubisko's Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969) from the stylized microcosm hints, or that the classical relational triad will unfold into deeper and more luxuriant analogies and hyperboles, as with the contemporary master of this genre, Marco Ferreri. Nonetheless, the film offers skillful artistic cinematography, albeit brought down by (perhaps ironically intended) a kitschy, sweet soundtrack, soaking this film in the worst of the 60s inversely to how the camera strives to approach the better aspects...

When the surrealism of the Film becomes indistinguishable from the miraculous nature of Scripture, actors wandering through locations reminiscent of De Chirico's nocturnes may encounter biblical doubles of themselves. Just as a religious film encounters its own double in a mix of Pilate-style poliziotteschi, at times reaching Felliniesque baroque excess, and naturally, the Pasoliniesque moment in the story of Jesus as "the greatest human story." After all, the rather intricate screenplay will please even an atheist, me personally more so than the otherwise much more famous, stylistically purer, and "more metaphysical" mentioned Gospel according to my favorite Marxist, Pasolini, who paradoxically approached the "updating" of the New Testament story much more conservatively than this film, which is unafraid to mix genres and timelines in a much more open synthesis.

A parable of the functioning of the world, reflected in the human consciousness, which is unable to accept the essential absurdity and injustice of the world other than by fictionalizing the unbearable reality: a fiction that paradoxically draws its images from the depths of its unconscious, from the depths where fairy tales, like those of Cocteau, become the embodiment of the principle that reality has the structure of fiction. While the fiction of the powerful of this world, kings and doctors, can pass for reality following Voltaire's saying that "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets," because then medals, orders, and medical diplomas are handed out - while for the lonely individual, prison, a madhouse, or as here both at once await. The imprisoned mind then begins to create its own world for defense against the world, which can only reflect what it has experienced: insults and absurdity will catch up with us everywhere. The film may not reach the surreal coloring of Case for a Rookie Hangman, but not only does it remind them of the absurdity of their common fairy-tale rotten kingdom (and also the physical resemblance of the actors in the leading roles), but above all by this approach, when an unfree society must give birth to a parable of itself and live only through these parables in order to survive. The film The Matrix is ​​only a commercial derivative of this idea. The pace of the beginning will please mainly with the brilliant scenography and film architecture, which elevate the otherwise slightly sluggish pace of the film.