The Bullocks (1953) User Reviews

The Eternal Students

[Galina_movie_fan · 9/10 · 14 November 2005]

Somewhere on his way from neo- to sur-, young Federico Fellini had made a "I Vitelloni" (1953), lighthearted, unconventional, bold, and above all entertaining film that tells the story of hopes and miseries of four friends, four young men, "I Vitelloni" in a small seashore province town. "Vitellone" means "idle young person of the provinces, often an eternal student". The title matches its characters very well. They live in the town where nothing much happens; they don't have jobs and spend the money given by their loving families. They have the most ardent hopes and they face the cruel disappointments. They are different - cynical skirt chaser Fausto who is forced to marry a girl pregnant with his baby; the intellectual and ambitious Leopoldo who dreams of becoming a famous writer; the irresponsible "big child" Alberto (Alberto Sordy, the famous comic, absolutely wonderful in his early role), and Moraldo, the only one of the group who in the final scene will leave the town of his childhood to start a new life.

I loved I Vitelloni. Nino Rota's music is above any words (as always) as well as the young director's camera work, the character study and acting. I think of "I Vitelloni" as more realistic and sober "Amarcord" in B/W. One of scenes was absolutely stunning -the carnival - the music, the dancing, the camera's rapid but fluid movements - simply breathtaking.

It is without doubt that Fellini influenced a lot of directors, and there are similarities between "I Vitelloni" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and Barry Levinson's "Diner". Stanley Kubrick and Marin Scorsese both named "I Vitelloni" as one of their favorite films.

Highly recommended: 9/10

year 1953 : First international success by Italian auteur of dreams.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 8/10 · 22 January 2008]

I Vitelloni, directed by Fellini in 1953 was his first international success.Although it is largely autobiographical in nature there is no obvious mention of Rimini,an Italian coastal town where Fellini was born.There are things to be learned from this film such as erratic behavior of a generation which grew up after second world war.This was the one of the rare post war films which spoke of conflicts within family.It is true that Italian master has drawn an honest portrait of aimless youngsters who were not fit for anything but what might be intriguing to an average viewer is to ascertain as to why Fellini decided not to throw some light about why his protagonists were like that ? This is the reason why Fellini has left all important reasoning task for viewers to decide about strengths and weaknesses of his protagonists.I Vitelloni is a film in which there is no escape for anyone neither for its young heroes nor for their family members who like them are also trapped in their own dreary existence.

Unjustly neglected Fellini

[tomgillespie2002 · 8/10 · 24 June 2013]

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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Fellini's best.

[FilmSnobby · 10/10 · 12 September 2004]

Federico Fellini's second feature, *I Vitelloni* (literal trans.: "fatted veal calves"; figurative trans.: "the guys"), is an honest, unpretentious work from the Master before he became besotted with his own self-indulgence.

It's autobiographical in several indirect ways. The depictions here of young men who are not quite so young anymore, living with their mothers, settling for dead-end jobs or simply not working, and generally languishing their lives away, are based on Fellini's own observations of such fellows in his boyhood home of Rimini. Autobiographical too in its sense of style: the movie is inescapably stamped by the Neo-Realism of Fellini's apprenticeship. The grimy faces of working-class people, crumbling tenements, and weed-choked rail-yards are all here. But with a difference: Fellini casts a critical eye on this scene, eschewing the usual Neo-Realist appeal to our presumed socialist sympathies. *I Vitelloni* is not a political film in the usual mid-century Italian manner. Fellini gives us a quintet of heroes who, for the most part, aspire to be bourgeois big-shots of their shabby seacoast town. Not content with that, he makes them lazy, as well . . . and then he asks us to root for them, to actually like them! Needless to say, the intelligentsia of the period didn't warm to this film, even as the film-going public in Europe loved it, recognizing themselves and their friends and their own hometowns in it.

Just as Shakespeare shows us the brilliant results of striving within the non-negotiable limits of the nine-line sonnet or the blank verse of his plays, Fellini achieves genius in this film, stylistically, from the fruitful tension between the dictates of Neo-Realist imperatives (which no young Italian director of the Fifties could ignore if he wanted a career), and the dictates of his own vision. For, even while being a dutifully serious Neo-Realist (even to the point of employing a static, unblinking, non-flashy camera on the proceedings -- hardly the "Fellini-esque" style we would see in later years!), the director's penchant for the grotesque can no longer contain itself. In this film we get the aging, corpulent homosexual actor, with hair in need of a cut, noisily slurping up soup while one of the Vitelloni reads aloud to him some terrible play he has composed. We get the nauseous parties, in which Fellini tosses the Neo-Realist camera in the trash and picks up his own camera, swooping with it into the hot, frantic fray, honing in for sweaty close-ups, climbing the rafters for a dizzying aerial view, skewing the angles while watching an off-key trumpet player blare into the ear of a miserable drunk, and filling the screen with gigantic papier-mache clowns that constitute the floats of a Lenten parade. At the same time, the mandate to keep himself in check, or perhaps the humble desire to make an easily digestible movie, gives *I Vitelloni* the discipline and order so lacking in post-*8-1/2* Fellini films.

