Federico Fellini

[sexterossa]

Definitely give it another chance. The first time I watched it, it was really late at night and I had trouble staying awake, so I turned it off halfway through. I started it over again the next day and loved every minute of it.

Me too! only i loathed almost every minute of it.

i want a laughin icon. but they are all to gay.

[ono]

Just saw La dolce vita tonight.  First, I should preface this by saying I saw 8 1/2 about two or three months ago, and didn't really get into it at all.  Fellini has what I've coined this lack-of-narrative-point entrance syndrome where you seem to be on the outside looking in in his films (the two I've seen).  This is remedied in La dolce vita a bit, but in 8 1/2 it was horrible, and there were very few scenes I could get involved in.  The only scenes I remember bits and pieces of are the woman dancing on the beach, the scene in his house where he's trying to tame his women (though a lot of that is nonsensical and jumbled now), and the final parade scene, which, I'm sure was beautiful, but because of the lack of impact the other scens had for me, it failed me.  And I want to be involved in a film when I watch it.  I sort of get why the film is heralded; it just doesn't work for me.  Fellini is chock full of all these beautiful ideas, but they are simply poorly executed.  One thing is for sure: he seems to make films about films.  It seems to be almost a complex of his.  Or maybe that's just these two films I've seen so far that give me that impression.  8 1/2 in a nutshell: **½/**** (6/10)

So yes, La dolce vita: the first hour and twenty minutes was overindulgent hell.  I started the film Friday night and after that time, I shut it off and went to sleep, not wanting to think about having to sit through another hour forty of it.  The blonde woman was beautiful, but I don't even know her name.  Shows how brutally BAD Fellini is at bringing you into the film and helping you get to know who the characters are.  And I didn't get to actually REMEMBERING what the characters names were until the last hour.  But they seems to change so much; they seem to come in and out of his live without much rhyme or reason.

Things finally started to get good, though, in the second two thirds of the film.  First, the scene with Marcello and his dad in the nightclub.  I LOVED it.  When two or three characters finally sit down and start talking about things that matter: that, to me, is good cinema.  I believe his relationship with his father explains a lot about his character, and that is of utmost importance.  Plus, the trumpet player was priceless.  He added the atmosphere to the scene that gave it its poignancy.

Second, the breakup scene on the abandoned highway between Marcello and the brunette.  That's probably one of the most powerful arguments I've ever seen.  Great scene, too.  Can't really describe it, you just have to see it.  And I imagine whoever likes this movie probably knows what I'm talking about.

Then there's the scene with Marcello and the drunk girl who asks him to marry her.  I have trouble telling the women apart in this film for some reason, so I don't remember her name, but there was a vulnerability here that made the scene special.  Again, I can't really say why.  It's just one of those things.

Finally (last but not least), what really made this film good for me is the whole last scene at the beach house.  The dancing, the drunkenness, and the sexy strip-tease: it was all just so oddly beautiful.  And then it was eclipsed by the final scene on the beach.  I wasn't as interested, though, in the dead animal they found there, as I was with Marcello's interaction with the young blonde girl who was waving at him and trying to call at him.  He couldn't hear him because the sound was drowned out by the waves.  I get the feeling though, that that wasn't important, as it was the mood of the scene that was all that mattered.  Just like in Touch of Evil, a film that came out two years earlier that pioneered this technique (also replicated in Rushmore).

The film itself is overblown (overindulgent, as I said before).  Example: I don't want to watch people at a party; if I wanted to be at a party, I'd go.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to sit through all three hours again.  But the overall effect is nice: as if you have actually seen something of Marcello's "sweet life" (an ironic title if there ever was one).  I really wish this film would come out on DVD.  As with most foreign films on VHS, this one was cropped so I couldn't see everything (VERY annoying), and the subtitles were illegible half the time.  So yes, not that I'd buy it or even rent it, but a DVD would be nice, with correct aspect ratio.  ***½/**** (8/10)

[modage]

blonde woman=anita ekberg
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Ekberg,+Anita

[AK]

My favorites are  La Strada, Dolce Vita and 8 1/2.....

And coming close Nights of Cabiria , la Nave Va and Satyricon....

And every single time I watch La Strada I get amazed how  Giulietta Masina's character is really similar to Emily Watson in Breaking the waves....even their eyes look alike....

