I Vitelloni

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Kylo W Dec 27, 2017 'I Vitelloni' has that post-war existential feel to it, and effectively transports us to a small town in Italy where five young men dream of escaping someday, but have no clear plans. There are some wonderful scenes that are easy to identify with - carousing in the street at night, walking along the beach, and dancing the night away at a party. The friends all feel a sense of bleak malaise, facing a future in a small town with nothing much to look forward to. While the older characters are hard-working models of virtue who have lives that really don't seem all that bad, the scene when Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) is put to work is priceless. His face beautifully expresses that moment when one has to face the realities of the world. The character of Fausto dominates the story, at first as he's forced by his father into marrying the girl he's gotten pregnant (Leonora Ruffo), and then as he can't keep himself from hitting on other women. He's incorrigible and a hard guy to like; we cheer when his father (Jean Brochard) breaks out a can of whoop-ass and he's the recipient. There is something missing to the movie though. The characters are developed unevenly, most of all Riccardo the singer (played by Fellini's own brother), and sometimes the events feel a little disconnected. Perhaps that's the point though. And we really feel something for Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) as he reads an aging actor (Achille Majeroni) his screenplay, only to be horrified by the latter's response. How sad that Vittorio De Sica turned down the role because he was afraid of being identified as actually gay. Lastly, we also identify with Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), who wanders the streets at night alone, befriends a young boy, and eventually makes it out; a feeling which is amplified knowing he represents Fellini himself. Not a perfect film, but it works. See more

Rey S Nov 26, 2017 Fellini's films always have a strong pulse, full of vibrancy and life. I Vitelloni captures the joy of youth and the bittersweetness of growing up quite like no other Fellini. See more

Abraham R Aug 9, 2017 Fellini has such a way of engulfing the viewer in the worlds he sets up. There's an interconnectedness to everything, something familiar but strange, yet inviting in the sense that we want to be here, for all the good and bad it is, because it paints life as an impression, which in turn evokes a kind of appreciative value in the viewer about the happenings of life. We take the bad because we know in our own lives we deal with that. There's something unsettling about the resolved conflict between Fausto and Miss Mermaid Sandra at the end, and yet we roll along with it. The boys curse out some poor workers, but their car breaks down - karma is a bitch, in the form of storming workers chasing them down. Nobody seems to get ahead in this world. Leopoldo meets his idol and pitches his script; it's all going well, despite the man not liking Leo's friends. But he takes him to the beach, and Leo gets scared that he'll kill him, running away. Was the old man going to kill him, or was he just having a bit of fun? We can never quite know that, but there was something ominous about the windstorm they encountered right before that, as if the old man would die and leave Leo with no hope. I love the energy in the trippier aspects of Fellini, particularly celebrations. He seems to be evoking a true sense of his own perspective in such occasions. La Dolce Vita is full of this, particularly the penultimate scene in the house. Here we get something like a Carnival atmosphere, plus the Miss Mermaid party at the opening. The camera moves erratically through various happenings, catching unique movements from the players, everybody with a specific direction that adds dimension to the chaos. In the opening party, we move into a thunderstorm that interrupts Sandra, an obvious foreshadow of the storm cloud that will be over her marriage to Fausto. See more

Hagrid R Mar 21, 2017 Fellini's version of Sullivan's Travels.

Abraham M Apr 16, 2015 A story about a circle of friends who struggle and enjoy life.

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I Vitelloni

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