Documentary footage (from the 1950s) and accompanying commentary to attempt to answer the existential question, Why are our lives characterized by discontent, anguish, and fear? The film is in two completely separate parts, and the directors of these respective sections, left-wing Pier Paolo Pasolini and conservative Giovanni Guareschi, offer the viewer contrasting analyses of and prescriptions for modern society. Part I, by Pasolini, is a denunciation of the offenses of Western culture, particularly those against colonized Africa. It is at the same time a chronicle of the liberation and independence of the former African colonies, portraying these peoples as the new protagonists of the world stage, holding up Marxism as their "salvation", and suggesting that their "innocent ferocity" will be the new religion of the era. Guareschi's part, by contrast, constitutes a defense of Western civilization and a word of hope, couched in traditional Christian terms, for man's future.
Genres:
Giorgio Bassani as Poetry Narrator - Part One (voice)
Renato Guttuso as Prose Narrator - Part One (voice)
Gigi Artuso as Narrator - Part Two (voice)
Carlo Romano as Narrator - Part Two (voice)
Charles de Gaulle as Self (archive footage)
Dwight D. Eisenhower as Self (archive footage)
Yuri Gagarin as Self (archive footage)
Ava Gardner as Self (archive footage)
Nikita Khrushchev as Self (archive footage)
Vladimir Lenin as Self (archive footage)
Sophia Loren as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe as Self (archive footage)
John XXIII. as Self (archive footage)
Paul VI. as Self (archive footage)
Pius XII. as Self (archive footage)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as Self (archive footage)
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as Self (archive footage)
Dr. Ahmed Sukarno as Self (archive footage)
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