Ah, it so happens that the National Museum along with the Italian Cultural Institute is showcasing the movies of Federico Fellini.

If you have never watched (or heard) of Fellini, let me tell you this, you are missing out on what are some of the best movies ever made. Well snobbery aside, some of my all time favorite movies are films made by Fellini. I have but watched just a handful of them and when I heard of the screening from #9, I had decided to fill up on Fellini.

Well, the trouble is that most of the shows that are being screened are one screen only and I have to space myself to avoid overdose. Some of the movies I wanted to watch were back to back and if you know Fellini, you might know that watching back to back is a sure recipe for insanity, especially his later films. Anyhow, I guess I ended up scheduling myself for some movies I have never watched and some I was sure I had to watch in a cinema. What follows is not a review or a critique. There are tons of articles and opinions online (Fellini is one of the most celebrated film makers) and very insightful critiques too. So go and look for them.

First up was Il Bidone. The guy who introduced the movie clearly said that the movie was boo’d at Venice and what we were watching was the uncut-boo’d version. Turns out the Boo-d 50′s movie is actually nicer than most movies being made for 100′s of millions now.

The movie is simple by any standards. The story line is linear and predictable. The characters are literally one dimensional and left hanging without any sense of resolution. But those are easily overlooked. What stands out is the sense of humor woven into the film. Even in very serious sequences of the film there is something funny going on in the background. Like the feller who introduced the film said, this gives a feel for  some of Fellini’s trademark style that he developed in his future movies. Personally, I thought the movie was good, I think I got my money’s worth and had a glimpse of Fellini’s earlier film.

But I did miss some of the things I love about his movies. The absurd characters, clowns, circuses etc… The ensemble usually works like trees in a forest waving in the wind. Il Bidone did not have any of that. The closest was probably the New year Party sequence where you can see a bunch of extras carrying on with the dancing, even the fellers standing still, are constantly moving to the rhythm. The typical Fellini moment was the lone Giulietta Masina standing in the middle feeling totally out of place.

I suppose Il Bidone stands like that out of place among my other Favorite Fellini’s. But so do his other movies stand alone when compared to the over the top abstract movies he made towards the later pert of his career. Ah well, who am I to criticize. The movie was good in its own merit and that’s what matters. One thing is clear though, if I had to choose a place to party, I will choose 50′s Elitist Rome as my venue. Ahem.

Update: I missed documenting the best part of the evening. As you can imagine, there will be a few film buff’s around in a Film festival and there will be some pretend-snobs. As it is with me I take great joy in observing these people. There was this guy why was trying to impress his ‘date’ and was pointing to the large poster of ‘La Dolce Vita’ and was telling the lady, that is ‘La Strada’. Then he went on explaining to her about one of the movies (I could not catch the conversation). It was pretty darn funny because the lady went, “yea we should watch it”. I want to be at the screening of La Strada to catch the couple in action again. Heh.

Related posts:

1. La Dolce Vita or why I am still thinking about the film
2. Film festival gamble
3. On Gran Torino
4. Mammoth
5. Battleship Potemkin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Fellini, movie, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.