Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred) poster & wallpaper

Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni, Franco Fabrizi

Amelia and Pippo are reunited after several decades to perform their old music-hall act (imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) on a TV variety show. It's both a touchingly nostalgic journey into t...( read more  read more... )he past, and a viciously satirical attack on television in general and Italian TV in particular, portraying it as a mindless freakshow.

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77% liked it

1,378 ratings

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90% liked it

10 critics

PG-13, 2 hrs. 5 min.

Directed by: Federico Fellini

Release Date: January 13, 1986

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DVD Release Date: February 13, 2007

Stats: 63 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (63)

  • binky013
    April 28, 2007
    binky013
    Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni play Rogers and Astaire imitators who are professionally reunited after being apart for some 35 years. Masina and Mastroianni, themselves in their golden years here, are finely and most appropriately cast as figures from a nostalgic long...( read more) ago.

    Fellini definitely is no fan of the television generation that has displaced true entertainers like Ginger and Fred, and as Masina says in the end, "We will never dance again." In fact, both actors were very near the end of their careers and their lives. I'll label this one "bittersweet" as well.
  • marioehrler
    September 20, 2009
    marioehrler
    Federico Fellini is one of the greatest directors and screenwriters the world has ever seen...and that must be the biggest understatement of the century. He had the ability to take simple, real elements and transform them into a surreal, enchanting experience that speaks for itse...( read more)lf without the aid of a complicated plot or a multi-million dollar production design (although that's not to say his films aren't visually breath-taking). Even though it's not one of his greatest masterpieces, "Ginger e Fred" is one such film that demonstrates his never-ending talent.

    The main plot is as simple as it gets. Amelia and Pippo (Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni) are old friends who haven't seen each other for years, and in their youth, they were reasonably famous for their imitation of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, doing their classic tap dancing and glamorous choreographies. Now, they're very old, but they're being invited by a big (and sleazy) TV station to perform in their epic Christmas program reinacting their age-old act. The film is about these two old people, seeing each other after so many years, and remembering those golden years when they were celebrated, important, and had the spark of love and friendship alive for each other.

    They're not the only ones invited to the show, though. A huge cast of quirky and colourful characters also make their appearance, each one trying to grab their share of the spotlight performing sometimes interesting, sometimes plain stupid, acts and/or abilities and "amazing" stories. We see an (obviously) Fellini-esque array of supporting freaks- the priest who renounced his vows to marry his lover, the monk who levitates, the singing slovenly dwarfs, Swedish townsfolk with their fifteen-tit cow, a transsexual who services an entire prison row and is being processed for it, a medium who listens to ghosts through a tape recorder...the list is endless. They all have odious, over-familiar dialogue which makes us relate to the grotesque things we think well of in life. Our heroes, Amelia and Pippo, are thrown in with this collection of freaks, and find themselves both hating and liking the situation they've accepted.

    The images the film presents are as unusual and as surreal as we have come to experience through other Fellini films. The dialogue sounds casual and witty, but is continually spiked with longing, electricity, loathing and disenchantment. Our main characters speak and travel this (seemingly) alternate world they've entered and find it horrifyingly equal to that they live in. The way they all try to hog the spotlight, their unnatural addiction to TV and celebrities, the way they're all brainwashed through the televised images...Fellini makes a point on all of these. He also continually presents TV commercials about pork and meat, each comercial bearing a scantly-clad woman with a gruesome piece of meat and proclaiming it to be utterly delicious. The people believe it. We also see various posters and written advertisements with strange and slighty disturbing images for a variety of products that don't work, and proclaiming nothing but lies. People believe them.

    We see two main characters, Amelia and Pippo, being likeable characters trying to relive their friendship, trying to regain their previous vitality and trying to fit in with a series of "freaks" (in every sense of the word) in a world where greed, money, fame and awful manners have been allowed to run rampant. We see our main characters trying to quit their association with this distasteful universe only to be drawn in over and over again by a faint memory of fame, by an interlude with someone famous, by the expectations their friends have of them.

    We, as the audience, feel happy to relate to these old friends who have met once again, and feel their angst. We also feel a certain repugnant hate for the rest of the characters, unfeeling beasts who (to our surprise and chagrin) also seem, each in their own way, very similar to us and the people that surround us. And what is all the more interesting is the way Fellini never even delves into the personalities of these characters (with the exception of Amelia and Pippo) but indirectly spends every second of the film injecting meaning and objection into them. The images, of course, speak for themselves.

    Masina and Mastroianni are perfect in their roles, the music is both catchy and nostalgic, the costumes are...well, out of this world and the screenplay is both earthbound and ethereal. I couldn't understand the emotional implications of the ending, but I suppose that must be Fellini's point, to leave the audience thinking. And, believe me, this movie does get you thinking! And though it's definitely not one of Fellini's greatest, it still is entertaining and amusing to analyze.

    Rating: 3 stars and a half out of 4!
  • hypathio7
    April 21, 2009
    hypathio7
    nominated for best foreign film by NBR and at the golden globes
  • mrossia
    January 26, 2009
    mrossia
    Una de mis preferidas !!!!
  • Epicouros
    June 3, 2008
    Epicouros
    i could make a very sort list called ....films make me left tears...
    this is one of them
  • daghka
    January 15, 2008
    daghka
    This movie is the television approach to 8 1/2, more satirical, more critical and more nostalgic. It was really heart-warming to see two legends of Italian cinema, gracing TV and basically abandoning it, for it was a failure all the while, never able to match cinema.
  • amir1939
    September 12, 2007
    amir1939
    great masina mastroianni and fellini
    what else do you want?
    the real and beautifull testament of federico fellini
    a film full of nostalgia
  • jasonschwab1
    July 21, 2007
    jasonschwab1
    I dunno....I fell asleep.

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