I Vitelloni ****

I Vitelloni****A Fellini classic, black and white, 1953. Prize: best screen writing.

Everything in this movie is very human, measured, every character has its specificity within their lives.From the main 5 young man, to the young wife, to the bosses wife, the father, the father-in-law-boss, the aging famous actor, play wright to be, show girl, high society woman with a flair to flirting, movie house etiquettes and signs, everything fits perfectly. (make up, costume, manners all convincing and distinctive as per character)

Italian Miss Mermaid contest, young womens covered-talk about pre-marital pregnancies, everything fits. Mothers broken hearted by run away daughters w a married man, mothers distraught by missing daughter in law - (she asked herself if its time to make lunch by habit when in face of uncontrollable events coming up, making lunch brings back a normality, an order to their lives...) etc etc.

The marriage at the church, the masked ball, the grandeur and small hard working folks, the young boy who had to get up at 3am everyday to work at the train station... everything works.All details are so human and humourous at the same time.

Fellini does not despise his light hearted characters, he showed them as they are. Only someone who has seen quite a lot of human situations could he make such a film. However, maybe its collaborative? Maybe Fellini had lots of friends of all sorts, thats how he could have made such a rich convincing human comedy type of realism film?

Wonderful film, I back tracked a few times to see how he did the various scenes and dialogues just to not miss it, because he is not redundant, everything is very concise and useful - when Moraldo leaves the small town, the camera show various buddies in bed, sleeping, about to be awaken but not awake, not out of bed. Then the camera pulls away, Moraldo is leaving without knowing where to go, but he must leave, because he is a serious young man, away and away, goodbye small town good bye. (The young boy Guido asks him, where are you going? Moraldo doesnt know, he says good bye to Guido, and Guido says good bye. We imagine, Guido might be the one to leave also because he is so orderly and proper inspite of his lowly position, unlike the five buddies, he will be the one to leave. Two adults passes by Guido who is walking along the rail track towards the Sun, they pat him on the head, like for a young good boy.

All these tiny gestures throughout the movie build towards a certain ambiance, a solid master web of a story. They are not empty, not long winded, they fill in the scenario like so many strokes as in a fumato painting, suggesting who will do what in the future for the big picture.