Directors: FEDERICO FELLINI

"There are so many young men around here. Where are the young women?"

I Vitelloni (1953)

Director: Federico Fellini
Country: Italy / France
Genre: Drama
Length: 104 minutes



I Vitelloni is one of the most joyous and provocative celebrations of the most relevant event of our very lives: life itself. Federico Fellini begins his influential and unparalleled filmography with definitely one of his most multi-talented and elaborate masterpieces. It may have been a good technique for Fellini to resort to an autobiographical portrait rather than a completely original story precisely because he always stated that he wanted cinematic audiences to see life like his eyes did. With I Vitelloni, Fellini goes nostalgic, and in the process established most of the important bases that would determine the characteristics that latter films of the same genre had, not to mention it was an extremely obvious and strong influence for Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).

The plot is the simplest that could be find in a Fellini film. I Vitelloni focuses on the lives of five men during their mid 20s while go to parties, conquer women, face new family and relationship responsabilities and start to dream about their respective, uncertain futures. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen in 1954, unfairly losing the Oscar against George Wells' Designing Woman (1957). Federico Fellini was also nominated for the Golden Lion and won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 1953.

An extraordinary early talent, true signs of the brilliance of a master, is shown throughout I Vitelloni, mostly because of wonderful narrative structure powered by one of the most fully-developed and complete screenplays of Italian cinema. Before resorting to the Italian Neorealism, Fellini makes clear statemenets about how life should be perceived and felt through the human adventures of a group of friends who start to unravel the mysteries and some of the meanings of their respective lives through a troublesome, yet occasionally fun existence. It has not a focus on existentialist ideals. Instead, Fellini contrasts very different personalities, finishes to construct them through their relatives and acquaintances, and offers a very nostalgic and moving conclusion.

The performances did not need to be specifically exceptional, but they were. It barely shares some neorealism characteristics since the cast seems inexperienced, but few feature films have captured the real and effective magic of the dedicated work of inexperienced actors. Fellini is also capable of showing his writing talents, not to mention he had always worked with extremely talented screenwriters during his filmic career. I Vitelloni seems to belong to the vague category of films where "nothing seems to happen". Moreover, each event portrayed throughout has a very redeeming and even cathartic significance, and that is the primary source where most of the cinematic brilliance is irradiated. The parties, the arguments, the discussions, the differences of opinion, the alcoholism, the womanizing and the local ceremonies seem to instantly maximize the rather small physical size of the Italian seaside hometown. Their dreams suddenly seem to be closer than they think. Other times, their illusions are much more away than they are willing to accept, clearly shown through the group of friends walking and standing by the vast sea.

I Vitelloni is as multiphacetic as the different faces that the personal existence of any individual may involve. The reasons of Fellini suffering a neorealist transformation since this film until the 60's, beginning with La Dolce Vita (1960), have remained unclear, yet they seem to be rather logical. It is a masterpiece of nostalgic proportions that can be interpreted as a modest prophecy of the simple magic that Amarcord (1973) would later share in the 70's. Its power, influence and heartwarming subject matter is a reminder of two main things. The first thing is that cinema is about expressing ideas regardless of the plot, the explicitness and the controversy. The second thing is that simplicity is the source of ultimate complexity. I Vitelloni, therefore, is the simplest form of complexity regarding the art of cinema. Nonetheless, it is a moving triumph.

88/100

Sometimes surreal, sometimes charming, sometimes cute, sometimes cruel, but always a unique and memorable neorealist gem.

96/100

Fellini's mesmerizing and masterful storytelling brings us this depressing and sad story about Cabiria, perfectly and unbelievably performed by Giuletta Masina. Arguably the best Italian Neorealist film of the 50's.

97/100

Review coming someday...

100/100

"Asa nisi masa! Asa nisi masa! Asa nisi masa!"

8½ (1963)

Director: Federico Fellini
Country: Italy
Genre: Drama / Fantasy
Length: 138 minutes



No matter how complicated and uncommon may accurately portraying metafilm be, few directors have accomplished to totally comprehend what filmmaking really means. The power of the words in a well-developed script, a cinematography and an editing that can go beyond our own words, a sublime direction like the one that could only come from a "giant of cinema", performances that are so great that they end up seeming extremely natural and the use of a beautiful original musical score that works for every scene of the film are characteristics that rarely can be found in a single movie. Federico Fellini, being one of my favorites "giants of cinema", directs what for many people's opinion (including mine) is his definitive masterpiece and the most representative sample of his visionary capacity of filmmaking, without mentioning that it is one of the best movies ever made by mankind.

8½ depicts the story of a director named Guido who is retired from the movie business and who starts to turn to the past memories of his childhood and youth, coming to a point where he combines reality and fantasy. The movie won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White and Best Foreign Language Film, and had 3 other nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White losing against America, America (1963), Best Director losing against Tony Richardson for Tom Jones (1963) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen losing against How the West Was Won (1963). I totally disagree with the Academy Awards' choice for giving Tom Jones and How the West Was Won their respective Oscars.