[tpfkabi]

i suggest you give 8 1/2 another shot. maybe get a copy of the Criterion edition. watch it again and then watch it with the commentary. i think it's a film that grows on you, at least it does for me. actually, i think all the best films do that, because they challenge you at first, catch you off guard, etc and with repeated viewings clarity begins to form
====================================
i love 8 1/2 a lot, but it is the only Fellini i've seen. how do the other films of his that Criterion have put out compare?? i say this because there's no way i could rent any decent foreign films where i live
====================================
oh, i know, the second part is almost identical to a post from the first of the thread, but this is an old ass thread and my questions have still been unanswered, which i didn't realize i still had until thread review

[adolfwolfli]

Way back in the day when I was in art school in NYC I took a film theory class at the New School...I think this was in '94 or '93...anyway, the day Fellini died our teacher showed up and was in tears.  I thought the guy was completely crazy.

10 years later I've seen all the great Fellini films (8 1/2, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Juliet of the Spirits, Amorcord, Nights of Cabiria, etc.) and I finally know what those tears were about.

I watched the Criterion edition of Juliet of the Spirits with my girlfriend a couple of months ago.  She's not really into foreign films at all, but she was mesmirized.  Three-quarters of the way through I asked her, "did you get what he just said," and she said, "I stopped reading an hour ago."

She was experiencing the film on a purely visual, visceral level, completely enraptured and under its spell.  THATS Fellini.  You don't even have to know what's going on or what people are saying.  It's like watching a dream or a dance.  Pure magic.

I don't have a favorite...I am torn between Juliet, 8 1/2 and Amorcord...

[chainsmoking insomniac]

I've seen 8 1/2 once, didn't like it, but decided to watch it again.  I must say, it is beginning to grow on me.  Plus, I blind bought it from Criterion, and the commentary is really fucking terrifc.

[Seraphim]

I've only seen Otto e Mezzo (8 1/2) and La Dolce Vita.

I want to discover Fellini's work MUCH MORE!!!!

To many people say that his films are plot-less, it's about nothing.

But is live itself not a little bit plot-less?
Fellini's films captures life very much, the pleasures, rough edges, emotions et cetera.

Amarcord, La Strada, Nights of Cabiria... I HAVE to see them!

[Seraphim]

She was experiencing the film on a purely visual, visceral level, completely enraptured and under its spell.  THATS Fellini.  You don't even have to know what's going on or what people are saying.  It's like watching a dream or a dance.  Pure magic.

BEAUTIFUL WORDS!
You stole mine!  

[MrBurgerKing]

I wrote this exact same thing in that other thread. It fits in both worlds though. I rented The Fellini Satyricon, it made me want to put a bullet in my brain. I haven't felt so trapped since I was five years old when I was at a birthday party, forced to eat McDonalds cheeseburgers. I ate a burger trying not to think about it, and threw up later. That same night I had a dream similar to the Minotaur scene in this movie. This is a flick I never plan to revisit until I'm burning in the flames of hell while Satan plays it on a loop, in which case I'd choose the flames as escapist entertainment from it. I'm not saying it's a bad flick either, I just hated it.. it's a world I never want to stare into again, what a hell. "My sword is blunted" indeed.

[cine]

I just watched Amarcord again the other day and I gotta say.. more people should see this. It would get more non-foreign film lovers into that cinema.. at least Italian cinema. The movie is just hilarious. As I recall Ebert writing (yet its a no-brainer anyhow), this movie is for everybody.. its a universal film. not for kids, but you know what i mean. I don't have to know anything about the time period to see that it can still be a really entertaining movie. its just a bonus to understand what was going on then in the 30's. A beautiful movie with some of the most memorably eccentric characters in the history of the movies.

[SoNowThen]

Agreed 100%. A masterpiece. And to think, Speilberg thought HE should have been nominated for Best Director for Jaws over this. The bastard.

[modage]

just saw Nights Of Cabiria.  why Fellini, why!??!  god, how could you do that to her!?!?  that was so sad, and i didnt even see it coming.  heartbreaking.

[Ghostboy]

Yeah, there's that certain point where you just see it coming -- and it's like nonononononononononono and then it happens and it's devastating. But the great thing about Fellini is that he can take you from that low point to a rather happy ending so smoothly and believably.

[Seraphim]

Haven't read all the posts here yet, but I'm definitively going to do that!

I'm in the middle of my so-called "Fellini-Odysse" and I have already seen ten of his films.

I was even able to record some films from the (German) tv (Roma, Satyricon, Giulietta Degli Spiriti, La Citta Delle Donne, Ginger et Fred)!  :P

Some bether than the other, of course, but no Fellini-film is able to bore me!

I like everything about his films, about his ideas on the arts, the artist, women, etcetera! His superb cinematography, his "loose" style of filming, his passion...

Films like Giulietta Degli Spiriti, Satyricon and Roma are great works, Otto e Mezzo is- of course, you can almost say- even better.

And I still have to see his two major works, maybe the two I will like most: Amarcord and Le Notti di Cabiria.

Great!!  

Now I'm going to read what other Fellini-freaks think of the Maestro...