But the thematic meat of the movie provides the most fruitful tension. Fellini shows us the Vitelloni, the "guys", most of them creeping past 30, grasping after any passing pleasure that comes to hand, whether it be a woman (young or old, married or not, willing or not), a drunken night at the local pool hall, an attempt at petty thievery, a day of gambling at the races, or whatever. Then Fellini contrasts this with the older generation, tellingly single (their mates long buried), barely supporting the passel of lazy Vitelloni and assorted nieces and grandchildren who all lay about the family home. The old folks' sacrifices seem to have produced ignoble results, particularly within themselves: all too often, the old men and women are grouchy, unhappy, prone to fits of violence or weeping, and -- saddest of all -- lonely. The Vitelloni look at their elders, see the sterile results of lives rendered bereft by tradition and "sacrifice", and naturally rebel, searching in easy hedonism for the happiness that has eluded their parents. One character, a compulsive womanizer, plans on running away after he knocks up his girlfriend -- and why not? The womanizer's bitter father provides no wholesome example of "responsibility". Indeed, it seems as if the old man forces his son to marry the girl simply because he, the father, is friends with the girlfriend's father, and, after all, misery loves company. The question of whether or not the cad actually loves the girl is never asked. Guess how this marriage turns out.

Without unduly spoiling things, one of the Vitelloni actually DOES escape the shabby town by movie's end, but even here Fellini offers an unequivocal qualification: the character, staring out the window as the train pulls out, hangs his head and weeps. He knows, as do we, that he will be just as unhappy in Rome as he was in this fictionalized Rimini. Meanwhile, a young boy who works at the train station waves goodbye to the leaving train and turns his back on it, balancing precariously on a rail as he boyishly walks off. Fellini indicates that some people will simply be happier than others, no matter the circumstances: truly one of cinema's bleaker statements on the human condition.

*I Vitelloni* remains a great masterpiece, and is Fellini's most neglected film . . . though it somehow seems fitting that a movie which virtually INVENTED the notion of "slackers" should be forgotten. No matter: perfection is rarely popular, anyway. 10 stars out of 10.

The interchangeability of gang members

[nick-pett664 · 10 August 2004]

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.

Scorsese Knows Best

[jacksoneagle · 10/10 · 24 June 2002]

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.

Male Angst

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 25 February 2020]

I generally don't have a lot of patience for male angst, and especially not when the males in question are angsting over the days of their youth and are resisting taking on the responsibilities that come with adulthood. I wanted to see a truck slam into Barry Levinson's Diner and put an end to the endless pontificating of his disaffected bros.

But something about Federico Fellini's "I Vitelloni" makes the exercise tolerable, and not just tolerable, but emotionally engaging. Maybe it helps that he films his story in a detached, Italian neo-realist style, so we just observe; we're not necessarily asked to condone or even sympathize. It also helps that the setting is post-WWII Europe, and a humble rural village in post-WWII Europe at that. These aren't guys brought up in a world of privilege whining about how hard they have it. These are guys trying to figure out what kinds of lives are available to them in a place that offers few options.

"I Vitelloni" is clearly a very personal film for Fellini, and it's not hard to figure out which character most represents him.

Grade: A

Fellini's early watershed

[axsmashcrushallthree · 10/10 · 23 June 2006]

The genesis of "I Vitelloni" occurred at a critical time for Federico Fellini. His previous film, "The White Sheik" had been met with such disappointment by critics and audiences that his directoral career was in jeopardy. So, with the need for a successful production on his head, Fellini decided to make a simple comedy...!

The simple story of the five "loafers" and "dreamers" could have been maudlin and trite, but in the hands of Fellini, the story unfolds like a beautiful flower as part of an overall powerful, moving experience. Few directors have communicated their personal vision and experience as intensely as did Fellini. While there is dispute as to whether there is a direct correlation of the character of Moraldo to Fellini himself, Fellini puts us comfortably into his shoes and we connect with Moraldo's frustrations, aspirations, and eventually, his exodus.

With "I Vitteloni", Fellini began to hit his stride of 10 years of greatness, culminating in "Otto e Mezzo". The episodic character exploration of the latter years isn't as dominant here, but the allusions to people, places, and things are presented in full force. The story is easier to follow than later films and is a more central part of the film. This coherence is easier to grasp, making it more accessible for the Fellini neophyte.

