#117: I Vitelloni
Part of the Top 150 Films series
Fellini normally does less than nothing for me. The clownish grotesques that inhabit his celebrated films mostly leave me cold and at a distance. When he removed the makeup, however, for I Vitelloni, something truly magic occurred. Its plot — five young Italian men at crucial turning points in their small town lives — could have made for a dreadful Sundance movie (or its ’50s equivalent), but the simple story allows for emotion, perspicacity and humanity to seep through every frame. Indebted to neorealism but with its own unique rhythm, I Vitelloni is a landmark film in showcasing a changing Italy, a changing concept of masculinity, but a consistent look at the foibles and failures inherent in all of us. It’s rare that a filmmaker can make such an anomaly in his filmography and have it turn out so magnificent, but I Vitelloni is proof that there’s hope for any such filmmaker!
