Reality (Matteo Garrone) is one of those films that stayed with me after my first viewing of it, grew in potency as I thought about it more, and, then, after watching it a second time, emerged as a truly deep and complex and vital film. The film’s plot is ostensibly simple, a working class man, Luciano, auditions for a reality TV show called Big Brother, gets called back for a second audition, and is sure that he will be chosen for the show; but when no one calls, he grows more and more schizophrenic. The power of the film stems from a core idea that director Matteo Garrone establishes in the opening images of the film and then develops from there, directing our attention to a deep and distressing “sickness” in our very existential way of being, e.g., Garrone reveals how we actually invite alternative “realities” into our lives, especially consumerist/”celebrity culture” “realities,” though, and to my mind this is his most radical turn, provocatively linking reality shows/”celebrity culture” and Catholicism.
Creating Alternative Realities:
The film begins provocatively, with the camera following a horse drawn carriage, a carriage that evokes “The Gold State Coach” of British Royalty, its gilded and ornate features and royal gold coloring signifying royalty. The camera follows this horse drawn carriage through a bedecked gated entrance and to waiting “footmen” and “footwomen,” who open the doors to a couple arriving for their wedding. But that doesn’t end this surreal wedding ceremony; blood red confetti is dropped on them and they release two boxes of doves into the air, completing the ostentatious image (“reality”) creation of prestige and nobility.
A God’s eye view of what looks like a royal carriage entering a royal venue, the point being that these “royal” signifiers seem to suggest one thing (e.g., “royalty”) but in reality only amount to a surface level image hiding its real content (e.g., “ordinary” individuals getting married), suggesting that “royalty” surface level signifiers inherently register an inauthentic (false) self/”reality.”
Garrone’s masterful compositions and mise en scenes already begins to establish a people who are losing their humanity: In this exquisite shot, Garrone gives us a perfectly symmetrical composition, signifying uniformity or homogeneity of being (more on this below); moreover, the texture of the hard (marble, metal) objects in the frame and the mostly lack of color (white in the film speaking to a ghostly nothingness) all speaking of a world drained of warmth and life.
More signifiers of “royalty,” or an ostentatious, spectacle “reality,” a desired “reality,” an emptied-of-meaning “reality,” which, in turn, begins the alternative “reality” motif in the film.
Enzo’s Entrance:
After this showy opening, we come to see that this place is a place where they offer package deals for couples to get married, a kind of “royal” “reality” package. Topping off this package is a “celebrity,” Enzo, a former contestant on Big Brother, who lasted “116 days”! In this way, Garrone builds on his disquisition of how our society has been shaped by this desire for alternative “realities,” “realities” shaped around our desire for what we are not, which, of course, centers around such superficial archaic ideological messaging — now intersected with consumerist messaging — as fame and fortune, “celebrity culture” sensibilities, image and status (“royalty,” elite) signifiers, material possessions, and so on. This way of being becomes the sickness that infects us all, Garrone marking this sickness in this opening moment especially via his brilliant use of colors throughout the film, most pointedly marked by his garish-putrid use of the colors green and yellow and that saturated red, the red ostensibly signifying another “royalty” (power) color, though as Garrone uses it throughout the film, I read it conversely as signifying the draining of life (e.g., blood) from the self, or: the loss of self.
Enzo’s centering here, and his splashy entrance, signify him as a “celebrity,” as elite, the topping of this “privileged reality” (center-of-their-being) spectacle. His empty, generic rhetorical slogan — to never quit “dreaming,” at least as “dreaming” signifies becoming a “celebrity” like himself — perfectly aligns with this spectacle “reality,” the desire to not just pretend this “reality” of “royalty” but to live it. Interesting too that the jacket Enzo is wearing looks a lot like the later shirt Luciano wears for his second audition.
Luciano’s Already Manifested Desired Self:
Adding another layer to this motif of alternative “realities,” we begin to get a portraiture drawn of Luciano, who performs “roles” for weddings and other celebrations, caricatures that are meant to entertain the wedding party. In this case, he had intended to do his “bag lady” impersonation but instead dresses in drag (apparently, the “bag lady” performance was getting stale), which works out better since he can now pitch himself at Enzo, the would-be “celebrity,” already beginning his wooing of “celebrity culture” itself (not to mention that the “bag lady” caricature doesn’t fit into the “royalty” spectacle). The point, though, of this moment is less about creating laughs but as cementing this bizarre motif of putting on “masks” or, in the language of the film, alternative “realities,” all for the purpose of not being one’s true self. In this case, it isn’t his transgender (or “bag woman”) persona that he desires but the “celebrity” status that such performances bring him. In this way, we can already begin to see that Luciano understandably wants more out of life than simply selling fish (more on this below), but his desire for something more — coupled with his inability to see the emptied-of-meaning consumerist/”celebrity culture” ideology that is determining his self (more on this in a moment) — drives him in unhealthy directions.
