Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993 TAG: 9311060074
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
His body of work certainly deserves the recognition, but it has always seemed to me that many critics and writers miss the point about Fellini. True, he dealt with important themes: religion, creativity, history, relations between men and women, the role of the artist in society and many more. But in even his most serious films, there is a core of humor, a refusal to be too sobersided about these ideas. The circus is often the central metaphor in his stories, and the clowns were his favorite characters.
I can remember how, years ago, my college friends and I looked forward to seeing "La Dolce Vita" because it was supposed to be such a hot number. And though it certainly has its moments in that department, even then the humor made the movie. It's a quirky kind of comedy, certainly not to all tastes, but Fellini has always made me laugh.
Younger viewers may not appreciate the films that my generation was so taken with. The surrealistic, "Fellini-esque" surprises that were so fresh in "8 1/2" and "Juliet of the Spirits" have been copied and parodied so often that their power has been diminished. But that very imitation shows how insightful "the maestro" really was.
Judged by today's standards, the pace does seem slow in some of his movies, and the sexual content, once so scandalous, is tame now. Commercials and rock videos have taken his particular brand of fantasy and sensuality far beyond limits he might have imagined.
But again, those recycled images demonstrate how powerful the originals were and are: the shadow of Christ on the cross rising up the side of a tall building; Marcello Mastroianni levitating from a car and floating above a traffic jam; Anita Ekberg taking her famous stroll in the fountain; Giulietta Masina in clown makeup.
Some of Fellini's films are served well on home video, some poorly. "Juliet of the Spirits," "La Dolce Vita" and "8 1/2" were meant to be seen on a big screen. On video some of the black and white footage looks grainy now, and the lush visuals of "Juliet" suffer on tape. But he made other films specifically for television. Of those, "The Clowns" is one of his best and one of my own favorites. It's a documentary about circus clowns and, at the same time, a comedy about documentaries, filled with visual jokes.
What else belongs on the Best Fellini list? Certainly two of his short films, "Toby Dammit" from "Spirits of the Dead" and a wonderful little comedy about sex and religion, "The Temptation of Dr. Antonio" from "Boccaccio '70." Of the more recent work, "Ginger and Fred" is a nostalgic, romantic sendup of contemporary television.
And finally, of course, there's "Amarcord," Fellini's most accessible film and, for me, his best. For those who might have missed this masterpiece, it's a warm autobiographical look at the director's childhood and adolescence. (The title translates "I Remember.") The story is funny, sexy, easy to follow. It's beautifully photographed and contains perhaps the best score that composer Nino Rota ever wrote for Fellini, his longtime friend and collaborator.
"Amarcord" is such a fine film that it really deserves the best treatment possible on home video and, as of this writing, you can't see it that way. "Amarcord" isn't available on video disk, but as soon as that happens, you'll read about it here. And that's where home video can fill in the gaps. Even the most dedicated fan has probably missed something. In my case, that's "City of Women," "And the Ship Sails On" and a few others. They're out there on tape and disk, and though they might not be at your favorite local video store, with a little looking through the mail-order catalogs, you can find copies.
As for the Fellini films like "Casanova" and "Orchestra Rehearsal" not yet available on any form of home video, they'll probably show up soon. When a painter dies, the value of the pictures soars; when a film director dies, his movies head for video.
Federico Fellini Videography:
Amarcord (Warner)
And the Ship Sails On (RCA/Columbia)
Boccaccio '70 (Facets Multimedia)
City of Women (New Yorker)
The Clowns (Media)
8 1/2 (MPI)
Fellini Satyricon (MGM/UA)
Fellini's Roma (MGM/UA)
Ginger and Fred (MGM/UA)
I Vitelloni (Movies Unlimited)
Intervista (Triboro)
Juliet of the Spirits (Connisseur)
La Dolce Vita (Republic)
La Strada (Applause Productions)
Love in the City (Nostalgia Family Video)
Nights of Cabiria (Video Yesteryear)
Spirits of the Dead (Fright Video)
The Swindle (Image Entertainment)
Variety Lights (Connoisseur)
The White Sheik (Connoisseur)
\ New releases this week:
Sliver: **
Starring Sharon Stone, William Baldwin, Tom Berenger. Directed by Philip Noyce. Paramount. 100 min. Rated R for sexual content, nudity, strong language, violence.
No good thriller can pass a rigorous reality check. But this one has such huge, looming holes all the way through that it never has a chance. And the ending is so false and hollow that it's a virtual joke. A strong performance by Sharon Stone as a gutsy, mature heroine is undermined by an equivocating conclusion.
Weekend at Bernie's II: *
Starring Andrew McCarthy, Terry Kiser, Jonathan Silverman. Directed by Robert Klan. Columbia TriStar. 89 min. Rated PG for violence, strong language.
They don't make sequels any uglier than this. It's a grainy, slapdash effort made to cash in on the surprise video success of the 1989 original, a comedy about a corpse. This time, the so-so slapstick humor is marred by stereotypical, almost racist portrayals of two black characters, and enough strong language and violence to make the PG-rating questionable. Not for kids.
by CNB