But, with all of the talk about Fellini, this is still a magnificent movie that stands on its own. See it.

Each era has its own Vitellonis

[x_manicure_x · 6/10 · 14 August 2021]

"I Vitelloni" is a humorous but critical portrait of a generation of Italians, as well as a poignant love letter to Fellini's hometown Rimini and provincial Italy in general. The bittersweet sense of melancholy that permeates the film comes from the fact that the five "young" men are way past the age of dreaming, but still keep dodging any kind of responsibility and clinging to the same purposeless lifestyle. In the end, Moraldo is the only one to finally realize that underneath their clown masks, they are nothing but losers in an old town.

I wouldn't call it a neorealist film, but Fellini's style here is still quite distant from the baroque extravaganza of the 60's.

Italian Melodrama

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 20 November 2005]

In a small seaside town in Italy, Moraldo Rubini (Franco Interlenghi), Alberto (Alberto Sordi), Fausto Moretti (Franco Fabrizi), Leopoldo Vannucci (Leopoldo Trieste) and Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) form a group of idle friends that spend their time together doing nothing but drinking, flirting and going to parties. When Fausto's girlfriend Sandra Rubini (Eleonora Ruffo) gets pregnant, he is pressed by his own father to marry her. However, the irresponsible Fausto remains unfaithful to Sandra, cheating her with many women and almost leading his family to a tragedy.

"I Vitelloni" is an Italian melodrama with the signature of Federico Fellini: excellent production, great music score, outstanding interpretations, wonderful cinematography. The story is dated in the present days, it is not my favorite Fellini's film, but it is still a magnificent movie. I am not sure whether the story of this group of "Peter Pans" is autobiographic or not, but it is a good screenplay related to Italian culture of the 50s. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Boas Vidas" ("The Bons Vivants")

A NOT coming of age film

[frankde-jong · 7/10 · 15 November 2020]

A movie from the early part of Fellini's career, situated in his home town Rimini.

"I vitelloni" (the large calves) is about five men in their twenties who refuse to become adults. The question is: why? The obvious reason is of course that they can't say goodbye to their easy lives without responsibilities but with a lot of parties. The hidden reason I think is that they are protecting their big ego's. If they search for a job they find one that is in their opinion way beneath their capabilities.

And so they prefer not to search at all, forgetting that in so doing other members of their family (often mothers or sisters) have to work for them. At the end of the film one of the friends takes his responsibility and catches the train to Rome to find a job. In a marvelous closing sequence images of the train leaving town are alternated with images of the other friends still sleeping in their beds.

Twenty years later Fellini would make another film situated in Rimini ("Amarcord" (1973)). In this film he is more generous about attempts of some characters to keep the child in them alive.

Wonderful

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 26 August 2012]

An early Fellini and a wonderful one at that. While it is not my favourite Fellini(my top 5 being Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord and La Strada), it is one of his best and sadly one of his more neglected works. The film does look gorgeous, with rapid yet fluid cinematography and beautiful scenery. Nino Rota's score brings great pathos to every scene it appears in, the script is funny, tense and moving and while familiar in a way the story is engaging. The character studies are just as impressive, these are distinct characters that you do care for. You don't perhaps quite identify with them in the way you do with the titular characters of La Strada and especially Nights of Cabiria, but they are not as detached as some of Fellini's later films like Casanova or Satyricon(my least favourite Fellini but still has its interest points). Fellini's direction is restrained yet quirky and charming, the complete opposite of self-indulgent or dull like him and some of his later films have been criticised for being. The acting is very good indeed, Franco Fabrizi as Fausto especially is superb. All in all, a wonderful film and one of Fellini's better films while not quite among my absolute favourites from him. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Fellini!

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 8 December 2015]

A character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.

For Fellini, vitelloni were "the unemployed of the middle class, mother's pets. They shine during the holiday season, and waiting for it takes up the rest of the year". We could call them shiftless layabouts or something else disparaging. Between the 1950s and today (2015), we may see this somewhat different, as it is increasingly common to live with your parents until early adulthood.

Are there translation issues on the Criterion disc? Apparently the pageant early on is "Miss Siren of 1953", but the Criterion translation has her as "Miss Mermaid". Clearly one is alluring and the other is a bit more questionable.

The film influenced Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets" (1973), George Lucas's "American Graffiti" (1973), and Joel Schumacher's "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985), which makes this film important if for no other reason. Was there not a film that Scorsese was influenced by?

