Federico Fellini

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)

Average customer rating:

Excellent film and edition
Existentialism and Its Limits
Nico is Adorable in La Dolce Vita !
A Parable of Futility
Feels Incredibly Modern

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni , Anita Ekberg , Anouk Aimée , Yvonne Furneaux , and Magali Noël
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
ProductGroup: DVD
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Similar Items:

8 1/2 - Criterion Collection
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)
La Strada - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)
Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B00005JKGO
Release Date: 2004-09-21

Amazon.com essential video

At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in an ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically, with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, The Sweet Life), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties, or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, are merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews:

Excellent film and edition.......2007-06-13

There's not much to add to the laudits for this film. Groundbreaking director in what some consider his most groundbreaking film. The era produced many innovative films that influenced cinema thereafter, and La Dolce Vita is primary in that regard.

More to the point of this review, this Criterion edition meets the highest of the quality standards they have almost solely set for the film DVD. Any DVD today that doesn't have commentary and features are a rip-off for buyers, but the quality varies significantly (I dare you to sit through Rob Reiner's commentary on "When Harry Met Sally").

Criterion truly understands the film lover, the person who wants to know as much as possible about the film, including the how and why of its elements and the who and what behind its making. They realize that not only film students are interested in the process and people of moviemaking. Not cheap, their editions however offer far more value than the usual DVD release.

The commentary by Richard Schickel, a true expert on film, is extremely literate and informative. His command of his knowledge keeps the insights coming non-stop. His purpose is to inform and to interest, and he stays right on the mark throughout.

Enough features are included to require a second disk, and I believe this edition contains more than any other Fellini film edition. Interviews with Fellini himself as well as others involved in the production give excellent background and context to the film and to Fellini and his career.

Film buffs will appreciate the care with which this extensive set of extras has been compiled. Criterion certainly has set the standards for film editions, and this is one of their best.

Existentialism and Its Limits.......2007-06-10

It is difficult to imagine a deeper film than this. Fellini presents several existential choices for his main character, Marcello, played by the marvelous Marcello Mastroianni -- jet-set life (the visiting starlet and its possibilities), intellectual respectability (Steiner and company), religious ecstasy (the children's sighting of Mary), passionate love (the curious fling with Maddalena), bourgeois love (his needy girlfriend, Emma).

As the film exposes each choice as a fraud, a farce, or a disaster, what does it mean to say Marcello is free to choose? He is trapped by too much rather than too little choice -- an elegant encapsulation of existentialism!

So much for my attempt to unpack the film's meaning; the many memorable scenes, and the many subsequent films that allude to them, are the better reason to cherish it.

Nico is Adorable in La Dolce Vita !.......2007-06-08

I watched this classic, but weird film from Federico Fellini, who is noteworthy for his twisted, distorted films I felt it was dull and in line with the rest of his films.

Until happy little Nico (of the Velvet Underground)sparked up onto the screen with the happiness and youth of a sparrow. She is grand in her role. She's in the prime of her beauty and she just fits in with the whole nonsense of the film.

Fellini cast her immediately although most of the footage was already shot, not about to bypass getting this young and giggling beauty into a piece of his puzzle. Talented eye of his !

Unfortunately, her role is quite short in this lengthy movie.

A Parable of Futility .......2007-05-06

The theme of this story is the narcissism that causes a group of dissatisfied "celebrities" and the reporters and journalists who exploit them to create dehumanized lives in the context of hedonistic materialism.
This story is culturally valuable because it shows us the lifestyles of "celebrities" and aristocracy and how standards are formed around those lifestyles. The story reveals a side of "the sweet life" that is often untold and unnoticed. It serves to remind us what is truly important, and to break up common illusions and misconceptions about the life of glamour. The final scene, in which the healthy young girl and Marcello, with his entourage of misguided celebrities, cannot communicate illustrates the distinction between the two and their value systems.
The glamorous life is not the only thing about which Fellini reveals misconceptions: common understandings of love and religion are also shown to be ineffective and harmful. The scene of the planned "miracle" is one such instance that shows religious superficial and superstitious practices. In one instance, we are shown a group of the faithful ripping apart a sapling tree just because the Madonna was alleged to have appeared in its proximity. This story exemplifies many facets of humanity that are universal and timeless.
The way the elements of style are used serves to increase the worth of the film and intensify the force with which its cultural value is presented. Many of the elements are used with such subtlety that we scarcely understand why we are feeling the way we do until the film is over and we have analyzed it. The dialogue is well-written and telling; however, the other elements of film style contribute as much to our sense of what the film means, if not more. The lighting, editing and sound present to us the aura of the film; alienation, loneliness, boredom, self-centeredness and misery.

Feels Incredibly Modern.......2007-04-11

Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's masterpiece, "La Dolce Vita" is a nearly 3-hour long film that's low on plot; But is, without a doubt, a masterpiece. The film marks the first collaboration between Fellini and actor Marcello Mastroianni (who also appeared in "8 1/2").
"La Dolce Vita" claimed the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival and feels surprisingly modern, especially since it's 46 years old.

Mastroianni plays Marcello, a gossip columnist who lives the nightlife, scoping out various clubs and hangouts while getting dirt on various celebrities. This movie is what gave the world the term "paparazzi." In truth, the word "paparazzi" is never used, but "paparazzo" is uttered many times. Anyway, the plot doesn't follow a linear line of events. Instead, we follow Marcello on what amounts to a series of episodes almost like on a TV show. He meets a woman (Anouk Aimee), with whom he spends the night at a prostitute's house. We see his relationship with his suicidal girlfriend. We watch him meet the Swedish actress Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), lust for her but never actually get her. We watch as he goes to see a supposed sighting of the Madonna. Then as he visits an old friend...Despite being 174 minutes, I'm finding myself at a loss of words over the actual plot. That's one of the great things about a Fellini film though, the spontaneity.

The script is written by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Tullio Pinelli...To me, the biggest influences on the film are Fellini and Pasolini. It's got Fellini's mood and atmosphere; anyone could recognize it as a Fellini film. However, unlike "La Strada" or "Nights of Cabiria" it has that same pacing, slowness that looms over Pasolini's "Salo" and "Teorema." The title la dolce vita translates to "the sweet life." The title fits the film so well. Throughout the film, we watch the hopeless protagonist Marcello search for the sweet life. By the end of the film, he has realized that there's no such thing. If you put this film in-between "La Strada" and "8 1/2" you realize something strange. "La Strada" has a childish innocence to it, "La Dolce Vita" has a young man transitioning into a world-weary state, and then "8 1/2" has that world-weary man in the form of a director. It's interesting to notice; these three films play almost as a trilogy. This is a 5 star film all the way, a fact that owes thanks to the score by Nino Rota. I don't know anyone who could compose a Fellini film the way Rota could. "La Dolce Vita" is a masterpiece. It's long, but it's worth it.
GRADE: A-

Average customer rating:

Not to all tastes, and sadly not quite to mine
Fabulous Fellini in all his glory.
Very personal, very interesting
The Emperor has no clothes
The Reviewer Below Doesn't Get The "Art" ; )

8 1/2 (Single Disc Edition)
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni , Claudia Cardinale , Anouk Aimée , Sandra Milo , and Rossella Falk
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)
La Strada - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)
The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B00006IUIG
Release Date: 2002-10-08

