ORIENTAL EMOTIONS

On occasion of the first International Cinema Festival, which was held in Rome I3th - 21st October, the auditorium designed by Renzo Piano has hosted, among other events, an exhibition of the costumes for the film The Last Emperor. Entering the exhibition, we find ourselves in a faery tale, that of the PU-Yi of the Chung Dynasty, the last "Dragon of a thousand years", as the Chinese used to call their emperor, celebrated in the film of Bernardo Bertolucci. In the dark, the face of the director almost blocks our way to a rectangular screen, like a luminous stage that renders yet more mysterious the things that await us in the mythical Cathay of Marco Polo; Bertolucci recounts the emotion of the first surveys: "In the China of 1984 - 5 there were not many smiles in evidence, but in 1986, when we started filming, something had started to happen.reality always enters films, even in those places in remote epochs.here is an atmosphere that we felt in the air.one of transformation.And we.began to recount the story of a man.we thought of a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly.the Dragon of a thousand years who became a gardener in the Botanical Gardens of Peching".

As we gradually emerged from the shadows, the personalities of History stood out: the courtiers, the boy Emperor and the Empress his grandmother with her maids of honour, his diadem and other precious accessories, then the severe functionaries and the Emperor in uniform during the Japanese occupation, and the brief reign of Manchù Kuo. In fact, there are only marvellous costumes to conjure up this world. The costumes, and the moving music that accompanies us on an extraordinary journey in history to discover a culture far removed from ours, increases the beauty of the film. This exhibition has been proposed and staged by Giulia Mafai, daughter of two great artists. Like oriental veils, very long panels elegantly frame the various "islands" telling us how different colours, gold and red, are reserved for rulers, black (index of faithfulness and honesty) for sages and functionaries, for students blue with black edges, and how the embroideries of clothes have had precise meanings since the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644). The small mirrors interspersed among them, reflecting light, serve to repel malignant spirits. As the background of film unrolls, we skirt the lightest greens, greys and pinks destined to common folk dreaming of a dress in embroidered brocade of peonies -- symbol of fame and beauty -- with the flight of an arabian phoenix: representing nobility and courage.