VITELLONI I Movie Review

The Young and the Passionate
Vitelloni
Spivs

Fellini's third feature—his second solo directing effort—is a spellbinding portrait of aimless, post-World War II youth adrift in a small Italian town. It is also, quite possibly, his finest film. Designed neither as an exploitative exposé nor as a fully sympathetic portrait of “misunderstood” youth, I Vitelloni (“the fatted calves”) is a clear-eyed and brilliantly conceived portrait of a group of clueless, self-centered young men whose inevitable “come-uppance” is presented touchingly but without sentimentality. Fellini does an extraordinary job of balancing comedy, drama, and tragedy, without ever making his well-differentiated protagonists seem in the least bit inconsistent. Featuring exceptionally rich performances and lyrical, naturalistic, unforced direction, I Vitelloni feels closer to the neo-realist tradition of directors like De Sica and Rossellini than do any of Fellini's subsequent films; the powerful ray of hope at the movie's conclusion, however, is pure Fellini. (And the heartbreaking score is pure Nino Rota.) With Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Trieste, and Riccardo Fellini. Academy Award Nominee, Best Original Screenplay.

NEXT STOP… La Dolce Vita, American Graffiti, Diner

1953 104m/B IT Alberto Sordi, Franco Interlenghi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo Trieste, Riccardo Fellini; D: Federico Fellini; W: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano; C: Carlo Carlini, Otello Martelli; M: Nino Rota. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘57: Best Story & Screenplay. VHS, LV MOV