Amazon.com essential video

Federico Fellini's 1963 semi-autobiographical story about a worshipped filmmaker who has lost his inspiration is still a mesmerizing mystery tour that has been quoted (Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland) but never duplicated. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido, a director trying to relax a bit in the wake of his latest hit. Besieged by people eager to work with him, however, he also struggles to find his next idea for a film. The combined pressures draw him within himself, where his recollections of significant events in his life and the many lovers he has left behind begin to haunt him. The marriage of Fellini's hyperreal imagery, dreamy sidebars, and the gravity of Guido's increasing guilt and self-awareness make this as much a deeply moving, soulful film as it is an electrifying spectacle. Mastroianni is wonderful in the lead, his woozy sensitivity to Guido's freefall both touching and charming--all the more so as the character becomes increasingly divorced from the celebrity hype that ultimately outpaces him. --Tom Keogh

Description

Federico Fellini's towering masterpiece follows burned-out celebrity director Marcello Mastroianni through a series of bizarre encounters and wild daydreams, the first of which finds him ascending into the clouds during a traffic jam. Seeking solace and rejuvenation at a remote health spa, he finds himself plagued by journalists, his producer, his mistress, and most inconvenient of all, his wife ("A Man and a Woman's" Anouk Aimee). Caught between past, present, and fantasy, he longs to make a pure and honest film while his producer goads him into shooting a big budget science fiction spectacle. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, this visually dazzling feast also stars Claudia Cardinale (The Pink Panther), Barbara Steele (Black Sunday), and Rossella Falk (Modesty Blaise). Outrageous and unforgettable! 1963 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Customer Reviews:

Not to all tastes, and sadly not quite to mine.......2007-06-15

Unfortunately, for the most part 8½ left me cold, one of those films where you get what is being done but it's just not on your wavelength. It's pointless to complain about it being hit-and-miss or confused, since erratic confusion is the nature of the beast as Fellini becomes possibly the first man to film his own nervous breakdown (or at very least his crisis of creativity). In many ways the turning point in Fellini's career where fantasy and grotesquery would become an increasing part of increasingly disjointed phantasmagorias with a design style as cluttered as a tart's dressing table, there are moments that strike home and the latter scenes with his wife and with Claudia work because there's a sense of self-awareness of Fellini's limitations not just as an artist but as a human being. But overall I was just left with the feeling that I'd got on the wrong train by mistake.

(Incidentally, to strike a timely note, it's amusing to note that the producer's brainless bimbo girlfriend is the spitting image of Paris Hilton!)

It's a shame Criterion's otherwise excellent 2-disc DVD couldn't locate the deleted sequences, although they are represented in the excellent stills galeries. Alongside the 50-minute 'Director's Notebook' documentary TV special by Fellini, the 45-minute German Nino Rota documentary is interesting and has a wonderful moment where the composer accepts a proffered cigarette only to turn down a light because he doesn't smoke!

Fabulous Fellini in all his glory. .......2007-05-13

What else can I say? It's Fellini at his best. It's the antithesis of a Hollywood movie, which is to say that it't thought provoking and demanding of the viewer.

Very personal, very interesting.......2007-02-22

I wrote originally wrote this as a comment on one of the negative reviews, but thought it might be beneficial to expand it and post as a review in its own right:

I can understand why this movie might appear pretentious.... I'm not saying it's especially esoteric, but because the method of expression contrasts with traditional film-making it can appear pretentious until you get the feel for it. This isn't something that requires special technical knowledge, it just has to be developed intuitively---once you get it, it's like "ah-hah!" and it suddenly seems very down-to-earth and human.

This film doesn't follow traditional narrative structure, it is more a series of vignettes or impressions that relate to Fellini's improvisational and personal style. I can still understand why someone might not relate to Fellini himself, but that doesn't render his art worthless. It is a highly personal, accurate, and outstanding expression of his self, and that is why it is great--- not because of the hype that has been forever associated with Fellini's films and larger-than-life persona.

This film represents a good place to start if one wished to begin understanding other works of art that make use of subjective or surrealist methods in their presentation. I think some David Lynch films use a very similar technique, though applied to specific characters which are not strictly auto-biographical.

8 1/2, does a very good job of blending subjectivity and "objectivity" throughout. It is an interesting portrait of a person's psyche---his psyche shapes his reality, and vice versa. In this light, every person's reality is truly their own, though I can't know if Fellini really intended to make any larger implications such as these. Fellini knows himself best, his own bank of experiences and perceptions form the basis of the content. All great art is highly personal like this, whether it admits to it or not.

It is important to stress that this is not a film that makes use of dynamic narrative tensions. It has basically one situation: the main character. It explores that one situation as fully as possible--- all of the things that make him who he is and in turn shape the way he perceives and approaches his circumstance. The film is highly unique in the skill with which it does so, and the loose, almost improvisational nature of this film-making is suited to presenting its subject.

Relying on circumstance to intervene in the creative process allows aspects to manifest that could not have if he were trying to write a film of this nature. Subconscious and unintentional aspects could reveal themselves, giving the film a psychological weight that contributes to the feeling of personal depth. These aspects may not be picked up consciously by the viewer except on repeated viewings...this is what I mean when I say you have to develop an intuitive feel for the way these kinds of films work.

Until you develop that feel and understanding, more emotional than intellectual, these and other films (like those of the aforementioned David Lynch) will just appear pretentious. I do not deny that there are a lot of folks who act like they understand these kinds of movies more than they do, contributing to the pretentious vibe.

There can still be differences of opinion in terms of interpretation, but the essence of the film is not intellectual---varying interpretations can simultaneously be accurate given the layers of ambiguity and complexity that great minds (and subsequently great works) possess. People and works with one simplistic message are not nearly as compelling.

The Emperor has no clothes.......2007-02-06

It's really quite amusing reading all of the fawning encomia to this pretentious piece of garbage. Because this film's reputation is based on a top-down critical diktat rather than on inherent quality, most of these reviews either cite some sort of authority (Roger Ebert, the Academy Awards, some frou frou list of the greatest "films" of "cinema") to justify their adulation, or they seem to be quoting accolades and analysis from some film-history textbook. The sheep can't bleat their loyalty to received judgement fast enough. After two viewings, I have found nothing of value in 8 1/2. This movie consists of glamourous Italians going here and there talking about_nothing_, with occasional surrealistic hallucinations interspersed. This entire movie is a cheap trick, and that will be acknowledged in a more honest era. In the meantime, it is our duty, like the little child, to proclaim very loudly that the Emperor is naked! I give this movie negative 8 1/2 stars.

The Reviewer Below Doesn't Get The "Art" ; ).......2007-01-25

There was a challenge in the review below to offer an essay for why 8 1/2 truly is a great film. I offer Roger Ebert's essay in his The Great Movies archive. It can be found on his website. There are some great reasons brought up on why 8 1/2 works so well and I really enjoy his observations about the movie.

Criterion also makes a great dvd package.

Great film, great picture quality, great extras, and a great book of essays to go with it all.

This one is worth picking up, hands down.

Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Not exactly disappointing, but...
Very long, but worth it
Haunting
A Landmark from a Genius
one of the most beautiful and heartwrenching films.......

Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection
Starring: Giulietta Masina , François Périer , Franca Marzi , Dorian Gray , and Aldo Silvani
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Criterion
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La Strada - Criterion Collection
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I Vitelloni - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B00000IOKV
Release Date: 1999-09-07

Amazon.com essential video

A year after his international breakthrough film La Strada, Federico Fellini and his leading lady/wife Giulietta Masina collaborated on another masterpiece, a magical mix of neorealism and romantic optimism set on the streets of Rome. Masina's moon-faced and bright-eyed Cabiria is a passionate streetwalker with a heart as big as Italy and the emotional spontaneity of a child, a woman with a hearty passion for life whose constant weakness is falling in love with mercenary creeps. For a couple of hours we share the dreams and disillusionments of Cabiria as she rattles around Rome before once again losing her heart. The bittersweet heartbreak is tempered with a soaring celebration of the human spirit: no other Fellini film offers such honest hope in the face of such bitter devastation. Fellini left the poor and the working class to revel in the decadence of Rome's high society for his next film, La Dolce Vita, a film that could have sprung from Cabiria's hilarious chance interlude with a matinee idol (played by Amedeo Nazzari). Rambling and leisurely paced, Nights of Cabiria is a sweet film of warmth and simple grace. It became the basis of Neil Simon's American musical Sweet Charity, with Shirley Maclaine taking Masina's role in Bob Fosse's film version. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Giulietta Masina won Best Actress at Cannes as the title character of one of Fellini's most haunting films. Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria) is the tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. Criterion proudly presents the restored director's cut in a breathtaking new transfer.

Customer Reviews:

Not exactly disappointing, but..........2007-06-15

Nights of Cabiria doesn't live up to its formidable reputation but at the same time it doesn't exactly disappoint. Massina is not a good actress by any stretch of the imagination, too overreliant on volume and exaggeration for much of the film, but she is ultimately an affecting one when she stops yeling and just lets her face tell the story. It's Fellini at his most Chaplinesque, with Masina's whore a right little tramp, and its when it harks back to silent cinema that it's at its best. Her boyfriend's sudden change of character at the end seems to come completely out of leftfield and doesn't altogether convince, but it does allow for a truly beautiful final sequence. And it's interesting that of all the things for the Catholic Church to object to about the film, the one that incensed them enough for the sequence to be removed was a man with a sack dispensing blankets and chocolates to derelicts, a touching scene that acts both as a harbinger of Cabiria's probable fate and an affirmation that there is still some good in the world.

Criterion's DVD is a good presentation, boasting the uncut version with the long-deleted 'man with the sack' sequence, interviews with Dominique Delouche and Dino De Laurentiis, an extract from Fellini's The White Sheik where Massina's character made her first brief appearance and the original Italian trailer plus the US reissue trailer.

Very long, but worth it.......2007-05-16

I finished it 30 minutes ago and still can't stop crying. This movie was so incredibly good, and the ending was perfect. All of a sudden, you feel it coming like a storm.

It was paced in such a way where you start to know something bad is going to happen and as it unfolds, your guts tie up in a knot. One of those films that stays with you forever. Sad, but somehow comforting at the same time.

Haunting.......2007-03-04

I saw this movie years ago and thought about it every so often.
I rented it again,and when the movie ended,I realized this is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

I came here immediately and bought it.It's not often that you can watch a movie and really,
really care about the character as if they were a real person. That,my friend is acting.

Cabiria is unforgettable and will stay with you forever.

A Landmark from a Genius.......2007-02-18

Here is a work of poetic and cinematic genius, released in 1957, and now re-released by Criterion in 1999, which, judging by all the reviews on Amazon, still creates awe, wonder, and gratitude in its lucky viewers. Nothing here has become dated because, like all great art, from Homer to Shakespeare to Tolstoy to Joyce and on and on, this work holds up a mirror to life itself. In fact, as time goes by, this movie becomes more precious. In "Nights of Cabiria," we find ourselves in the society of Rome's pimps and prostitutes as they haunt the evening plying their trade. Cabiria is an independent, refusing to fall under the sway of a pimp. As the film unwinds, almost randomly Cabiria's struggles to stay alive and to find some semblance of decency and sincerity in this inchoate world tumble before us like a dream. From the opening scene, where Cabiria, in thrall to love, is tossed into a river by her boyfriend and robbed of 40,000 lira, to the penultimate scene where again she is shocked into despair, we see the crazy juxtapositioning of eternal hope with bitter reality, exquisite beauty with hideous misery, and the joyful music of humanity with the sad tears of lost love. What resonates so truthfully is how terrible people and life can be but how ever-resilient and relentlessly hopeful the human heart remains. This true spiritual message is delivered even as these "sinners" search for a miracle from the Virgin Mary but find nothing but their own futile yearnings for a better life. Fellini, the creator, saw it all.

Giulietta Masina delivers an utterly brilliant performance as Cabiria. She embodies Cabiria's comic bravado and loving soul while at the same time giving full expression to her cynicism and despair. This performance is one of the greatest you will ever see on film. So many emotions pass through her in flashes and bursts that it is a wonder to behold. The extra features on the Criterion DVD permit the viewer to have a deeper understanding of Fellini's creative process, although a long interview with Dominique Delouche, Fellini's French assistant, is not as enlightening as I would have liked, nor is the sequence with Dino De Laurentiis. However, it's terrific to watch an excerpt from "The White Sheik," Fellini's first major movie (a flop), where Masina makes a brief appearance as Cabiria in a night-time sequence and, with another prostitute, attempts to comfort a jilted husband. Masina was wonderfully physical as an actress and does a lovely little dance in this scene. Her dancing in this movie too is fantastically comic and joyful, a lovely thing to behold.

No question that this movie will endure as long as there are people who are moved by true art. Its message is eternal, its vision rejuvenating.

one of the most beautiful and heartwrenching films..............2007-02-18

NIGHTS OF CABIRIA was my introduction to the fims of director Federico Fellini. This film about the adverse life of a Roman streetwalker, Maria "Cabiria" Ceccerelli (played by Fellini's wife, the great Italian actress Giulietta Masina) and her indomitable spirit is both beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking. From the very beginning, the life of Cabiria is seriously being tested. She narrowly escapes a fatal drowning and is rescued by a group of kids. Cabiria is told that she is "like a cat" and has "eight lives" (she just lost the ninth one when she almost drowned). Though, Cabiria has a less than wholesome professon, she is a woman of high moral character. She owns her own home and really wants to meet a man for whom she can share a life with. Unfortunately, the men she encounters continue to mistreat and deceive her. Whether it is Alberto Lazzari (Amedeo Nazzari), a film star who fills her head with empty promises, or Oscar D'Onofrio (Francois Perier), with whom she has a chance encounter at a magic show.

Giulietta Massina is simply marvelous here. She has a beautiful and expressive face and those wonderful eyebrows, that look as if they had been painted right on her forehead. There are moments of sheer bliss when Cabiria thinks she has found "the one," followed by the bleak reality of her encounters. We, as the audience, cannot help but fall in love with her, and want for her nothing but the best....truly a film that embodies the resilience of the human spirit, in the face of adversity, pain and disappointment. A gem......