There are many important points to emphasize about the direction. In order to give such grandiosity like the one given to 8½ Federico Fellini was the only and most adequate director for the job back in the 60's. His spectacular vision inspired several filmmakers and directors in the future. On the other hand, this is his second movie that shows the total change that Federico Fellini gave to his filmmaking style since he left the neorealist subgenre, being his most prominent and famous films La Strada (1954) and Le Notti di Cabiria (1957), both having the wonderful leading performances of one of my favorite actresses: Giulietta Massina. Once he concluded this stage, he directed his second best film called La Dolce Vita in 1960, where it is clearly shown how he stops portraying the constant struggle of the society that lives in poor life conditions which was represented in a single person in postwar times (unlike the society shown in its totality, like the one Roberto Rosellini brought to the screen in Roma, Città Aperta [1946]) and starts to depict high class society in a very artistic and comical way. Whereas Fellini's neorealism focused on the struggle for survival in difficult life situations, La Dolce Vita and 8½ make emphasis on the existence of the individual, which normally relies on the role of the protagonist of the story.

This movie has one of the best screenplays I have ever seen in my entire life. Besides being complex, poetic, intelligent and well-structured, it significantly helped the film to create particularly difficult and elaborate scenes concerning the appearance of the characters on the screen with their respective dialogues and the surrealism that some of these contained. The script also helps us distinguish between the fantasy and the reality that govern Guido's mind, constantly mixing each other. Federico Fellini created the story of 8½ with Ennio Flaiano, screenwriter that worked with Fellini several times in the past, and they both created the film's screenplay with the help of the talented screenwriters Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi. These 4 brilliant writers worked together for the first time with the screenplay of La Dolce Vita. The fact that the screenplay of 8½ hadn't won an Oscar is beyond me.

The grandiosity of most of the scenes in 8½ comes from the script, but if it hadn't been because of the brilliant edition, these would have never resulted the way they ended up being. The cinematography is outstanding, offering a vast variety of landscapes and both open and closed spaces, and the shots are incredibly constructed. If you put all of these elements together alongside with Fellini's vision, 8½ ends up being one of the most poetical and beautiful films ever made in cinema history. The camera seems to play with the actors and with the different filming locations in which the story is set, dancing to the sound of the wonderful musical score created by Nino Rota. 8½ is brilliance taken to the extreme; it is like if literature and cinema had fallen in love.

The performances were excellent. Marcello Mastroianni, playing the protagonist's role once more, brilliantly performs the confused, depressed, lost and nostalgic mind that Guido possesses from beginning to end. The famous actress Claudia Cardinale and Academy Award nominee Anouk Aimée also did a splendid job as supporting actresses. The cast was excellently chosen.

8½ focuses on the human side that very few films focused for that time, and that even nowadays modern directors find difficulty in portraying correctly, just like Woody Allen paid homage to Fellini with his movie Stardust Memories (1980). Guido is found in a constant fight against his own emotions and memories in order to give his life sense and a meaning, and more than knowing what it is that he should do next with his life in order to be happy, what he really seems to be looking for the whole time is the very meaning of his actions and how these are related with the meaning of his existence. The constant failure leads him to perdition and to confuse reality with fantasy. That is why in the end of the film, which I will not dare to mention, is very revealing, not mentioning that several times we are also going through that difficult phase of confusion and loss of faith.

Something that is very characteristic from Guido's psychology is that he finds (or tries to find) comfort with his own filmic creations, like if these actually existed and had played a very important role in Guido's real life. He comes to a point of such low self-esteem that the simple fact of starting again distinguish his own characters from the people he knew in real life terrifies him. He doesn't know whom to ask for help just as he doesn't know where to find consolation. Incredibly enough, the movie feels like if it were talking to the majority of its audience, since statistically speaking most of the people worldwide have been in that situation at least once. That is why 8½ is for me and for many people a masterpiece that can really move us in a very personal way.

Another slightly treated topic in 8½ is the controversy that we as persons find when we disguise our own depression and/or the effect that personal problems we have, whether these are small or big or whether they have a possible solution or not, may have in us, without knowing if we are doing the right thing or it should be considered as hypocrisy. Although the film does not give a straight and concrete answer, it is left to the viewer's own interpretation. In my opinion, Guido could have prevented losing himself to such degree once he abandoned one of his greatest passions, and that is precisely what we also incorrectly tend to do. Life is characterized by the constant changes that our life plans suffer and the numerous obstacles it presents so we can strengthen ourselves as human beings: No matter how difficult it may be to believe, life will never put us into situations that we can't handle or overcome. If it did, then why were we born in the first place? Where would the purpose that God assigned us when he gave us the beautiful gift of life be?

Ironically, a possible title that had been planned for 8½ was "La Bella Confusione", which means "The Beautiful Confusion". That working title makes us think that the magic of life comes from our constancy of making of our lives something wonderful, unique and different from the life of anyone else. It is definitely the most beautiful confusion we may ever have, and more than a "confusion", it is a search.

Although the title of 8½ caused controversy even among film critics because it was interpreted as a way Fellini used to show off, considering that the title came out from the fact that this is the eighth movie that Fellini directed including a segment of the movie Boccaccio '70 (1962), that doesn't stop 8½ from being one of the most personal and complete cinematographic masterpieces. Its brilliance goes beyond what words could describe for themselves. Whether you like cinema or not, I can't conceive the idea of someone who spent his whole life without seeing 8½.

100/100

Fellini's personal jewel. An ultimate requiem of the soul and a nostalgic look at the human condition, this film is an extraordinary achievement of Italian classic filmmaking.

93/100