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Ah, seeing an old friend on HN in the evening! I recently bought the Essential Fellini collection mentioned here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FPJLQ4T h
by Jun8 6y ago
Ah, seeing an old friend on HN in the evening! I recently bought the Essential Fellini collection mentioned here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FPJLQ4T https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FPJLQ4T, I great way to spend $170).
Although briefly touched here, he was surrounded by talent that boosted his vision: Giulietta Masina, Nino Rota, and, of course, Mastroianni. 8 1/2 is beyond words; for some reason I still tear up in the "circus ring" finale, but I watch it on YouTube every couple of months (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvrcRSvpI78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvrcRSvpI78), it is so sad and yet refreshing in some sense (I had an outfit like that when I was a kid, but it was blue!) Little known fact: Barbara Steele (of Black Sunday fame, this movie plays in the background in a scene in Matrix 2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(1960_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(1960_film)), who plays a sweet young thing in the movie, was dubbed, because her own voice was not found feminine enough :-)
I also love "La Città Delle Donne", although many find it overdone; unfortunately it was not included in this essential set. The "woman hunter" depicted here is really scared to death of them.
In his The Great Movies Roger Ebert writes:
"Movies do not change, but their viewers do. When I saw La Dolce Vita in 1960, I was an adolescent for whom “the sweet life” represented everything I dreamed of: sin, exotic European glamor, the weary romance of the cynical newspaperman. When I saw it again, around 1970, I was living in a version of Marcello’s world; Chicago’s North Avenue was not the Via Veneto, but at 3 a.m. the denizens were just as colorful, and I was about Marcello’s age.
When I saw the movie around 1980, Marcello was the same age, but I was 10 years older, had stopped drinking, and saw him not as a role model but as a victim, condemned to an endless search for happiness that could never be found, not that way. By 1991, when I analyzed the film a frame at a time at the University of Colorado, Marcello seemed younger still, and while I had once admired and then criticized him, now I pitied and loved him. And when I saw the movie right after Mastroianni died, I thought that Fellini and Marcello had taken a moment of discovery and made it immortal.”
As I also love and pity Marcello when I now watch the film, I must be getting old (Ebert was 49, I'm about that age)! No worries though: now I'm having the joy of introducing them to my son.
- maroonblazer 6y agoOff-topic: It irritates me that I pay for the Criterion Channel yet several of the films in the collection you linked to and purchased are not included.
- peruvian 6y agoIt sucks but like with any streaming site - it depends what they have permission to stream. Just because they have the rights to a Blu-ray release doesn't mean they have the rights to stream it. This is where physical discs and pirates MK files shine. I have the same issue with Lubitsch films - Trouble in Paradise's only physical release is a Criterion DVD! Yet, it comes and goes from the Channel.
- tomcam 6y agoNever connected to Fellini. Just watched the circus ring finale on your recommendation and was about to use the term overdone but you beat me to it referring to "La Città Delle Donne". So I guess I have to say it feels stagey & self-conscious. I do like the fact that these people are nicely dressed and merely good looking, as opposed to the distractingly perfect Hollywood stars of today. My feeling about today's mainstream A movies is that the directing is top-notch, the acting is unprecedentedly good on average, the stars are charismatic in the extreme, visuals/set design etc. are better than ever, and scripts are steaming piles of shit. Anyway, not trying to be rude, seriously--may I learn more about the appeal of Fellini to you? Just feels dated to me, even though I'm a decade older than you. I have literally been trying to like Fellini since I was in college in 1978.
- throwmeaway_66 6y agoI have not seen cited in the comment section my favorite Fellini's movie: "La Strada". Anthony Quinn at the end of the movie shook me in ways that only Marcello Mastroianni (by the way, someone give me a call when they find a modern movie start with one third of Mastroianni's charming ways: there won't be any need for notifications on) was able to do in "La Notte". Fellini is very Italian in a sometimes decadent, sometimes lustful way. A great director, but not Italy's best (that's Michelangelo Antonioni).
- bonthron 6y agoI'm not sure the circus ring finale works on its own. It's the denouement of the whole film that has been building to this point. Mastroianni is struggling with all his relationships: his work, his wife, girlfriend, producer, then he finally turns a corner and is able to celebrate his life for what it is. What I love about 8 1/2 is how the camera is always moving and spinning, taking on Mastroianni's point of view. Characters keep popping up in your face and you feel swept along with the movement. Now that I'm older, I enjoy it more than when I first saw it: it's a film about life, not just Mastroianni/Guido's problems and relationships, all the other characters have their own issues as well. But the surrealism and humor keep it from becoming a downer: when Guido's girlfriend shows up at the same cafe with his wife, Guido has to pretend he doesn't see her, but of course his wife does...awkward ! When Guido quits the film, his critic tell him he made the right decision, never mind the money, it's part of a producer's job to lose money! And when it all becomes suffocating, he climbs out of his car window and flies away.
- embit 6y agoWell said. Nino Rotta’s contribution to Fellini films is as invaluable as that of Morricone to Sergio Leone