Genre: Comedy/Drama Director: Federico Fellini
Producer: PEG Produzione Film, Lorenzo Pegoraro, Mario De Vecchi, Jacques Bar
Writers: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli
Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo Trieste, Riccardo Fellini
Music: Nino Rota
Cinematography: Carlo Carlini, Otello Martelli, Luciano Trasatti
Editing: Rolando Benedetti
Distribution: Janus Films
Release Date: August 26, 1953
Running Time: 103 min
I Vitelloni is not the great Italian auteur Federico Fellini’s greatest film, nor is it one of his more well-known, so why choose it as the first Fellini film to appear on The Classics Corner? Why not La Strada, La Dolce Vita, or 8 ½? I find that out of all of Fellini’s films I Vitelloni speaks to me the most. Watching it is like catching up with an old friend whom you haven’t seen in some time, the characters of the film do indeed resemble people I myself have known, and in many ways captures my own fears of growing up, my first attempts at starting relationships, and just trying to eke out an existence.
That and I Vitelloni is just grossly underrated often overshadowed by the maestro’s later achievements. For one, it’s still firmly a neorealist film, and aside from a few moments, can’t really be considered Felliniesque, though it also showcases Fellini’s artistic evolution and willingness to break new ground. While the film utilizes many neo-realist elements such as on-location shooting and a sharp, observational eye towards Post-War Italian society, most of the actors are professionals, and while most filmmakers at the time such as Rossellini or De Sica were more concerned with the changing politics of the times, Fellini is more interested in the changes in the social mores of mid fifties Italy.
Plus Fellini was showing a more playful side. Like many of Fellini’s films, I Vitelloni is rooted in Fellini’s own life experiences, and the film is set in Fellini’s hometown of Rimini. However, as he did later in Amarcord, this is a purely fictionalized Rimini. As the film opens the audience is introduced to the five main characters, the Vitelloni (the word itself an invention of Fellini). There’s Alberto (Alberto Sordi), a man fast approaching middle age, and riddled with insecurities, Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste), a faux intellectual who dreams of being a great playwright, Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), a young man just beginning to experience life, Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini), a man who dreams of being a great singer but is stuck wallowing in his dreams, and Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), the “spiritual leader,” who has just impregnated Sandra (Leonora Ruffo) and finds himself an unwilling husband. None of these characters are based off of any real people, rather they just seem different facets of Fellini’s own personality. The opening scene where all the Vitelloni are introduced is one of the film’s most memorable. The camera fluidly tracks its way through a party on the boardwalk, the night sky pitch black, and the wind rustling as the narrator sarcastically comments on the going-ons while introducing us to our main characters.
The film follows the group of five over one year in their lives, as things around them begin to change. Though there’s that cynicism that’s always bubbling under the surface in Fellini’s work, the director is more sympathetic to his character’s here. There’s a certain melancholy that permeates throughout the film. Even in some of the film’s most comedic moments, it’s hard to shake off that feeling of desperation that’s always threatening to envelop the main characters. The characters in I Vitelloni feel like real people, they’re relatable, likeable, but not above pity. After all, they’re all over-sexed, and over-indulgent, wasting away their lives. One of Fellini’s great skills was getting great performances out of his actors, and this film is no exception, the actors themselves, though professional actors, give performances that aren’t far off from what you expect to find in other films of the neo-realist period. There’s a sense that the actors themselves have had experiences similar to the characters of the film, allowing them to truly embody their characters. The characters are what drive this mostly episodic film; the story isn’t as important as the characters are, and at times this can be a problem. At just over an hour and a half, I feel there just isn’t enough time to flesh out the characters completely. There’s so much more about them that I wanted to know, character traits that are only hinted at. The script feels disjointed and clunky at times, and yet the film in some way benefits from the feelings of imperfection, I don’t feel it would be the same had Fellini made this one a few years down the line, this is a film that could only be made by a young man, because it’s so entrenched in a young man’s experiences and his desire to portray the world around him.
We also begin to find Fellini indulging in some cinematic tricks here. There’s a magical quality to the film, a dose of stylization, especially during the scenes depicting parties in which the camera swoops every which way, most of all, though Fellini manages to create a feeling of the passing of time through his images. The images really do tell the story here. And of course there’s the ever great Nino Rota’s fantastic score. It wouldn’t be a Fellini film without Rota. The film has a flowing, lyrical quality to it, but again it does feel clunky at times. Fellini is working with three different cinematographers here, and there’s a certain disjointed quality to the images here, the flow always feels as if it is being interrupted by something. These problems would largely be fixed in Fellini’s next film La Strada, but here they keep the film from achieving so much more than it does.
Then again, I ask, if this film was more polished, would it be the same? I don’t think so. This is a film built on the raw emotions it brings across. It needs to be viewed for what it is, and it needs to be rediscovered. It’s such a shame that this film is being neglected, so do yourself a favor and pick up Criterion’s restoration of this gem and savor it. I promise that you won’t be let down.
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