Average customer rating:

La Strada
We all travel that road!
La Strada
The best foreign film I've seen.
Italian film from the Fifties

La Strada - Criterion Collection
Starring: Anthony Quinn , Giulietta Masina , Richard Basehart , Aldo Silvani , and Marcella Rovere
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Criterion
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Similar Items:

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection
8 1/2 - Criterion Collection
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B00005JKGQ
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Amazon.com essential video

Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's most beautiful and powerful film, La Strada was the first film to reveal the range of Guilietta Masina, whose poignant performance as the childlike Gelsomina recalls Chaplin's Little Tramp. The bubbly, waiflike Gelsomina is a simpleton sold to the gruff, bullying circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) as a servant and assistant. Treated no better than an animal, Gelsomina nonetheless falls in love with the brute Zampanò. When they join a small circus they meet Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a clown who enchants Gelsomina and relentlessly taunts Zampanò, whose inability to control his hatred of Il Matto (literally, "the Fool") leads to their expulsion from the circus and eventually to the film's fateful conclusion. Masina is heartbreaking as the wide-eyed innocent, whose generous spirit and love of life leads her to try to "save" Quinn's unfeeling, brutal Zampanò. Though the film resonates with mythic and biblical dimensions, Fellini never loses sight of his characters, lovingly painted in all their frailties and failings. Fellini's lyrical style reaches back to the simple beauty of his neorealist films and looks ahead to the impressionistic fantasies of later films, but at this unique period in Fellini's career, they combine to create a poetic, tragic masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

La Strada.......2007-02-27

I've seen one other film by Federico Fellini (it was 8 1/2) and I saw half of "La Dolce Vita." I know what his films are like, so when I watched "La Strada" I was surprised by what I saw. This film is completely unlike the aforementioned films and, therefore, is probably Fellini's most accessible film. It's a movie that has shades of a much earlier American film called "Broken Blossoms" but with sound and a new storyline, Fellini made a poignant, cute, and sad little film. I didn't even realize how much I liked this film until it was over. Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina plays Gelsomina, a young girl who is bought from her family by Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a strongman. As he travels around the country with her, all the while being brutally mean to her, they eventually end up at a traveling circus where Gelsomina meets The Fool (Richard Basehart), a much nicer, tender man who advises her to leave Zampano. What a perfect name for this character; The Fool. His decisions are foolish and in the end, his fate is that of a fool. The ending of the film is truly a fantastic, very well acted moment. "La Strada" seems to take direct inspiration from several things. The storyline is inspired by "Broken Blossoms" and the character of Gelsomina seems inspired by The Tramp, that is the character created by Charlie Chaplin. She's a half-wit, not very pretty, and seems to hate Zampano. Yet everytime she's given the opportunity to escape, she declines. This movie was made during the heyday of Italian neo-realism and Fellini went against convention by casting two American actors in the film (both actors dubbed a soundtrack in English, available on this DVD. I recommend you watch the Italian film though, because a dubbed Fellini film ruins the magic). Probably the most inspired casting decision in the film is Masina. I'm not very fond of when director's work with their wives, because the wife is usually in the movie solely because she's the wife (see Guy Ritchie's remake of "Swept Away" for proof). I can't imagine another actress portraying Gelsomina. She brings just the right amount of sadness, innocence, and playfulness to the character. Even if you're not fond of Fellini (although, if you're reading this, you probably are) I recommend that you see this film as it has a completely different mood and feel to it than his other films do. Even if you don't particularly want to see the movie, you can think of it as seeing a little piece of history (this film was the first to win the Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards). The Criterion Collection has done a superb, flawless transfer of the DVD.

GRADE: A-

We all travel that road!.......2007-01-17

****This review may contain spoilers!****
This film is incredibly moving,disturbing and heart-breaking. The pathos may be matched by a small handful of films, but I cannot for the life of me think of one single film that tops it. It beautifully illustrates the story of a sincere,yet simple-minded burly man who knows that he seeks love,but does not have the sophistication to express it in words so finds his only recourse is to lash out,(it seems),at the woman he loves. He lashes out more at his own ineffectuality but does not know that himself.The pathos comes in because love is so new and unfamiliar that it makes him feel vulnerable,which is very frightening to his sense of masculinity. This film is operating on so many levels at once that it must be viewed at least 2 or 3 times to dredge all the gold from the many-layered conflicts going on with all 3 of the main characters. The death of the Fool is so unexpected by Zampano,(if no one else), that he finds himself trapped in the consequences of an unintended act meted out,(he felt), to level justice AS HE SAW IT. As a witness to his crime, and with her inability to move through what has occurred and go on, it causes Gelsomina to constantly remind Zampano what he has done. This, plus he must see how HIS actions have not only ended one life, but is slowly but surely destroying the bright light of joy which once existed in the one he loves until the only way he can end the pain of the truth,(as he sees it), is to abandon the best thing in his unrewarding life. When he hears the familiar song that Gelsomina used to play on her trumpet being hummed by a woman hanging the laundry and so inquires, only to find out that she died of exposure with a broken heart due to his leaving her, in the final scene it all comes home as he realises he had the brass ring and didn't even know it and as he lets out his doleful cry on the beach at night WE feel his pain right along with him as though WE TOO have lost something very dear. The way Fellini stalled the realization to the very end,(whether intended or not),so pulled the rug out from under me that I actually bawled like a baby for 10 minutes at the end of the movie and felt so helpless that the only thing I felt I could do to come out of the morass I had fallen into was to hug my wife for dear life and pray to God that I would NEVER lose sight of the treasures in my own life while foolishly chasing some rainbow or worrying about maintaining an image at the expense of everything that gives that image its substance. This film has the ability,if one is ready for it, to change your life! Bravo Fellini!

La Strada.......2006-10-23

I'm 25 Years old I'm taking an Italian Cinema Class on Neorealism (from 1910-90s) which is a Graduate class. It's a great movie and so realistic and that's why it's call Neorealism. When it was on TCM. I didn't have time to see it. It was my first time seeing this. I like Anthony Quinn's role and Giuletta Masina's role. She knows how to express emotions and sentiments with her face and really puts herself into the character... I think I would like to own this movie. I'm watching it from a Public Library for a Project due October 31 and I have to do a presentation on one of Fellini's films and I chose this one. I always wanted to see it because Anthony Quinn is in it and he's a great actor. It's the first time I hear him speak Italian. I love Italian and movies in other languages since languages is my major. I speak French. Spanish is my Major and Italian my Major. It's fun.

The best foreign film I've seen........2006-06-02

La Strada (The Road) is a heartbreaking and beautiful film. Anthony Quinn plays a heartless and cruel Circus performer, he treats his traveling campanion with absolute disgust, he bullies her, he treats her like a pawn, but the ending is so sad. You come to the conclusion that Zampano (Quinn) did care about this woman but of course it is too late to make amends and beg her for forgiveness. Great and timeless classic, you have to see this, just brilliant and real.

Italian film from the Fifties .......2006-05-09

This is one of my favorite films of all time. This Criterion Collection release only made me appreciate it more by providing a view of Fellini's perspective (personal interview per Italian television documentary), and behind the scenes footage of Fellini's work (both in the special features section). Along with an interview with Martin Scorsese who is obviously indebted in some way to Fellini as a mentor and inspirational teacher/film-maker.
Not to be missed is the brilliant performance of Guilietta Masina as "Gelsomina." Is she a clown, developmentally disabled, or a kind of mystical creature here only to teach life lessons to mere mortals. As Fellini stated, after this film was released, he and wife Guileitta traveled together to America where she was treated by others with a certain awe as if she was from another planet. This was the character Fellini reflected back on as the one he loved the most.
The late film critic Pauline Kael, in her famous review of "La Strada," stated that Gelsomina represented the (human) soul, Zampano represented the body, and the Fool the mind. I might agree with this analogy but without ripping it to pieces, I think this film stands as a masterpiece. In my opinion, way ahead of it's time. This film uses characterization that really questions social roles--while reflecting and pondering on the fragility of human relationships with the redemption (i.e., Zampano on the beach realizing what he's lost and destroyed) that can follow.

Average customer rating:

Perfect movie - what's with the liner notes?
Being Oneself:Always an Act of Creation in Amarcord
WAY overrated
Cinema as Art
brilliant......