Luciano’s friends and family feed his ego, his growing desire and belief in being a “celebrity,” though interestingly, conversely — and this may be an important secondary focus for Garrone — Luciano seems to have genuine talent to “entertain” people, a talent that he cannot realize due to a working class “reality” that limits his options.
In a very striking image, notice how the colors of Luciano’s drag dress echo the colors in the background, e.g., his saturated blue and red connecting to the saturated blue and red sprinkled in the background. Even the garish gold tinting on Luciano’s face adds to this echo. In this way, Garrone reinforces this already manifested sickness in Luciano, his desire for, well, Enzo in this moment, or, more pointedly, the “fame and fortune” that Enzo signifies.
Luciano and his daughter longingly looking after Enzo leaving in his helicopter, both desirous of Enzo’s celebrity status.
Taking Their Selfs Off:
In a more subtle transmission of this message, Garrone gives us a particularly telling moment later that night, when Luciano and his other family members “take off” their outer layers of this false “reality” to go back to their mundane “reality.” Garrone especially marks this moment with another recurring motif, music that I can only describe as music that would accompany a fairy tale narrative, apt since that is what Luciano and his family want, to live what amounts to a fairy tale “reality.” In this moment, we see how Garrone wants to reveal that this desire for an alternative “reality” is not just about the obvious spectacle of reality shows, where people can enter a world of faux reality and not be their self but become a more desired “spectacle” self; rather it is how this spectacle self is a means to an end, the end being a celebrity self. In this way, we can see just how alienated people are from a more “authentic” (self-determined) self, but then when a self lives in a deep and demoralizing state of “ordinariness” (as society or ideology conditions us to think anyway), a state of being that is also informed by the very real world truth of living a life of hardship, without purpose or meaning, then seeking out alternative (fairy tale) “realities” is a natural response. That is, set against the tantalizing and valorized world of “celebrity culture” – intersected with the lack of the cognitive tools for a self-awareness of what one really lacks, e.g., an understanding of how to really get meaning and purpose and direction in life – “ordinary” folk eagerly slip into superficial “realities” whenever they can, a “reality” that sets us up for the deeper disturbing nature of this sick “reality” we live in.
The way that Garrone films this sequence — a montage of taking off outer layers, layered with a whimsical fairy tale score, the slow pan/cut across rooms, the stark background (set against the glamorous outer layers), the use of coded “sick” colors (those stark red and golds really contrast with the drab colors of the spaces) — all highlight this motif of contrasting mundane “reality” with alternative desired escapist “realities.”
Putrid Greenish-Yellow Coding a Sick Society:
As mentioned above, Garrone uses color in very interesting ways, especially, again, using a kind of garish-putrid greenish-yellow to, in my reading, indicate just how sick society is, a society that has internalized unhealthy, inauthentic (predetermined) “realities,” especially a consumerist identity formation, a formation that ingrains in people an obsession for fame and fortune over anything else, though, as I will propose in a moment, not the only false “reality” focused on. As the working class sink deeper into the morass of desperately finding ways to survive — accompanied by the inevitable state of alienation and the overcompensation of consumerist stimulation fixes — we see a working class who slip deeper into a “sick” loss of self, where, instead of determining self via more meaningful and fulfilling ways out of their degraded state of being, they live for consumption of Others, e.g., via consuming commodified bodies on “reality” shows, or from a commodifying of self for Others. Either way, society is now based on consumption, which, in turn, is based on internalizing alternative “realities” where Others can escape from their own “real” world degraded “reality.” (See below for numerous illustrations of this use of color and its attendant meaning.)
