The Fellini Film Retrospective in Apr-May, 2010 in Singapore has been a great time to catch up on great movies. I picked out a bunch I have been trying to watch for a long while and some I wanted to watch on the ‘big’ screen. I had scheduled La Dolce Vita as the last in the series.

I have heard a lot of things about the film, the term paparazzi for instance and the episodic nature of the film, the religious symbolism etc… What I was not prepared for was the sheer complexity in comprehending the film as a whole. One can read the thesis and explanations of the themes at the wiki.

The movie moves from one episode to another each providing a very sparse link, if any at all, to the previous document. I guess that is the way city life moves about. The quest seems to be about finding a sense of purpose and the search for the meaning of life which never comes. I suppose the commentary is that the life in a city is so full of distractions that a search for meaning will be pointless anyway. The most composed character in the film has the most tragic end too.

Apart from the obvious philosophical interpretations of the film, the more I think about it, the more patterns and stylistic touches I can see. Symmetry, seems to be a key element in the stylization. For instance, the beginning and end of the movie are totally symmetrical and radically opposite. The movie begins with a lot of hope, Jesus files over the city, seemingly blessing the town, it is dawn and a very cheerful Marcello is hitting on a bunch of girls and asking for their telephone number. The conversation is drowned by the noise of the helicopters. The film ends almost tragically with a dead fish that is washed ashore and Marcello feeling desolate and asking what it is staring at. The decadent Rome is left behind and the youthful and angelic country girl is trying to speak to Marcello now. The symmetry comes into play here and the conversation never gets across and this time it is Marcello who brushes the girl away to get back to his party.

The stylization is pretty overwhelming. The movie seems to be constantly waking up, there are many morning and every morning seems to bring bad news and tragedy. The nights seem to be a time to forget the day and revel in wine and women but the dawn invariably returns and brings with it more bad news.

Even the episode with his father starts with his dad looking for a good time with the french tart and lots of champagne and ends with him rudely awoken by an ailment (presumably a mild heart attack) and a realization that the days of revelry are far behind and he needs to get back to the village to get back to ‘life’.

I still cant seem to get over these details and try to figure out the movie. May be that is the idea, there is no point to be figured out. I dont know. But I am sure I will have to get a DVD and watch the show a few more times. In some sense this is the most complex movie I have watched till now. But what was on screen was captivating yet fleeting. I recall laughing through so many sequences but I cannot recall precisely why. The movie may have a lot of sense or may be just a bunch of vignettes put together to stylistic effect. I cannot say precisely what. But I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and and signing up for repeated watching.

It is magical when you get to watch 8 1/2 and Guilietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits) back to back on a weekend. In a theater.

I thought of writing some inane article on these movies, but even I cannot pretend to be a buff enough to do something that presumptuous. It has been a wonderful experience for me though it was about 7 hours in hard seats and I had to brave neck, back and arse sprain doing it.

Only thing I can say is that the movies are two sides of the same coin and it definitely makes a lot of sense to watch them together, if not in one sitting, at least within a short interval.

If you did not catch them this weekend, consider it a lost opportunity and don’t miss doing it if it ever happens again.

I think it is appropriate I can link to some thoughtful comments from Roger Ebert.

• 8 1/2
• Juliet of the Spirits

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.