Review of Dormant Beauty (2012) by Nizar E — 30 Nov 2013

Dormant Beauty is that movie puts you exaggeratedly in front of controversial issues of life and death, faith and unbelief, by reciting the real case of "Eluana" how stayed 17 years under clinic apparatuses to keep her alive after a car accident. Between the voices of doctors (and her family too) to make her go in peace because of no hope, and the popular impressing to keep her alive even for a miracle, the story deals with many similar cases at the same time passing through a politician (Toni Servillo) in his moralistic arguments which reflect the situation of the divided Roman people (with or against) a law of "merciful killing".

Euthanasia...What a heavy idea, it's an angst. It's a battle between radical contradictive thoughts! I guess every single case could be a movie, that interweaving many stories in the movie makes it a bit confused though they go in a studied parallel lines to the same point. It is really one medical impasse between science and faith that I cannot think to have a decision in (God forbid), but it's an emotional quibbling kind of! I love the dark production design, the deep photography, the way which the director Bellocchio to tell the story technically and emphatically, the satisfying ending and the nice performances of the cast (most of all Maya Sansa). Meanwhile, I don't like mentioning the date on the screen, nor being in clinics so I was stressed at these scenes!

Life is our Dormant Beauty, which could be with some love stronger than mottoes. It's an invitation of life, or belief, or even to wake up from our affinity to the truths without considering our feelings. This is what I suppose the name of the movie were to. That's a noble thing but in that repeated way to involve the real parliament sessions on TV, really it looks like a kind of critic to Berlusconi's period.