Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
RANKED:
5. Il Bidone (1955)
Because it is saddled between two masterworks in his filmography, Fellini's 1955 film "Il Bidone" often goes unnoticed. However, it is a gem of a film that sees a group of grifting con men begin to reconcile with their thieving behavior. An existential crisis hangs over the film, a recognition of being 'over the hill' or 'stuck in a tragic way.' The characters all want to change their behavior, but are all too stuck in the web of repeated self-sabotage they've created for themselves. The saying goes, "a tiger don't change its stripes." But, even if the face of your own tragic ending, isn't it worth trying? Sometimes, you cannot escape what you've created for yourself as the film demonstrates. Even to the bitter end, our protagonist goes out the way he came in, unable to remove himself from the man he is.
4. I Vitelloni (1953)
Federico Fellini's 1953 film "I Vitelloni" was his first major critical and commercial success and gave the global an introduction to a master filmmaker. Focusing on the daily lives of five young men in a state of arrested development, the film floats seamlessly through episodes of mundanity and desolation and these young men struggle with nothing much going for them in a small Italian town. The term 'vitelloni' is an old Italian slang word to describe a young man who only ate, but never produced. The young men of "I Vitelloni" are just the same: jobless young men wandering through the city, dreaming of some escape or meaning in their lives. The drifting and restlessness is palpable, as Fellini films scenes of mundane desolation in contrast to moments of respite involving carnivals, cinema, and variety shows. Their listless, purposeless lives are shot by Fellini through brief and disparate episodes that are governed by their own integral logic. The film mirrored important societal changes happening in 1950s Italy at the time and global provincial life all together. It also was an important and influential film for filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas. It was also Fellini's starting point in his illustrious and prolific career.
3. La Strada (1954)
In many critical reviews of Federico Fellini's 1954 masterwork "La Strada," a term they often apply to the film is 'mythical.' This is certainly an apt term for this film, as well as applying the term 'magician' to the marvelous Fellini, who somehow manages to take simple, universal concepts and portray them in such a way that touches the very foundation of the human soul. In "La Strada," Fellini's wife, Guilietta Masina, plays a waifish, simple-minded woman who must tag along with an abusive travelling strongman performer. The two have a tumultuous relationship, but throughout, each character desperately searches for belonging. At the end, however, Fellini delivers a melancholic gut-punch and leaves the viewer feeling the same sense of isolation and emptiness as its characters. "La Strada" is a mythical film for sure, as its characters represent lost stars desperately searching for a sense of belonging in the vast, harsh universe.
2. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
With his 1957 effort "Nights of Cabiria," Federico Fellini was entering a new phase of his filmmaking career: the master. It wasn't hard to see that this new, vibrant Italian filmmaker was creating works of art that transcended the typical creative work. Fellini was creating magic. With "Nights of Cabiria," he reteamed with his wife Giulietta Masina, starring as a waifish prostitute in the streets of Rome, for a film that would go down in film history as one of Fellini's great achievements. Masina's prostitute Cabiria, time and time again looks for love, human connection, spiritual connection, income, or even friendship and time and time again is met with disregard, hostility, embarrassment, deception, and a completely unchanging and worsening life. And yet, by the final frames of the film, Cabiria has nothing left to do but remain hopeful despite her tragic and desolate circumstances. As life continues to push you to the ground and take everything from you, there is nothing left to do but continue marching onward. Fellini's mesmerizing masterpiece remains a testament to the strength and fortitude of an Italian nation and its people and remains a spiritual philosophy of hope in the face of despair.
1. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Famed Italian poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini once described Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece "La Dolce Vita" as being too important to even be discussed as one would normally discuss a film. I feel this absolutely to be the case. Not only is "La Dolce Vita" a monolith of cinematic history, it also set a precedent for how cinema would be constructed thereafter. Its DNA can be found in the very components of modern cinematic convention. It's themes and story points are as relevant today as they were in 1960, providing it a sense of timelessness. To call "La Dolce Vita" a masterpiece would be an understatement. Centering on a tabloid journalist who ventures into the grotesqueries of modern Rome's throws of debauchery, sensationalism, and depravity, "La Dolce Vita" is a tableau of the 20th century Nietzschean nihilism via vapid grasping at materialism and consumerism to satiate a new post-war death-of-God moral decrepit landscape. It is a monolithic masterpiece that perfectly encapsulates the post-war period of the 20th century and the new, soulless humanity it harbors.
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