The Catholic Church:
In an early sequence, strikingly, Garrone gives us a pan from a statue of Jesus Christ to Luciano, indelibly linking the two. This image also begins a motif of Catholic symbols, spaces, and moments in the film. In my reading of this motif, we get a couple of interesting possibilities: First, I suppose we could say that Luciano is a Christ figure, “crucified” for ideologies (consumerism, capitalism) creating a “sick” “reality” where individuals become infected with this loss of self to a “sick” reality, leading to a loss of self. (There is some irony with this figuration as well, as Luciano becomes Christ-like in his giveaway of most of his worldly possessions to the poor, though of course he is not doing this for altruistic reasons!) The other interesting way to read this Catholic motif is twofold: First, we see just how “false” this Catholic “reality” is, where people put on a Catholic face but don’t live with an integrity to Catholic beliefs, which we especially see in an early scene when Luciano and his friend and employee Michele are aggressively confronting a client who lies about not having received her “robot” cooking machine. In this way, we starkly see how everyone involved in this moment only believes in Catholic beliefs until it doesn’t suit them to adhere to these beliefs, Luciano acting more like a bullying gangster in this moment and the woman client lying to save her self. Relatedly, Garrone gives us an even more provocative, radical reading of the Catholic Church and by extension I would say religion in general. In the ending moment, Luciano seems to have found religion, a way for him to find his way out of his growing schizophrenia. In a deeply provocative and radical ending, Garrone first gives us Luciano going to Rome for a mass church service put on by the Vatican, the pinnacle for Catholic belief. But instead of staying there, Luciano sneaks away to sneak into the Big Brother set. In this way, Garrone gives us these two entities (e.g., Big Brother and the Vatican/Catholicism) side-by-side, as possible options for Luciano. I would contend that what Garrone is doing here is radically suggesting that it isn’t only Big Brother that gives us an alternative “reality,” but how that is part and parcel of how we have done this from the dawn of time, create alternative “realities” for ourselves, a need we have for all the lacks in our life. In past times, people have used religion for their lacks, as a salve for their miseries, desires, needs for meaning and purpose in life, an imaginary, benevolent “father” figure who watches over and protects individuals, and so on. But, then, that is the radical point of the film, that via other created false “realities” (e.g., reality shows), Garrone then reveals that religion itself is a false “reality show,” preceding and thus informing our need for alternative “realities” in general, though, according to the film anyway, again, Big Brother displaces the Catholic Church as the preeminent position as alternative “reality,” e.g., that Luciano chooses Big Brother itself speaks to the distressing “reality” of our new slip into an even more superficial “reality.”
Blond statue of Jesus looms over the people, a hyper-emphasis on how Jesus/God watches over the people, “observing them, guiding them, judging them.” In this way, Jesus is already “Big Brother,” or a forerunner to “Big Brother,” signifying a patriarchal, authoritarian position of judgement over Others (more below).
In another striking and telling shot, Jesus is positioned in the center of this community, signifying Jesus as the center of their being (they are all in an internalized “Big Brother” “bubble”), constantly “observing, judging, and guiding” the people of this community.
Luciano and his friend Michele acting like gangsters to one of their “clients,” a woman who lies to them, all acted out in church, signifying their lack of integrity to their beliefs, a lack punctuated by that garish-putrid greenish-yellow tinting, signifying that it is all a “sick” false “reality.”
The Catholic Church, Part 2:
In a very suggestive and provocative moment, we get Luciano’s friend saying, “We’re all being observed! Our Lord observes us, judges us, guides us.” Substitute “TV audience” (and of course corporate media discourses) for “Lord” and this could be the marketing line of Big Brother. As I get at above, the suggestion seems to be that the Catholic belief system is based on a kind of “Big Brother” God, which, in turn, suggests that we created a God/belief system for some baser need to be “observed,” which is strikingly aligned with linguist, cognitive scientist George Lakoff’s finding that one cognitive model for humanity is what he calls an “authoritarian” cognitive model, where many people seek out authoritarian figures, needing the guidance and direction that an authority figure gives them. Expand that out to archaic patriarchy and phallocentric ideologies and we can see why humanity needed an all-seeing and all-knowing patriarchal, phallocentric God who, in the words of Luciano’s friend, “observes, judges, and guides” us. And that is the remarkable leap that I think Garrone is making here, showing how this internalized God is a projection of our need for an authority figure who “guides and judges” us. In this way, then, we can see that this isn’t too far off from a Big Brother show that also “observes, judges, and guides” people, which, in turn, is not far from a “celebrity culture” or consumerist identity formation where one is also “observed, judged, and guided” to be a predetermined self. In other words, there is a radical linking of why we accept and even embrace a Big Brother/consumerism/Jesus surveillance (authoritarian/predetermined) sensibility, something that at least some of us may be wired for, or at least genetically disposed to seek out as a compensation for lacks in our life.
