6 agosto 2010
Fahrenheit 451
Era da qualche tempo che non mi prendevo un paio di orette di relax per guardarmi un bel film. Di recente (inteso come negli ultimi due mesi) mi ero sparato, un po’ di sfuggita e sempre a piu’ riprese, The Darwin Awards e Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. Pessima esperienza la prima visione, decisamente piu’ interessante la seconda. Non che sia mai stato un grosso patito di cinema (fatta esclusione per i war movies), pero’ ammetto che di tanto in tanto e’ piacevole staccare la spina e mettersi sul divano, al buio, con una birretta e qualche snack a portata di mano e gustarsi una bella visione. Sorvoliamo sul fatto che nel mio caso l’accoppiata sia stata letto + monitor del computer, causa ristrettezze materiali/spaziali in quel di Losanna. Il concetto e’ piu’ o meno lo stesso. Fondamentale affinche’ la serata sia piacevole e’ che il film sia all’altezza. Questa volta ho pescato bene, molto bene. La mia scelta e’ infatti ricaduta su Fahrenheit 451, capolavoro di Francois Truffaut datato 1966 e basato sull’omonimo romanzo di Ray Bradbury.
Chi, come il sottoscritto, ha amato alla follia 1984 (inteso come libro, dato che nonostante mi riprometta di farlo da anni ancora non ho avuto l’occasione di guardare la rappresentazione cinematografica) non potra’ non apprezzare questo film. Un overview del plot (contenente spoiler, dunque attenti!) la trovate qui sotto, copia/incollata direttamente da BookRags.com.
Guy Montag is a fireman who lives in a society in which books are illegal. His job is not to extinguish fires, but to light them. He burns books, and all the firemen wear the number “451″ on their uniforms because that is the temperature at which books burn.
But the role reversal of the firemen is not the only difference between present-day society and the world in which Montag lives. People of Montag’s world take no interest in politics or world issues. The only point of life is pleasure. Montag’s wife, Mildred, spends her time watching the televisions that take up three of the four walls in their parlor, or listening to the seashell radios that fit snugly in the ear. It isn’t until Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse that he realizes that there might be more to life than the electronic entertainment that absorbs everyone. Clarisse makes him think about the world beyond the wall television and seashell radios; she makes him wonder about life.
This newfound curiosity gets Montag into trouble when he takes an interest in reading the books that he’s supposed to burn. When Captain Beatty, the fire chief, realizes that Montag has traded sides, he forces Montag to burn his own home. To save himself, Montag kills the fire chief and escapes the city. A manhunt ensues on live television, but when Montag eludes the authorities, an innocent man is killed in his place to appease the audience.
Montag finds a group of educated, vagrant men who remember great novels so that when the world returns to an appreciation of literature, they will be ready to help out. He joins them. As they are walking away from the city, a bomb destroys the place that was once Montag’s home. Knowing they will be needed, the men turn back to the shattered city to help rebuild a society that has destroyed itself.