Amarcord (Criterion Collection)
Starring: Pupella Maggio , Armando Brancia , Magali Noël , Ciccio Ingrassia , and Nando Orfei
Director: Federico Fellini
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ASIN: B000G8NXYQ
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com essential video

From moment to moment and shot by shot, Amarcord delivers more sheer pleasure than any other Federico Fellini movie. That's not to say it's his greatest film, or that anything in it rivals the emotional, lyrical, or metaphysical wallop of the finest passages in Nights of Cabiria, 8 1/2, La Strada, or even La Dolce Vita, the big early-'60s crossover hit that made the director king of the international film world. But Amarcord was the last clear triumph of Fellini's career, his prodigious gifts for phantasmagoria, amazing fluidity, and gregarious choreography all feeding an emotional core that caught at audiences' heartstrings and carried them away.

The title is supposed to mean "I remember," and the film is ostensibly a memory-dream-diary of life in the director's seaside hometown of Rimini during one year in the 1930s. But Fellini was an irrepressible showman who loved pulling the audience's collective chain, and Amarcord is no more straightforward as a recollection of his real adolescence than "amarcord" is a real word--Fellini made it up as a bit of pretend vernacular. So the strolling town historian who pops up occasionally to supply antiquarian footnotes directly to the camera more often than not gets pelted with snowballs from offscreen. Just as Nino Rota's (wonderful) music score recycles melodies from his scores for earlier Fellini masterworks, Fellini's movie is full of lyric ecstasies--spontaneous parades, comic ceremonies, eye-popping surrealist moments--that exist principally because that is what a Fellini movie is supposed to be like. There's no dominant story line, no individual character or player to be identified as the center of the film's swirling movement. Yet we do get to "know," and begin to cherish, literally dozens of goofy, eccentric, funny/sad creatures who have their distinct places in the continuum of Fellini's made-up town and reimagined Italy of a bygone era.

The era was, of course, that of Facsism. Fellini's take on Fascism here is anything but portentous; the giddy nationalism given voice occasionally by delirious crowds of townsfolk is no more sinister than the same crowd might have been in cheering on the local football team. In the movie's most famous set-piece, dozens of locals put out to sea in small boats to witness the passage of a fabulous ocean liner, the Rex, "the greatest construction of the regime." Waiting, they sleep--till suddenly the luminous (and entirely unreal) vision is towering above them, threatening to swamp them all. The moment is both ecstatic and terrifying. It's not the only one.

One last memory: In 1975 Amarcord received the Oscar for best foreign-language film of 1974. Since the film went into general U.S. release in '75, it was eligible for the Motion Picture Academy to turn around and nominate Fellini again, in '76, for best director and best original screenplay of 1975. He didn't win any further awards, but his repeat appearance in that year's Oscar derby occasioned an exquisite cultural moment: the young Steven Spielberg, realizing that he had not been cited for his direction of Jaws, gasping, "They gave my nomination to Fellini?!" --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Perfect movie - what's with the liner notes?.......2007-06-09

Amarcord is one of my all-time favorite movies and this print is even more of a feast for the senses than it was before, due to the latest color remastering technology. The written notes include a short piece by Fellini himself. They also include some obligatory commentary by a Fellini "expert," which is unbelievably poorly written. It reads like a bad college essay, full of words like "mutability" that don't actually mean anything. The author ends by comparing Fellini's theme of ephemerality and irony to "a pheasant in the snow," alluding to a scene in the film. The trouble is, it's a peacock! Has he even WATCHED the movie? -AR

Being Oneself:Always an Act of Creation in Amarcord.......2007-05-06

The theme of this story is the compassion that allows close-knit, small-town Italians in the 1930's to lead a meaningful existence in the context of Fascist oppression and economic hardship.
This story is culturally valuable because it shows the beauty of meaningfully existing, unchanged, amid destructive and oppressive forces. When a peacock lands in the snow with its beautiful, vibrant blue and green feathers, it exemplifies beauty, simply existing, within harsh conditions. The point of the story is not that the characters of this small Italian town make any world-altering advances, but rather that they maintain what they already have and admire--their sense of community and individual compassion--despite oppressive odds. Fellini gives his audience mischievous adolescents, oblivious teachers, a "crazy" uncle, a humorous grandfather, an idealistic and extremely feminine beauty, a generous but sickly mother and her easily-angered husband, dissatisfied workers, a story-telling lawyer, a prince, and a lying snack vendor. And none of these characters is ever treated inhumanely, or as being of any less value than any other. The uncle has an episode in which he climbs a tree and throws rocks at people who try to get him down, all the while yelling, "I want a woman!" Hours pass and the doctor who eventually comes to get him down remarks, "He has normal days, and he has not normal days...Just like us." Through the interaction of these characters, Fellini allows his audiences to encounter a town, the families, a community, and the simple life that exists within it. This film is powerful because it is saying that one does not have to defeat oppression to be worthy of being a model, seen and honored. You have only to live, to be yourself--which means to create--to be something powerful and moving.

WAY overrated.......2007-03-20

Too many fart jokes, too many urination references and just an overall bore. I love all the other Fellinni movies I have seen, but this one just was not up to his others at all. Skip this if you can...

Cinema as Art.......2007-02-21

Though it has a much lighter feel than 8 1/2, La Strada, or Nights of Cabiria, Amarcord is no less a masterpiece. Amarcord is one man's fantastical reinvention of his childhood memories. By turns funny and touching, outrageous and sobering. Amacord manages to be surreal and absurd yet capture the sense of real people and their thoughts & feelings than many of Fellini's more realistic movies. A teenage boy with the usual raging hormornes lives with his loving and typically dysfunctional family. Fascism reigns & war is imminent but these people would rather carry on at the local moviehouse. A wonderful movie about a normal boy living with normal people in a normal town in extraordinary times.

brilliant.............2007-02-07

Amarcord is such a wonderful and rich trip for the senses. This is the great director, Federico Fellini's look at his childhood in 1930s Fascist Italy. We see a great depiction of the ups and downs of his youth. The imagery has much to do with the essence of Italian culture and the experiences of a young man as he witnesses life, death and all passages in between. This surrealist journey shows such love and warmth for the unpredictablity of life. I was especially impressed with the coincidental and juxtaposed approach to the incidents that take place. They aren't so much episodic, as interconnected.

I think that this is a great coming of age film. I found myself laughing and pondering. Truly timeless.....

Average customer rating:

Empty, loud, and shallow illustration to an ancient book
A singular triumph
Bygones
the fellini paradox
A standard for surrealalism, if a bit creepy.

Fellini - Satyricon
Starring: Martin Potter , Hiram Keller , Max Born , Salvo Randone , and Mario Romagnoli
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
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Fellini's Roma
La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
8 1/2 - Criterion Collection
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)
Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B000059H9C
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Amazon.com essential video

Trippy is as trippy does, even when you're talking about a movie set in ancient Rome. This 1969 Fellini opus was among the most visually arresting entries in a year when the psychedelic experience was trying to claw its way into every movie coming down the pike. But Fellini, in telling a negligible story about two young men tasting the various pleasures of Nero's hedonistic and priapic reign, aimed for images that jarred as well as seduced. He found humor in freakishness, contrasting beauty and ugliness while effortlessly passing judgment on the emptiness of a life devoted to sensation and personal freedom. More of a fever dream than a linear story, Fellini Satyricon crystallized the director's reputation as a visionary--but may have trapped him into spending the rest of his career (with the exception of Amarcord) trying to top himself in reaching new levels of outrageousness. --Marshall Fine

Description

Encolpius is a Roman student who begins by arguing with his friend Ascyltus over the affections of androgynous youth Giton. Ascyltus wins, whereupon Encolpius embarks upon an odyssey, partaking in a drunken orgy and being kidnapped by a bisexual sea captain and his concubine. Encolpius eventually rejoins Ascyltus to visit a suicidal Roman couple, join in a plot to kidnap a "sacred" hermaphrodite, and much more. Loosely based on the book "Satyricon" by Gaius Petronius, the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the court of Nero, Federico Fellini wrote and directed this tongue-in-cheek hymn to the "glories" of pagan times via a bizarre journey through the decadence and debauchery of Nero's Rome.