Cast again in that garish, putrid greenish-yellow, Garrone perhaps making his most radical leap, linking Big Brother to God!
Working Class Alienation
A crucial element to understanding the need to invest one’s self in alternative “realities” is the suffering that comes from — and causes — working class alienation. The element in the film that best speaks to this is the curious “robot cooker” thread in the film. Luciano and his wife Maria have cooked up some sort of scam to make more money; we see at one point Maria marketing this robot cooker, suggesting perhaps that she has been arranging deliveries of the robot cooker to prearranged citizens and then selling the robot cookers for a higher profit. In this way, we see how the working class will turn to iniquitous means — will sell their integrity, their self — to either make ends meet or get the money they need to live at the level of consumption that they desire. But even more crucially is the issue of a predetermined working class “reality” devoid of meaning or purpose, setting individuals up – not exclusively working class individuals, but, because their lives are especially difficult and especially centered on work and survival, especially working class individuals – for being susceptible to superficial consumerist appeals, such as “celebrity culture” and alternative “reality” shows that both give them this “celebrity” status and offer them a way out of their dreadful and mundane real world “reality.” Of course, the large brunt of such appeals are all about superficial, shallow messaging of obsessing over image, status, wealth accumulation, material possessions, and so on.
Via the mirror symbolism, we glaringly get Luciano’s split self, between who he is — a fish stand seller — and who he wants to be, a “celebrity.” Here again, we get that putrid greenish-yellow light exuding from the window and checkered in his shirt.
The desperation of the poor…participating in scams for money. The Mary and dying Christ sculpture between them seems to punctuate the multiple lacks in this “reality,” where a degraded life belies living a contented Catholic “reality.” Here again, the putrid greenish-yellow signifies a sick “reality.”
In a telling moment, we not only see why Luciano and Maria have created this scam (for much needed money) but we see just how alienated Luciano is, never having a “goal” before and now finally feeling good about himself beyond his working class status, a clear sign of his alienated self, not even aware of just how unfulfilled he is, how his life has lacked meaning and purpose. Of course, he is merely substituting one false (predetermined) “reality” (e.g., a working class “reality”) with another false (predetermined) “reality” (e.g., a “celebrity culture”/consumerist “reality”). Here too the putrid greenish-yellow speaks to a sick society that creates these dysfunctional alienated ways of being.
Big Brother/”Celebrity Culture”:
We especially see this desire for “fame and fortune” during the “audition” sequence, where Garrone stresses this superficial element as we hear why some of the auditioning prospects want to be on Big Brother: “It makes you popular.” “I want to be rich and famous.” Indeed, we see this adulation with the recurring figure of Enzo, who, just by being on Big Brother, gains instant stardom. When Luciano gets a callback for a second audition, we again see the adulation that comes from just this, as he is welcomed home from his second audition as already a celebrity! That he assures his hometown friends and community that his audition went well and that he will get picked for sure only makes him all that much more a celebrity.
That garish-putrid greenish-yellow tint is in full flower here, with that saturated red mixed in, signifying not just sickness but how this Big Brother sensibility is a killing of the self. Interesting too that the basket-cart is brimming with food products, a further hyper-emphasis on our consumption culture.
In just such a beautifully composed shot, Luciano takes a bow, his seeming moment of glory has come; he is on the center stage now, his community already elevating him to the center of their world, cementing in his mind the necessity to be a “celebrity,” that he is already a “celebrity.”
Surveillance Society/Hal’s Eye:
Ostensibly, Garrone’s secondary focus is on our surveillance society. The signifiers are all there – the Orwellian “Big Brother” signifier, a show that is all about putting the contestants under constant surveillance – and, in an interesting bit of fun symbolism, Garrone seems to use 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL’s eye as another marker of this surveillance sensibility, e.g., we get this signifier several times in the advertisements for the show Big Brother. I say “ostensibly” because I think one can read this film in this straightforward way, e.g., we see this extension of the reality show Big Brother into the real world, where Luciano begins to think that he is being watched by representatives of the show, perhaps a metaphor for how our lives are permeated by surveillance, mostly of the technological variety, being constantly viewed by camera technologies, tracked on the Internet, and so on. However, while that is probably part of the focus of this film, I don’t think that is the main focus of the film.
