shariqmahbub

At first I dismissed this movie, with its repetitive capturing of the spectacle of a Spanish bullfight, where the bull is already injured and certain to be killed in a brutal way. The documentary focuses on the hunter and the hunted, the dance of mortality and winner and loser. While the stadium audience cheers off-camera. The set-up reminded me of movies of Ancient Rome, like Gladiator, where the those who are about to die are thrown to the lions, the lions having the advantage, like the bullfighters here, and the stadium audience sitting in glee, and thrill as to whose blood will be spilled. We, the cinema audience, are also lulled into this dance of death, and the animal grunts (bull and matador), the posturing and angling (bull and matador), the aggression and intimacy of a fight to the death are repeated in various arenas and it is hypnotic. You don't want the matador to be injured, and yet he takes such risks.

So, I said that I almost dismissed this film, but as I have been thinking about it since, I feel Serra has captured very important themes in this very focused matador film. He captures the bravado and judgment and hubris of the hunter (the matador), where the opponent is "bad" and deserves to be killed. Take this male aggression out of the bull-fighting arena and you will see it all around the world, and it is cheered on when it is seen in leaders who belittle the "bad" guy or teach them a lesson. You might say that the animalistic side of human nature that wants blood, revenge and wants to take a victory lap and be applauded for such is captured.

The matador believe he is incredibly courageous ("you've got balls bigger than this stadium"), and his worth comes from this dance of death. I do not support and encourage aggression or bullying, so this was an insight into an atavism of male aggression that is celebrated in Spain in the bullfighting arena, and is perhaps representative of the bloody history of the country as well (the inquisition, the conquistadors killing many in the Americas in the name of their King and God). So, indirectly, Serra might be showing us a part of the soul of Spain and its still preserved rituals based on violence and aggression that are still celebrated.

I do believe that this wildly creative, intellectual and consciousness-expanding film will be seen to be a classic in the years to come.

Coppola has created a fantastic Gotham world with heightened actions, emotions and words, that allows for the classic fight of good vs. Evil, fear vs. Love, and separation vs. Unity to be put on mythic display.

Yes, this allows for over-the-top characters like Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum and Shia LaBeouf as Clodio that seem cartoonish at times, but the grand gestures of the focus on money, sex. Looks, and worldly success are exactly the motivations of the old world that Coppola is criticizing - if they are in a soap opera, it is because the world, in this vibration, tends to operate as one, where vengeance, revenge, jealousy and ownership are the drivers to meaning in life. If movies like Batman, in its Gotham city, can have outsize characters, why can't Megalopolis?

And the higher vibration and consciousness being brought into the planet by Cesar (Adam Driver) and Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel) focused on love, equity, peace, harmony, creativity is powered by the mythic building substance that Cesar has discovered and won the Nobel prize for that is alive, generates light, regenerates the body like stem cells, and allows for time to be stopped and reality to be re-created into a world that is flowing in unity, harmony and love.

That Adam is almost finished and loses his powers without the appearance of Julia in his life is a nod by Coppola to the Twin Flame power of two souls in harmony, when they come together, are even more powerful than individually.

Coppola not only puts forward a vision, a dream for a better world, but allows for the fantastic building materials to be a metaphor for working with energy and LOVE and LIGHT from a higher consciousness perspective to create whatever we desire. We are the creators of our reality, and we can create a better world.

For those who are lightworkers on the planet, and can see how Caesar plays with time and building materials like we play with light and love clairvoyantly and in the consciousness of the 5th Dimension and higher, you will know that Coppola has written a story for the ages to share the rising of consciousness on the planet as a truth to humanity.

Those who resist, like Clodio and Wow Platinum with be consumed by their own greed and selfishness as the world continues to change.

I liked the triptychs as well, showing how reality is getting fragmented in a multidimensional consciousness and how we can process several pieces of information across time and space, simultaneously.