The Clowns

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The Clowns

G,

1971,

1h 31m,

Documentary

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Watchlist

100%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

76%

1,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

This lighthearted pseudo-documentary from one of the world's most serious filmmakers, Federico Fellini, is full of vivid imagery of clown routines, revealing Fellini's great admiration for clowns and circus performers. Revisiting his childhood obsession with the art form, Fellini delves into memories of performances from his past, expertly acted out by true masters of the craft of clowning. Fellini attempts to introduce the levity of the clown to the form of documentary.

Stefan Kanfer

TIME Magazine

Mar 11, 2015

[Fellin] turns the world into his circus and, in a liberated, quasi-documentary style, resurrects some of history's great pagliacci with their cornucopia of practical jokes, smashed hats, pulled chairs, popping balloons and squirting flowers.

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David Pirie

Time Out

Jun 24, 2006

Fellini's documentary celebration of the dying art of the clown is his best film in years.

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Vincent Canby

New York Times

May 9, 2005

It's not that The Clowns is not a good deal of fun, or that it is boring; it's just that -- to me, anyway -- this sort of coda doesn't do justice to the entire career.

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Frédéric Vitoux

Positif

May 3, 2022

From the very outset, Fellini does not falsify the world within which the clowns play their games in an attempt to make it correspond to his feelings, but instead finds among them those facets that are in tune with his own sensitivities.

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LAFP Staff

Los Angeles Free Press

Jan 10, 2020

It is, ultimately, one of [Federico Fellini's] most beautiful, haunting and compelling, personal, evasive, anti-intellectual and enchanted works.

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Brian Orndorf

Blu-ray.com

Nov 12, 2017

B+

I think Fellini feels he's shortchanging his audience. While vivid and researched, "The Clowns" seems like it only scratches the surface with his red-nosed, floppy-shoed obsession.

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Kylo W

Jan 16, 2017

Fellini directs a pseudo-documentary about clowns and their rapidly vanishing place in European society. He dramatizes his first visit to the circus and his reaction to the clowns and how they reminded him of some odd people who lived in his village. He then travels around Europe interviewing famous, aging clowns. The film ends with a 20 minute clown performance. Parts of this work for me, parts really don't. The dramatizations and the clown performances are fantastic. The documentary segment really isn't. Fellini inserts himself and his "crew" (obviously fake) into the documentary segments, adding some bad comedy and taking time away from the interviews. Consequently, the interviews seem pretty light on content. I don't think you learn anything particularly interesting about clowns.

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Federico Fellini

Director

Maya Morin

Maya

Lina Alberti

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Alberto Vitali

Actor

Gigi Reder

Actor

Riccardo Billi

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Synopsis

This lighthearted pseudo-documentary from one of the world's most serious filmmakers, Federico Fellini, is full of vivid imagery of clown routines, revealing Fellini's great admiration for clowns and circus performers. Revisiting his childhood obsession with the art form, Fellini delves into memories of performances from his past, expertly acted out by true masters of the craft of clowning. Fellini attempts to introduce the levity of the clown to the form of documentary.

Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Bernardino Zapponi
Production Co: Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF), Leone Film, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, Bavaria Film
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 10, 1971, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 5, 2017
Runtime: 1h 31m

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