Customer Reviews:

Empty, loud, and shallow illustration to an ancient book.......2007-04-27

"Satyricon" studies ancient Rome of the first century, and is virtually plot less; images drive the movie, not the story and characters, and the movie is essentially a montage of unrelated scenes. Cinematography and art direction are wonderful and the film is truly the feast for eyes. Its beauty comes from El Fayum portraits, wall paintings (frescos) and mosaics from Rome and Pompeii. The problem with Satyricon is that IMO Fellini himself did not like it very much. He seems to be a remote observer in that gorgeous but empty, soulless, decadence world of Nero's Rome. The shocking and appalling scenes of violence and sex leave me indifferent after a while. Two main characters that connect unrelated events are so insignificant, dull, and futile that they only take a screen time from the magnificent images which are the main attractions of "Satyricon". Even those images cannot safe Satyricon from being just a glorious illustration to an ancient book.

"Satyricon" feels empty, loud, and shallow. I rather read Petronius's book or watch the immortal, impressive, and full of character El Fayum portraits.

I prefer more "Fellini's Roma" - as beautiful as "Satyricon", it is much more enjoyable, has a subtle message and a lot of heart. The magnificent Eternal City is deservingly the main character of the very personal film for its creator, Maestro Fellini.

A singular triumph.......2007-02-12

Many complain "Satyracon" is lewd and "over the top". Hello! It's Ancient Rome! Many complain "Satyracon" is fragmented and episodic. Wake up people! It's taken from an ancient episodic work [like the Odyssey] that has only survived in fragments.
"Satyracon" is genius! It's a dream, a romp through the civilized western world without Christ or Christianity. A place where homosexuality and slavery are taken for granted. Where magic rules and life has quite a different meaning than it does today. To understand the genius of this film, one can simply compare it to 2 other films of about the same era, and themes.
One is "Caligula". It takes place in the same period of Ancient Rome, and the film even has the same designers! But "Caligula" is trash and porn and is all shock value that leaves little behind after you struggle through it. It's crap. Not so for "Satyracon". Both films have blood and gore and sex, but "Satyracon" does it with style, and it is never gratuitous.
The other is "2001: a Space Odyssey". Both films are experiments in filmmaking firmly planted in the period in which they were made: the late sixties. They are based, sort of, on an aesthetic of the time called "the happening" in which events unfold spontaneously. Plot becomes secondary...or tertiary even. Remember the musical "Hair", a hit of course at the time, has no plot. This 60's notion can be seen in other films too, that don't work and have become very dated, like "Easy Rider" or "Lucky Man". But "Satyracon" and "2001" take this happening idea and use it to concentrate on images. After all these are "motion PICTURES" and both films could almost be silent films [how the very genre of film started!] and they still work. Both involve unfamiliar places and cultures, one in the future [for the 60's] and one in the past. The characters in both realms take for granted the things we look on with amazement.
Yes, "Satyracon" is a period piece, a 60's film, but unlike others who tried to get "the happening" to work and failed, this film succeeds beautifully [partly by cleverly basing the film of a fragmented source]. And like "2001" it is still original, unique, and mysterious. It's brilliant! Don't miss it!

Bygones.......2007-01-23

There is a gentleman here hoping for a better print of Satyricon. Sadly, the best print was when The Criterion Collection released it on laserdisc. I have not seen it anywhere for sale and I lost the VHS copy I made from the CAV many years ago. I sold all my laserdiscs 15 years ago. Had I known what one-of-a-kind things they were I would have saved them.

the fellini paradox.......2006-12-17

Satyricon is a film that may have multiple functions: it can be viewed as a "satire" of hedonistic Rome, portraying the emptiness of a life driven by banalities through the coldness with which Ascilto, Encolpius and the rest of the "supporting" (i think more of- "incidental") cast is presented and developed. We only keep a record of Ascilto and Encolpius' doings, while the rest of the characters involved vanish, disappear with their affairs unresolved, perhaps as a metaphor for the lightness of a life lived only for the purpose of receiving pleasure.
On the other hand, and paraphrasing Andy Warhol, it can be understood as a stationary work of art... a movie that acts as a hanging portrait: a visual treat, purely for the sake of pleasure (here the paradox!). Like Warhol used to say about his movies of men sleeping: something to look at, that i can go to the kitchen and return and will still be there, beautiful. The characters' handsomeness, the exciting, beautiful sets one after the other, the odd ugliness that becomes strange beauty being something only Fellini can accomplish... and most of all, the straying away from any sincere human feelings or eroticism, in order to keep any actual emotional involvement at bay, make it a worthy "picture" to look at for the hours of its duration.
Fellini surely had a blast making this film, and it shows. He added and substracted oddities, freaks, epic beauties and creatures as he pleased. Scene after scene, incoherently put together as they are, something shocking or hypnotizing awaits. He loosely based himself on a story that lent itself to be ornamented, and transformed it into the greatest and most imitated trip/movie ever.
The film therefore can be interpreted as either of these two options, or as both, or as anything one wants it to be; in this sense, it's anamorphic and subjective. One thing is sure, though: it is bound to keep your eyes fixed on the screen. You can get up for a while and return, and it will still be there in all its color and charm. Whether you wish to analyze its meanings and symbolism does not affect its value entirely, because it works either way.

A standard for surrealalism, if a bit creepy........2006-09-14

Quite astounding when it first came out, your values may have changed a bit since you first saw this film way back when. Definitely a benchmark for cinema, regardless of your revisionist take on Fellini's "values".

I have couple of technical issues with the DVD (I bought it in 2001):
1) A lip-synch error pervades the entire disc - the dialog lags the actors mouths by a consistent and noticeable fraction of a second.
2) A pivotal scene in the film, the death of the hermaphrodite in the white hot desert canyon, is intentionally over-exposed in the film to appear almost completely washed out on screen. The DVD production house has "corrected" this exposure, which now looks muddy and lacks its original magic and meaning.

Amazon replaced my first copy - same deal. Too bad either Fellini wasn't well enough to oversee these types of technical details, or else the people designated to do this for him couldn't be bothered to do their job. Or maybe it's been fixed by now. Caveat emptor.

