Catherine and Marcello are secluded in their house, living under the candlelight. Unable to accept the injustice behind the loss of their nine-month-old baby, they face a slow but definite self-destruction.
"yesterday, we were good. we lived a normal life without even realizing it."
exhausting. the score is anxious and unrelenting. the set design is meticulous, subtley shifting from the messiness of parenthood to the disastrous yet barren mess of depression. the choppy editing shows just how quickly things can change. how quickly you remember that everything isn't as it once was, and the joy you once held fades into nothing. that scene with catherine deneuve screaming and crying in the hospital while marcello mastroianni just falls to the ground will be burned into my mind forever.
"so what can you do?"
"live for her. breathe for her. laugh for her. one must live. one must live."