What more can I say and keep saying about Federico Fellini. The older I get, the more I appreciate his work, his stories and his craftsmanship. I Vitelloni is no exception, in fact, it is a turning point. The 1953 film about a group of five close friends living in a small Italian sea side town, are trying to get the most out of life and want more from it. The characters are as diverse from one another as oil is to water. There is womanizer Fausto, forced to marry a girl he has impregnated; Alberto, an adult but juvenile at heart; Riccardo, a want to be singer; Leopoldo, a writer looking for fame; and Moraldo, the only member of the group troubled by a moral conscience. Combined these stories make up I Vitelloni (translation: The Guys). It is a semi-autobiographical film for Fellini and his second solo directorial effort. As these character's in the film struggle for meaning in their lives, the film's strengths (or Fellini's-depending on how you look at it), is that it was willing to take leaps and forwards and was Fellini's first push at censorship (it would later come full circle with La Dolce Vita). In I Vitelloni, Fellini shows womanizing, homosexual references, adulatory. These were things that one could not do back in motion pictures prior to the 1960's, even then it was a gamble. However, the gamble paid off, Fellini garnered an Oscar Nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this film and also began to receive international acclaim. Fellini once remarked, “Our duty as storytellers is to bring people to the station. There each person will choose his or her own train… But we must at least take them to the station… to a point of departure.” In fact he does, displaying one of the greatest endings to a film ever ***ATTENTION SPOILER ALERT****, Fellini takes Moraldo and as he gets on a train going anywhere that is not the sleepy town, it shows a tracking shot of what is going on with the rest of the guys. While they are snuggled in their beds, Moraldo seeks his escape. There are not enough words in any language to describe how amazing this film is, it must be seen.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Movie of the Month - I Vitelloni
What more can I say and keep saying about Federico Fellini. The older I get, the more I appreciate his work, his stories and his craftsmanship. I Vitelloni is no exception, in fact, it is a turning point. The 1953 film about a group of five close friends living in a small Italian sea side town, are trying to get the most out of life and want more from it. The characters are as diverse from one another as oil is to water. There is womanizer Fausto, forced to marry a girl he has impregnated; Alberto, an adult but juvenile at heart; Riccardo, a want to be singer; Leopoldo, a writer looking for fame; and Moraldo, the only member of the group troubled by a moral conscience. Combined these stories make up I Vitelloni (translation: The Guys). It is a semi-autobiographical film for Fellini and his second solo directorial effort. As these character's in the film struggle for meaning in their lives, the film's strengths (or Fellini's-depending on how you look at it), is that it was willing to take leaps and forwards and was Fellini's first push at censorship (it would later come full circle with La Dolce Vita). In I Vitelloni, Fellini shows womanizing, homosexual references, adulatory. These were things that one could not do back in motion pictures prior to the 1960's, even then it was a gamble. However, the gamble paid off, Fellini garnered an Oscar Nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this film and also began to receive international acclaim. Fellini once remarked, “Our duty as storytellers is to bring people to the station. There each person will choose his or her own train… But we must at least take them to the station… to a point of departure.” In fact he does, displaying one of the greatest endings to a film ever ***ATTENTION SPOILER ALERT****, Fellini takes Moraldo and as he gets on a train going anywhere that is not the sleepy town, it shows a tracking shot of what is going on with the rest of the guys. While they are snuggled in their beds, Moraldo seeks his escape. There are not enough words in any language to describe how amazing this film is, it must be seen.