Average customer rating:

Fellini in transition
An Iconic Landmark
Fellini's Best Work in Cinema
European cinema of the old style
The Eternal Students

I Vitelloni - Criterion Collection
Starring: Franco Interlenghi , Alberto Sordi , Franco Fabrizi , Leopoldo Trieste , and Riccardo Fellini
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Criterion
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Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection
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8 1/2 - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B0002DB4YQ
Release Date: 2004-08-24

Amazon.com

Federico Fellini's breakthrough film, the 1953 I Vitelloni, is one of the cinema's seminal stories about slacker males, and a highly entertaining one at that. Following the unfortunate failure of his comedy The White Sheik, Fellini prepared to shoot La Strada (he would release that early masterpiece in 1954), but decided at the last minute to make an autobiographical feature about mischievous, drifting, 30-ish losers in a small, seaside town. I Vitelloni clicked with international audiences and remains an obvious influence on such later classics as Breaking Away and Diner. But there's nothing like Fellini's almost self-mocking fusion of gritty neo-realism with the audacious, illusionary style he would later be entirely linked. The ensemble comedy follows the ever-diminishing fortunes of five young men who can't define, let alone jump-start, their dreams, particularly the caddish Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), who thinks nothing of molesting the wife of his father-in-law's best friend. --Tom Keogh

Description

Five young men linger in post-adolescent limbo dreaming of adventure and escape from their small seacoast town. They while away their time spending the lira doled out by their indulgent families on drink, women, and nights at the local pool hall. Federico Fellini's second solo directorial effort (originally released in the U.S. as The Young and the Passionate) is a semi-autobiographical masterpiece of sharply drawn character sketches: Skirt-chaser Fausto, forced to marry a girl he has impregnated; Alberto, the perpetual child; Leopoldo, a writer, thirsting for fame; and Moraldo, the only member of the group troubled by a moral conscience. An international success and recipient of an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay, I Vitelloni compassionately details a year in the life of small-town layabouts struggling to find meaning in their lives.

Customer Reviews:

Fellini in transition.......2007-06-15

I Vitelloni signalled Fellini's move away from neo-realism, with all the trademarks (dwarves, older women, outrageous costumes, anecdotes replacing narrative) that would later become so exaggerated making brief and more naturalistic appearances in his apparently aimless tale of a bunch of time-wasting friends in a small coastal town where the biggest events are growing a moustache or sideburns. That it somehow becomes more than the sum of its parts is quietly magical in its own way, and the amiably dry narration linking the events and non-events underlines the ebb and flow of the film nicely. Oddly enough, I was struck by the similarities to Tony Hancock's later 'The Punch and Judy Man,' which seems to touch on several aspects of small-town inertia without ever hitting the same heights.

Criterion's DVD offers a superb transfer with a good retrospective documentary Vitellonismo which reveals a surprising degree of studio opposition to casting Alberto Sordi (then thought to be box-office poison after the disastrous commercial failure of Fellini's The White Sheik with the actor but whose career would virtually be made by the film) as well as the original theatrical trailer, stills gallery and booklet.

An Iconic Landmark.......2007-01-29

Barry Levinson's "Diner" must have been inspired by this ground-breaking work of genius from 1953 written by Federico Fellini. Both "I Vitelloni" and "Diner" are about five males who linger somewhere between childhood and manhood, sensing the greater world beyond their small domain, but who are incapable of breaking out of the protective comfort of what they know so well. Both directors are known to have given their actors little in the way of direction. Both accepted their actors on their own terms, as the people they were, and let them embody the characters they played as naturally as water embraces the shape of the objects it fills. For me, "I Vitelloni" is by far the greater work. It's the template from which every other work about aimless youth has been pressed. Much of what takes place in this movie is autobiographical, and some of it is coaxed from Fellini's dreams and passions. As a great artist, Fellini changed the way we see ourselves, and the word "vitelloni" itself became a new expression for soft, well-fed young people with no direction. Only his second film, the first being the box-office flop "The White Sheik," starring Alberto Sordi, Fellini took his sweet time putting this together. He shot it over a period of four months in various locations, none of which was Rimini, the city of his youth. He was just 30 years old, full of wit, spontaneity, humor, and joy, all of which would slowly fade away with the oncoming years. Alberto Sordi again appears here, even though he was obviously not liked by the viewing public, but he is triumphant as Alberto. In fact, there isn't a weak performance anywhere to be found in this fantastic cast. Entertaining from the opening moment to the closing poignant scene, this masterpiece is all about a specific group of young Italian men, almost a leisure class supported by their families, who must come to terms with women, their dreams, their families, and themselves. And it is about a much larger theme: what makes up a meaningful life? For one character who eventually leaves this small town, Moraldo, the search itself for meaning draws him away. Moraldo is, in fact, a stand-in for Fellini, as he left Rimini at the age of 17 to seek his fortunes in Rome. What meaning he found was in his cinematic art, his writing, and his directing. We are privileged to bear witness to that genius by viewing the treasures that sprang from his mind.
And in particular, this version of the movie on "The Criterion Collection," put out in 2004, provides us with wonderful insights into this work as well as informative interviews from original cast members and the assistant director. I personally couldn't ask for more.
If you want to see a true cinematic masterpiece, get this movie. If you don't like it, check to see if you're still breathing.

Fellini's Best Work in Cinema.......2006-11-05

I Vitelloni, Frederico Fellini's earlier movie and a winner at the Venice Film Festival, portrays five grown men who live in a coastal city who don't want to face growing up. They are adults but they don't act like adults. They spend idle time hanging out and coming home in the later night. The cad Fausto gets Miss Mermaid Sandra pregnant and he has to marry her. However this doesn't stop him from being a cad. He continues his little exploits until it gets him in trouble with the boss when he finds out that he has hit on his wife. Alberto was the comical juvenile of the group. He entertained the crowd with his antics. He was also compassionate towards his mother and his sister. When his sister leaves with her lover, both he and his mother are devastated. Looking at this part, the sister was the sole income earner and it was time for her to get a life of her own. Alberto couldn't forever rely on her for money and getting away was the best thing for her to do; even it meant running off with a married lover.
Riccardo, played by the director's brother, just sang and enjoyed the company of the men. There wasn't much centered around his character and it was for the best because the movie would've taken longer and it would have strayed from what the movie itself is about. Leopoldi, the intellectual of the group, had opportunities to leave and begin his playwriting career. But sometimes letting go can be hard to do. Your friends are your source of support. But friends can sometimes let you down. And there's Moraldo. He is the youngest one of the group. But he is the observant of the gentlemen and their actions. He has to be the one to keep them in line. Even this can be a burden on him. Especially when he sees his close friend Fausto cheat on his sister. Moraldo was more grown up than the rest of the fellows. He knew that it was his time to leave Rimini and live his own life.
This isn't my first time seeing a Fellini movie. He is an ingenuine talented director who isn't rigid. He uses imagery to express reality as he did in "Juliet of the Spirits". Don't just watch the movie itself. Watch the documentary as well. It gives you insight as to how this movie came to fruition.

European cinema of the old style.......2006-09-18

This is a tale of provincial Europe. It's Italy according to Fellini but it could be Spain according to Berlanga, same years. The general impression is the same: a melancholic, tender-hearted remembrance of bygone times.

I Vitelloni (the guys) is a bunch of provincial young men who don't want to grow up. They linger in an idyllic town living their joyful and careless lives. But the world does not stop even if they have. Life brings many changes and responsibilities which they don't want to face, not yet. But they all will have to, inevitably.

This is such a good movie because it's story is the story of every human being who wakes up one day and realizes that he is the master of his own life; and here's the kick, a life that calls for making choices and bearing their consequences.

Its a very humorous and, at the same time, sad story. Young men who don't want to grow up, who don't want to work, simply because there's no urgent need to do it (work as last resource). This is also a good portrait of family life and social conditions in Western Europe after the Marshall Plan had been implemented.

I love Fellini's movies (most of them) specially because of this harmless and innocent way of critizicing -if not just simply depicting- his world. I Vitelloni is greatly appreciated by Martin Scorsese in his documentary about Italian cinema, which is what made me interested in this movie in the first place.

Recommended for the meek, who will inherit the earth.

