Federico Fellini

  • Federico Fellini – Le Notti di Cabiria AKA The Nights of Cabiria (1957)

    1951-1960ArthouseDramaFederico FelliniItalian Neo-RealismItaly

    Plot Synopsis
    Tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome.

    Nights of Cabiria Essay by Federico Fellini
    The subject of loneliness and the observation of the isolated person has always interested me. Even as a child, I couldn’t help but notice those who didn’t fit in for one reason or another—myself included. In life, and for my films, I have always been interested in the out-of-step. Curiously, it’s usually those who are either too smart or those who are too stupid who are left out. The difference is, the smart ones often isolate themselves, while the less intelligent ones are usually isolated by the others. In Nights of Cabiria, I explore the pride of one of those who has been excluded.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – I Clowns (1971)

    Arthouse1971-1980Federico FelliniItalyTV

    A ragout of real memories and mockumentary, as Fellini explores a childhood obsession: circus clowns.

    Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid wrote:
    The arc of Federico Fellini’s career is endlessly fascinating. He started as something of a neo-realist, and then his films grew in style and scope until they became bizarre, swirl-colored, phantasmagoric spectacles. Then at one point, he stepped back again and began making more intimate, personal projects in the last section of his career. Made for television, The Clowns seems to have been a crucial turning point; it came immediately after the overblown Satyricon, and it shows an interesting mix of that film, and the film that would come just a few years later, the wonderful Amarcord. It fits perfectly.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Il bidone AKA The Swindle (1955)

    Drama1951-1960CrimeFederico FelliniItaly

    Synopsis:
    Aging small-time con man Augusto, who swindles peasants, works with two younger men: Roberto, who wants to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Bruno, nicknamed Picasso, who has a wife and daughter and wants to paint. Augusto avoids the personal entanglements, spending money at clubs seeking the good life. His attitude changes when he runs into his own daughter, whom he rarely sees, and realizes she’s now a young woman and in need of his help to continue her studies. His usual partners are away, so he goes in with others to run a swindle, and they aren’t forgiving when he claims he’s given the money back to their mark. They leave him beaten, robbed, and alone.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Giulietta degli spiriti AKA Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

    1961-1970ArthouseFantasyFederico FelliniItaly

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    Quote:
    Fellini lore has it that the master made “Juliet of the Spirits” as a gift for his wife. Like many husbands, he gave her the gift he really wanted for himself. The movie, starring a sad-eyed Giulietta Masina who fears her husband is cheating, suggests she’d be happier if she were more like her neighbor, a buxom temptress who entertains men in a tree house.Read More »

  • Gianfranco Angelucci & Liliane Betti – E il Casanova di Fellini? aka And Fellini’s Casanova? (1975)

    Documentary1971-1980Federico FelliniGianfranco AngelucciItalyLiliane Betti

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    Quote:
    …the “crypto-documentary” by Gianfranco Angelucci amd Liliana Betti E il Casanova di Fellini? (And Fellini’s Casanova?) made for the RAI, in which Federico submits some friends to a screen test for the part of Casanova: Mastroianni, Tognazzi, Gassman, Alain Cuny and an exhilarating Alberto Sordi deeply involved in the part.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – I vitelloni (1953)

    1951-1960ComedyDramaFederico FelliniItalian Neo-RealismItaly

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    Quote:
    Five men walk arm-in-arm through a sleepy Adriatic town, their lockstep a gentle echo of Italy’s Fascistic past. Such posses are quite common in Italy, where close male friendships, equal parts sensuality and ritual, are second only to the family in importance. I Vitelloni (the best sense of it is “the idlers”), Fellini’s third film, includes some of his most subtle filmmaking and most personal material. Loosely structured and oddly narrated, I Vitelloni is like a sketch for both La Dolce Vita and Amarcord. Paradoxically, I Vitelloni is also an insightful and accurate representation of Italy in the immediate postwar period, full of references to the massive social changes underway. Fifty years after its release, I Vitelloni can finally be seen as a seminal film in Italian cinema, one of the first to detail the effects of technology, celebrity, and mobility on Italian life.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Intervista [+extras] (1987)

    1971-1980ComedyFantasyFederico FelliniItaly

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    Synopsis:
    Cinecitta, the huge movie studio outside Rome, is 50 years old and Fellini is interviewed by a Japanese TV crew about the films he has made there over the years as he begins production on his latest film. A young actor portrays Fellini arriving at Cinecitta the first time by trolley to interview a star. Marcello Mastroianni dressed as Mandrake the Magician floats by a window and Fellini followed by TV crew takes him to Anita Ekberg’s villa where the Trevi fountain scene from Dolce vita, La (1960) is shown on a sheet that appears and disappears as if by magic.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Amarcord aka I Remember [+Commentary] (1973)

    1971-1980ClassicsDramaFederico FelliniItaly

    SYNOPSIS:
    In this carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Federico Fellini’s most personal film satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge, all set to Nina Rota’s classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award-winning Amarcord remains one of cinema’s enduring treasures.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – La città delle donne AKA City of Women (1980)

    1971-1980DramaFantasyFederico FelliniItaly

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    Marcello is in the compartment of an Italian train, facing forward when the mineral water of the woman seated across from him starts to fall toward him. He catches the bottle and makes eye contact and follows her when she leaves the compartment. For a few moments she finds him attractive too. Then suddenly she gets off the train and starts walking through a field. Marcello follows her, loses her, finds himself in a large hotel surrounded by women. A feminist conference is taking place and he tries to escape. Read More »

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