Luciano begins his engulfment (his loss of self) by this “Big Brother” sensibility, marked by HAL’s all seeing, all knowing “eye” no less, hyper-punctuating the loss of self, HAL signifying both the literal murder of individuals — in this film, signifying the figurative killing of the self — and the dehumanization of humanity. (For more on my reading of HAL, see my blurb on the film.)
The Carnivalesque As Another Alternative “Reality”:
Before I make that turn to what I think is the core idea of the “Big Brother”/surveillance element in film, I want to touch on yet another echo of this desire for an alternative “reality”: We get a strange moment when Luciano attends a night club, presumably seeking out Enzo, who, importantly, makes yet another appearance. In this moment, we get figures dressed up in carnivalesque imagery, the night club inviting people to escape from the real world into an alternative escapist “reality,” the carnivalesque signifying a dark reality where one satisfies one’s appetites and desires free from the regulatory norms of society. Punctuating this moment is yet another appearance by Enzo, who swings from a wire above the roaring and appreciative crowd, punctuating his commodification, bought and sold by whoever pays him, whether that be for a wedding package or in this moment, to be part of this carnivaliseque spectacle.
The carnivalesque as a (dark) escape from mundane “reality.”
Enzo taking on a much different guise than from what we saw earlier with the more respectable wedding sensibility though that he is consumed as a commodified object is no less the point of his presence or more so as he dangles like a fish on a hook, to be consumed by the hungry crowd!
Schizophrenic Society:
As I suggest above, I think Garrone makes a deeper point about what I call our “schizophrenic society”: Instead of just focusing on how our society is becoming a surveillance society – which, again, is at least partly referenced via the Big Brother TV show/metaphor – I think he is going after something deeper and more troubling with this film. Because Luciano is certain that he is going to be called but isn’t, he begins to think that he is being watched, though not just watched, judged. He begins to believe that he is being observed by the show’s representatives, to see if he is worthy of being on the show. That is, Luciano begins acting like a saint, buying a homeless man food and drink, and then giving away his possessions to the needy. But he doesn’t do these deeds for altruistic (Christ-like) reasons but rather does it to satisfy an image requirement, “celebrities” needing to fulfill that part of their image that speaks to caring about Others, which, in turn, at least for those “celebrities” who do it for image reasons, ironically speaks to their loss of humanity since everything they do now is about maintaining an elite image, incapable of acting authentically human or acting humanely (e.g., think Donald Trump!). In this way, we can see how Luciano’s obsessional certainty and desire to be in Big Brother is such that he internalizes an internal “Big Brother” so to speak (e.g., he is “observed, judged, guided”), a symptom of his growing schizophrenia. But his schizophrenia is peculiar in that it is intricately attached to his desired alternative “reality,” a “reality” where he is the center of attention (e.g., a “celebrity”), and where he is already in the survival of the fittest (“judged”) surveillance society of the reality TV show Big Brother. In other words, this certainty of being on the show – and the deep investment of self that comes with such a certainty – becomes pathological, the outlet of which is him putting himself in Big Brother by imagining that the show is already judging him, a way for him to postpone the shattering devastation of not getting on the show and/or to perpetually be on the show. The deeper implications of this way of being are deeply disturbing: Because Luciano wants to be on Big Brother so badly — and get the celebrity status and attention that this will give him — he needs to be “observed, judged, and guided” by outside (consumerist, “celebrity culture”) influences, “guided” to get on the Big Brother TV show, his singular “goal” in life. That is, due to consumerist (“celebrity culture”) messaging, he has so internalized his desire to be on Big Brother and become a “celebrity,” he has literally altered his “reality” to suit his desire. In this vein, we can see how Luciano is also a deeply felt allegorical figure, representing all of us, all of us internalizing consumerist messaging to one degree or another, a symptom of how many individuals also want to be “observed, judged, and guided” to a predetermined way of being, a consumerist identity formation. In the similar mold of Luciano, we see how this obsession with being “observed, judged and guided” by exterior discourses/ideologies becomes a glaring general signifier of how in a consumerist (“celebrity culture”) society, individuals go even deeper into a schizophrenic (alternative “reality” creating) self, trying to fulfill the image and status branding they so covet, a branding that encompasses all the many ways that consumerism dictates self, e.g., in terms of how one looks and acts, the spaces one inhabits, the choices one makes, and so on, which we see in so many ways, such as the many ways people live privileged (“celebrity culture”) “realities,” adopt unnatural, unhealthy (self-destructive) body images, and even create alternative “realities” where one can re-purpose an unwanted “reality” to suit one’s desired “reality” (again, think Trump!). (For a fuller, deeper disquisition of this consumerist identity formation, see my analysis of another brilliant anti-consumerist film American Psycho.)