The Eternal Students.......2006-06-30

Somewhere on his way from neo- to sur-, young Federico Fellini had made a "I Vitelloni" (1953), lighthearted, unconventional, bold, and above all entertaining film that tells the story of hopes and miseries of four friends, four young men, "I Vitelloni" in a small seashore province town. "Vitellone" means "idle young person of the provinces, often an eternal student". The title matches its characters very well. They live in the town where nothing much happens; they don't have jobs and spend the money given by their loving families. They have the most ardent hopes and they face the cruel disappointments. They are different - cynical skirt chaser Fausto who is forced to marry a girl pregnant with his baby; the intellectual and ambitious Leopoldo who dreams of becoming a famous writer; the irresponsible "big child" Alberto (Alberto Sordy, the famous comic, absolutely wonderful in his early role), and Moraldo, the only one of the group who in the final scene will leave the town of his childhood to start a new life.

I loved I Vitelloni. Nino Rota's music is above any words (as always) as well as the young director's camera work, the character study and acting. I think of "I Vitelloni" as more realistic and sober "Amarcord" in B/W. One of scenes was absolutely stunning -the carnival - the music, the dancing, the camera's rapid but fluid movements - simply breathtaking.

It is without doubt that Fellini influenced a lot of directors, and there are similarities between "I Vitelloni" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and Barry Levinson's "Diner". Stanley Kubrick and Marin Scorsese both named "I Vitelloni" as one of their favorite films.

Highly recommended: 9/10 (or 4.5/5)

Average customer rating:

MASINA AND MASTROIANNI
Dubbed?
Fantastic! Fantastic! Guilietta and Mastroianni shine!
Ginger e Fred
Through A Glass, Brightly

Ginger and Fred
Starring: Giulietta Masina , Marcello Mastroianni , Franco Fabrizi , Friedrich von Ledebur , and Augusto Poderosi
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

The Conformist (Extended Edition)
1900 (Special Collector's Edition)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)
Green for Danger - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B000JYW5AU
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Amazon.com

In 1986, Federico Fellini's satiric take on television vulgarianism might have been considered, well, Fellini-esque. Today, the grotesque commercials and insipid game shows he depicts pale next to reality. Billed in their heyday as Ginger & Fred, Ameilia (Giulietta Masina) and Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni) are reunited after 30 years to perform their Rogers-Astaire ballroom dance tribute act on We Are Proud to Present, a television variety show. Amelia is now a widowed grandmother. Pippo has gone somewhat to seed. Can they recapture the magic amidst this surreal circus of transvestites, midgets, and a Ronald Reagan impersonator? Ginger & Fred works best when Amelia and Pippo's bittersweet reunion is center stage, thanks to the impeccable charm and grace of Masina (La Strada) and the incomparable Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita), two actors most closely associated with the director. Ginger & Fred is as much a tribute to artists ("benefactors of humanity," someone notes at one point) as it is to the ephemeral state of cinema itself. "We are phantoms," Pippo tells his partner. "We arise from the darkness and disappear again." Like Pippo, Fellini makes a few missteps, but Ginger & Fred is ultimately quite moving ("Bravo," a fan congratulates Amelia. "You made me cry."), with an unforgettable train station finale. Fellini made only two more films, but Ginger & Fred would have made a fitting swan song. --Donald Liebenson

Studio description

The legendary Federico Fellini, Oscar®-nominated 12 times for such films as "La Dolce Vita" and "8-1/2," skewers society in general and TV in particular with this nostalgic tribute to the past that won a Golden Globe® as Best Foreign Language Film. Starring Giulietta Masina (Mrs. Fellini) and frequent Fellini leading man Marcello Mastroianni, the film tells the story of two retired performers, Amelia and Pippo, who once wowed crowds with their dance recreations of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and are now reuniting for a nationwide TV special. The New York Times' Vincent Canby said the movie "ranks with the best work Mr. Fellini has ever done." In Italian with English subtitles.

Customer Reviews:

MASINA AND MASTROIANNI.......2007-05-26

Federico Fellini's take on modern show biz stars real life wife, Giulietta Masina, (Nights of Cabiria), and Fellini mainstay, Marcello Mastroianni, (City of Women), as a former dance team reunited 30 years later for an appearance on a TV variety show. It's a funny and touching look at culture clash between the two has-beens, and a young show biz world intent on instantaneous gratification. Masina makes "Nights of Cabiria", (if you've never seen it, do so), vocal references every time she says Pippo's, (Mastroianni), name (it sounds like her cry to her lover after he tries to drown her in "Cabiria"), but even at this late stage of her acting career, Giulietta Masina seems much more capable than the soft shoe performance she offers here; aside from a youthful exhuberance at the thought of returning to the stage with her former partner, her character remains stoic. Mastroianni's character has more depth, (he's a drunk, a louse, a flirt), but the empty subplot regarding his mental health history may make him more complex, but he remains unrevealed. During the low-key Casablanca-like ending at a train station, one begins to suspect the chemistry between them goes no further than the sparks from their tapping shoes. Still, watching two of Fellini's favorite actors in what amounts to fish out of water submerged in the fast lane of superficial show biz has a dreamlike quality based in a glaring realm that is always, if nothing else, Fellini.

Dubbed?.......2006-11-01

This is finally coming out, but only dubbed in English? I hope the advance info is wrong about that. Otherwise, I can't wait to see a new print of this.

Fantastic! Fantastic! Guilietta and Mastroianni shine!.......2005-01-22

This is up there with my other favorite Fellini films (City of Women, Juliet of the Spirits) and is a shame it hasn't been re-mastered and released on DVD. It truly deserves it. Unbeknownst to us, a friend and I watched this for the first time on Fellini's birthday (January 20). This is one of Fellini's most straight forwardly hilarious films. We laughed throughout its entirety. What makes Ginger and Fred so special is Guilietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini's two favorite actors. They shine so brightly and have such wonderful chemistry, it's a shame this is the only film they have done together. The plot, what little there is, revolves around Masina as Amelia, a Ginger Rogers impersonator and Mastroianni as Pippo, a Fred Astaire impersonator pairing up after 40 years to appear on a television Christmas special. Amelia longs for her past glory days and still carries a torch for Pippo. Pippo, however, longs for one thing: the bottle. As the two meet again and prepare for their final moment in the spotlight we're thrust into a typically surreal Fellini world. We have American and Italian movie star impersonators, a van full of dancing midgets, blackouts, a transvestite who wants to get pregnant, wild sets, a cow with 20 teats, weird tv commercials and lots of young and beautiful stylish women. The movie ends with a touch of neo-realism but what a beautiful, surreally fantastic visual ride it is. When my friend and I realized we watched Ginger and Fred on Fellini's birthday it added an extra poignancy to the experience. No one will ever come close to his brilliance and talent. Fellini, you are missed.

Ginger e Fred.......2004-01-26

Fellini's best. It is CRIMINAL that (in Jan. 2004) this has not yet been released to DVD. Tonino Guerra's screenplay is matchless; Giulietta Masina's performance is the most sublime of her career (better than La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, Juliette of the Spirits, etc.) owing to Marcello Mastroianni's equally moving counterpoint; and Fellini's mise-en-scene is even better for laughs here than in 8 1/2. The sight of a mocked-up Proust and Kafka dancing raucously outside a nightclub will remain with me forever, as will the comic poignance of the movie's coda. Own this film.

Through A Glass, Brightly.......2001-03-26

Memories are time capsules kept within every one of us, stored in the mind, but act