Quick takes on 5 Fellini films

Federico Fellini began his career in the 40’s as a screenwriter and received attention for a couple screenplays written for Roberto Rossellini. It was in the 50’s though that he started writing and directing his own films, so today I’ll look at 5 films from his first decade in the business. In 1950, Fellini launched what would be a prolific and acclaimed career with his directorial debut, Variety Lights (co-directed with Alberto Lattuada). Not as polished as movies that would come later, it is still a nice little tale. The manager of a traveling variety show, Checco, becomes smitten by a local girl, Lily, who dreams of being a star. He puts her in his show despite protests by other actors there, and builds a new show around her as her popularity (due to her good looks) grows in each city. The viewer quickly catches on that Lily will do anything to advance her own career, so it is no surprise when she dumps Checco at a very inopportune time, though he obviously doesn’t see it coming. Not a deep film, nor necessarily a great one, but there are nice moments, and the film is more grounded in realism that some of his more fantastical movies that would come later, though is obviously still focuses on desire, something Fellini would often make a focal point of his movies.

I haven’t seen some of Fellini’s later, more famous films yet, but out of these first few, The White Sheik is my favorite, though from what I understand, it is one of his lesser known pieces. A tremendously funny movie (I was laughing out loud by the end) but also emotionally endearing, it is a true masterpiece. It follows two newlyweds, Ivan and Wanda, who come to Rome to visit his upper class family. Wanda though is there secretly to meet one of her idols, a character in a photo strip series named Fernando, “the white sheik.” She secrets away to meet him, but this quick trip turns into an all day affair, and Ivan has to stall on his family, not knowing where Wanda ran off to, and starting to fear the worst, that she has suddenly left him. Of course in the end, Fernando is nothing like his character, and a let-down Wanda returns to Ivan with her tail between her legs. I laughed and nearly cried, just a great film.

I Vitelloni from 1953 is a funny drama following a quintet of adult friends. They lead aimless lives but dream about getting out of their small town, though no one does anything to achieve their goals, much less get a job to support themselves. One friend impregnates another friend’s sister, marries her and gets a job to support her, but his wandering eye continues to stray. A third friend dreams of writing plays for the big stars of the stage and screen, but when he meets one of his heroes, the actor doesn’t meet his expectations. Just when you think that nothing will ever change for our characters, one (the silent one throughout) boards a train at the end and heads out of town, with nary a word to anyone. Funny and endearing, it has all the aspects of a great Fellini film, including plenty of heart. Even if you don’t typically like foreign films, or if you think they are often too “artsy,” this is one most people can enjoy.

The first Oscar for the Foreign Language film category was awarded in 1956, and the answer to the trivia question of what film won the award for the first time is Fellini’s La Strada (“The Road”). It is a beautiful film about a traveling one-man show who takes on a girl as an assistant. Zampano travels town to town performing feats of strength. He’s a bit of a lady’s man, but when his last girl leaves him, he offers a local family 10,000 lire for their oldest daughter, to which the poor, tearful family accepts. Zampano isn’t kind to Gelsomina, calling her ugly and beating her when she doesn’t obey him correctly, and she longs to leave, but she has no where to go. Eventually the duo stumble upon a traveling circus that Zampano used to work for, and an acrobat named simply The Fool to whom he has a long-running beef. This confrontation leads to a dire situation for our leads. From early in the film, Gelsomina captures the audience with her big doe eyes, her naivete, and her adorable, shy nature, and while we should hate Zampano, I found myself hoping that he would change his ways. Whether he does or not before it is too late is up the viewer’s interpretation of what you consider “too late.” A ton of heart, a load of comedy, this is a film that anyone can enjoy, even if you don’t usually watch foreign films. Incidentally, because it was common practice at the time in Italy to film with no sound and add the dialogue later, the film was shown for a long time in America using only the English soundtrack, which seemed to help its popularly here since its two leading males were recognizable American actors (Anthony Quinn as Zampano, Richard Basehart as The Fool).

Fellini followed up his Oscar win in 1956 with another the next year, this one for Nights of Cabiria. I think I liked La Strada better, but this one is definitely a more nuanced film, and shows off the same actress using more of her skills, Giulietta Masina (Fellini’s real life wife, and she won Best Actress at Cannes this year for her role here). Cabiria is a prostitute searching for real love in all the wrong places. The opening scene sees her robbed and thrown in a river by her supposed boyfriend. She spends the rest of film identifying different Johns as possible mates, but nothing ever seems to go her way. Finally a real love falls into her lap and she has to admit, albeit grudgingly, that she may actually be happy. She sells everything she owns and they plan to marry, but on a walk by a lake, she realizes the scary familiarity of the scene, and that he is going to try to kill her for all her money. The man chickens out of killing her, but does take everything, leaving her completely broke with nothing to fall back on. Cabiria walks slowly down a street alone, crying, but when a young group of paraders stroll down, singing and dancing, she looks into the camera and cracks a smile. The viewer has to believe, with her, that things will be ok. Honestly for parts of the film I was a bit bored, but the tragic (and maybe uplifting?) ending saved it for me. Have to say, my initial foray into Fellini’s filmography has been a great joy, he may go down as one of my favorites. What can I say, I enjoy a good emotional film.