Los inútiles

This is a wonderful film. The BFI have got their act together and made a new print, so finally I get to se this - and to be honest I preferred it to La Dolce Vita (despite absence of Mastrionni - sexiest man in history of cinema). Anyway, some of these scenes were just breath-takingly beautiful, especially the aftermath of the carnival, where Angelo looks drunkenly at the clowns (about to become a key Fellini motif). What especially impressed was the soundtrack, which lurched from a fairly typical 'melodrama' score to brilliant use of natural sound, especially the cold wind whipping around the streets off the sea. This sound adds pathos, and helps you understand that sandra and Faustos' 'happy end' is merely temporary: this is a desolate place which makes for desolate lives. It differs from neo-realist classics such as Bicycle Thieves in that it places malaise into the spiritual and emotional realm rather than the financial, although you still get some sense that the boys' economic hardship is maybe not entirely voluntary. Really genuienely enjoyable on your first watch, something I don't think you can say about all Fellini's films, beautifully shot and wonderfully paced, you feel as if you have witnessed a little miracle watching this film.

I think that the only other user to have commented on this film may have missed some of the point. The actions of the characters are not hard to understand. Fausto is a womaniser because he does not take love and its attendant responsibilities seriously. Alberto and Riccardo booze and smoke and hang around because those are the roles designated to some men in adult gangs of this kind. Moraldo sees Fausto's womanising and is torn between loyalty to the camaraderie of the group and to his friend and love for his sister, resulting in him helping Fausto to protect Sandra from the truth.

With regards to the lack of character definition of the characters, I don't think that this should be seen as a problem. Their inability to escape the attraction of a casual life robs them of character and their love of the gang robs them of individuality. The interchangeability of their looks and the swapping of facial hair styles illustrates the dynamics of a gang - shared vocabulary, shared likes and dislikes, playing off each other.

I think that this is a perfect distillation of the aimless lives of adult males, unable to break away from the gang. Whether this is Fellini's best or not, it is a very affecting study of small-town ennui and male relationships.

Unjustly put into the back-seat of Federico Fellini's extraordinary career, I Vitelloni is a relatively simplistic tale of 30-something slackers in a small 1950's Italian town. While it doesn't stand out against works such as La Dolce Vita (1960) or 8 1/2 (1963), this shows a different side to Fellini's famous circus-tent approach, engaging Neo- Realist sensibilities to form a rather bleak, but nonetheless amusing autobiographical film. While Amarcord (1973) was a more straight-forward depiction of Fellini's childhood memories, I Vitelloni seems to be based on people he has observed, possibly while growing up, who, like him, sought to break out of small-town life. Amarcord was a sweet homage to his hometown, but I Vitelloni shows what this kind of life can do to a generation born to parents of sacrifice.

The Vitelloni (translated as 'the Boys') consist of Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), a quiet, observant young man; Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), a handsome playboy; Alberto (Alberto Sordi), a daydreamer unhappy at his sister's affair with a married man; and Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste), the writer who harbours dreams of writing critically-adored plays. After Fausto gets Moraldo's sister Sandra (Leonora Ruffo) pregnant, he thinks about skipping town, but is talked out of it. He instead married Sandra, but continues to pursue women, whether they're single or taken, or even if they're married to his boss. With carnival approaching, we witness the group try their best to do as little as possible. They all dream of escaping the town, but do nothing to help it. Instead, they drink, gamble and chase women.

Fellini doesn't have disdain for these characters, but shows them for what they are. They see their parents and grandparents, old and seemingly miserable, and see what their sacrifice has brought them. So, naturally, they rebel. Fausto is undoubtedly a loathsome character, even going as far as leaving a cinema half-way through a movie, where he is with his wife, to chase a beautiful woman. But for all his flaws, he still manages to gather sympathy. It seems like he simply cannot stop, locked into a life in which he doesn't belong, but he is solely responsible for. Yet for all his complexities, you can't help but feel relieved when he is given his comeuppance by his father. It's a clever juxtaposition of the generations, and although society will always produce a 'generation X', sometimes a good slap in the face is what is needed.

Although Fellini remains somewhat reserved throughout the majority of the film, choosing a still, controlled camera, he breaks out of the neo- Realism approach about half-way through for a scene in which carnival comes to town, with the sound of a lonesome drunken trumpet player running in a circle bellowing in an abandoned dance hall, as the catatonic Alberto staggers outside. It's the style that he would explode with in later years, as giant paper-mache heads poke out amongst sweaty party-goers. It helps counteract the seriousness of the movie's themes, perhaps even subtly elevating it, but it's the film's touching final sentiment that will stay with you, as a train carries one of the Vitelloni out of the town. Whether he will be back, or whether it will finally allow him to be happy we don't know, and that's a tragic statement if there ever was one.

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I Vitelloni was Federico Fellini's third film, and it shows very well how he was maturing in his style, and likewise very well how he was not yet fully mature. His next film would be La Strada, one of the world's great films. I Vitelloni, although many who have had the chance to see it champion it as one of his best, is a tier down from La Strada and his other melodramatic masterpiece, Nights of Cabiria (his other masterpieces, IMO, are La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, and Amarcord of those I've seen, which are all of the ones that are generally considered to be great; I'd also make a case for And the Ship Sails On). The film's flaws are mostly in the script: it is sloppy. There are several great scenes, a couple of the best, especially in a visual aspect, that Fellini ever created, but more often the actions of the characters are difficult to understand. The characters themselves aren't all that well defined - in a scene that has since become common, the five title characters are introduced to us by a narrator, who tells us certain primary traits for each of them. Sadly, we only learn a bit more about most of them. What really harms the film, though, is the fact that a few of these main characters are difficult to distinguish from one another. To make things worse, as time moves on in the film, the characters constantly change the style of their facial hair!

The film is quite episodic, which is actually Fellini's most common way of going about it, but most of the events in his better films seem to bear more weight on the emotions of the films. I Vitelloni is still a very good film, but, given its unavailability, it's unnecessary to knock yourself down searching it out. Perhaps Criterion will release it on DVD soon. Maybe, if it has some good extras, I'll purchase it. 8/10.

I first saw this film as a college student in an Italian Cinema class. I was impressed then, and recently saw it again and was touched anew by these characters.

Then I noted that Martin Scorsese, in his documentary about Italian film on Turner Movies Classics ("My Voyage to Italy") names this film as a huge inspiration for his film "Mean Streets" -- and I felt totally exonerated that I had always placed this film up there with La Strada, 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, and Amarcord.

Scorsese sets the record straight about how these characters are successfully fleshed out -- including Moraldo, the Fellini autobiographical character. This is a film of simple beauty, and while it may lack the complex allegorical meanings of La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, the story more than delivers in its straight forward approach to story telling.

Forget Diner (a decent movie), Slackers, Clerks, and any other "slacker/loafer" movie; I Vitelloni transcends the genre -- and it is a true classic.

Rent this film - it will not let you down.