Note that remarkable putrid greenish-yellow speck in Luciano’s eye, signifying that this Big Brother sickness has thoroughly penetrated, infected his being.
Luciano thinks that this cricket is observing him, a signification of just how “sick” he has become, his paranoia reaching manic levels of schizophrenia.
In a striking image, Garrone places that “bubble” set adjacent Luciano going home with his family — a space Luciano desperately wants to literally inhabit — beginning a motif of a “bubble” sensibility (well, we already get this earlier with at least that image of Luciano framed within the “bubble” of HAL’s eye), where Luciano begins to slip deeper and deeper into a “reality” “bubble” of his own imagining.
In another striking shot, we get this isolated motif again, this time Luciano behind “bars” so to speak, Garrone filming from the outside looking in, suggesting a prison signifier, the putrid greenish-yellow and that saturated red hyper-emphasizing Luciano’s loss of self to a “bubble” (imaginary, entrapped) “reality.”
In the above two images, Garrone further emphasizes Luciano’s loss of self to an imaginary “reality” (or a loss of “reality”) by (A) filming him apart from Others and (B) blurring out Others, suggesting his break from “reality.”
Luciano’s Euphoria:
Luciano finally makes it into the show Big Brother, though his entrance into it only tips him wholly into madness. He is now like the heroin addict who, getting his or her fix, is in a perfect state of bliss but also a bliss that loses himself to the real world. In doing their drug addiction, drug addicts don’t live in the “real” world but rather live in their medicated world of escaping from it. In a similar way, Luciano has slowly and gradually slipped from the “real” world and moved into the “false” “reality” of representation or “celebrity culture” spectacle. In this slippage though he has wholly lost his self, embracing a self that is wholly signified by representational signifiers, e.g., he only now sees himself via how he thinks Others see him or how he wants Others to see him. In this way, he has entered nothingness, a signifier with no signified, just pure imaginary image/”reality.” In this way, Garrone makes his final profound statement, that whether we be Luciano or the other characters in this film who so covet a consumerist (“celebrity culture”) identity formation, accepting this mode of being means being in the Big Brother world and never leaving it, a predetermined and lost self.
In a complex image (at least in terms of the context of this film’s deeper meanings), we get the enclosure (“bubble”) motif with the Roman Coliseum in the background, the garish-putrid greenish-yellow coding (especially highlighting the coliseum), and the conspicuously highlighted saturated red, all punctuating what I’ve been conveying in this post, how the Roman Catholic Church is just another predetermining “reality,” one that predetermines self, e.g., imprisons and elides the self.
Luciano still in his own “reality,” not part of the collective worshipers, e.g., those around him are blurred out. What is more interesting here though is how Luciano seems to be part of the collective rapture of the worshipers, but we know what he is really thinking about in this moment, e.g., he is thinking about being so close to the Big Brother set — and thinking about sneaking into the set — the rapture in his face then speaking to a different kind of rapturous euphoria, which, in turn, may be a clever linking of the two (loss of self) “realities”!
In the above two images, Garrone creates more interesting images, where Luciano is mirrored in the images of the Big Brother contestants, though because he can see them and they can’t see him, the mirror image is also a division between inside and outside. Putting these two signifiers together (e.g., mirror image and divisive split) and we get an emphasis on the self/Other divide, where the Big Brother contestants are deemed on the inside or privileged, elite, while those on the outside, Luciano in this case, are Other. However, Luciano sees himself in them, wanting to be them, to be on the inside, elite.
In another image that seems straight out of Kubrick (e.g., think Killer’s Kiss and A Clockwork Orange!), we get a beheaded lamp, a clear image of loss of identity or self, the blood red furthering this idea of a loss of self.
Luciano has finally made it inside the Big Brother set, the glossy and glaring white lights already signifying the incorporeality that ironically goes with this seeming gaining of his most passionate desire, e.g., in gaining his “goal” of being a “celebrity,” he also utterly loses his self…
…enclosed in his “bubble” spectacle “reality” (for him, the outer world outside the Big Brother set is the unreality) and….
…fading from existence.