A pastime love comedy-drama

[ath_steph_3000 · 3/10 · 13 March 2015]

"I Vitelloni" is an early, somehow autobiographical Fellini movie that tells the story of five young men hanging around in a provincial town and trying to make ends meet. In the movie, we get to see what the life of grown-ups who still live in their parents' house (something very common in Italy) is like. The story itself is rather simple and, while it mainly focuses on one character (Fausto), quite tedious although there are some comedian aspects in it (as Fausto betrays his wife and how his employer throws him out). Although Fellini wanted to give some depth to this movie - e.g. by showing the fateful encounter of Moraldo and the boy working at the local railway station - he somehow missed the point. The dialogs are not profound enough, action and reaction of the characters remain predictable and the "spice", which we can find in other Fellini movies, seems to be missing in this one.

listen to it too

[Fiona-39 · 12 August 2004]

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.

Not one of the Maestro's masterworks, but very good nonetheless

[zetes · 8/10 · 7 September 2001]

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.

Do no miss this one!

[adrian290357 · 10/10 · 17 May 2008]

I first saw I VITELLONI in my university days in 1981. On a recent visit to London, I found a compilation of neorealist films going at an inviting price and bought it. I am glad I did, if for no other reason because I have enjoyed watching I VITELLONI far more this time. The fact that I am now 27 years older might have helped this change in perception but I put it down principally to the sheer quality of the direction, acting, and the superb psychological insight into a time of defeat in a nation long known for its multifaceted greatness. And there are touches of the surreal, particularly in the Carnival segment, that announce the later Fellini, one I like a little bit less despite producing awesome works such as AMARCORD.

The characters are keenly observed, none better than the married man who cannot keep away from other women and the two brothers whose sisters fall for men they know to be worthless. One of those sisters leaves town in the company of a man who seems a criminal, the other stays in town with a husband who seems to have mended his ways... but does one ever mend one's ways? The latter's brother, Moraldo, leaves town in the end for an uncertain future that at least will take him from local limitations but he hardly seems equipped to deal with life in Milan or Rome. One final delight: The chiaroscuro photography is outstanding in its ability to convey mood. A well deserved 10 out of 10!

Fellini becoming Fellini...

[AudemarsPiguet · 10/10 · 29 March 2005]

Fellini's Vitelloni is considered(sadly)to often as one of the films not belonging to the better half of his creations. O.k. it may lack the flawless level of technical and artistic accomplishment of later works,however in my opinion it is a small and unrighteously overlooked,forgotten,under-appreciated masterpiece. A short and essential form of exercise and training for his largely acclaimed successes,in spite of the minor subject and some minor flaws capturing most of the "fellinesque" essence,probably willingly restraining and understating it. There is less baroque,deeply symbolical(in a :philosophical,pantheistic,hermetic sense of the word),lush and disturbing imagery,however in La Strada,Notte Di Cabiria or Il Bidone Fellini proved that he can turn even day-to-day subjects into great films,without idealizing nor vulgarizing reality,without using expensive costumes,sets or special effects,natural yet never boring. The same goes about this film:it's the story of five young men living in a small town(most likely Fellini's birthplace Rimini) in post-second-world-war Italy. There is even a storyteller and what struck me from the first scene was the resemblance with Scorsese using the same story-telling technique in Goodfellas or Casino,in order to make the story more actual,credible and more accessible to the viewer,to better get in the mood(no wonder that Scorsese adored this film and probably even used it as a source of inspiration).In a warm,typically Italian,partly poetic,partly ironic tone the five are introduced in such a way that the viewer gradually gets the feeling of having known these characters since childhood. Both for their own fault but(probably even more)for the lack of real social,cultural and economical perspectives the grim and old-fashioned town is providing,all of them have,in spite of their distinctive personalities,a lot in common:they are all well out of their teens,biologically adults yet socially quite immature,they all lack a permanent,full-time jobs,yet don't see themselves as unemployed,rather bohemians or careless playboys,they all are somewhat noisy,conceited yet harmless whereabouts,all trying to escape the town's utter boredom engaging in "a bit of everything"(amateur art,petty crime,small business,casual love-affairs,gambling,partying or the so Mediterranean&aristocratic preoccupation of "Dolce far Niente"). They aren't bad boys,nor hoodlums(both as some would know from Scorsese's films)however they major mistake,the one that influences all of them in a negative way(however without leading to their downfall or some serious moral crisis)is their incapacity to rid themselves of their idleness and to act-but that's what makes them enjoyable too... Fellini is obviously self-centered,individualistic,coming to terms with his own strong and uneven ego,so this film is,as some might expect,autobiographical,all the five men being more or less an alter-ego or at least inspired by persons closely connected to him,his childhood&youth,Rimini-every time Fellini fictionalizes his own self,he creates a masterpiece,a Dorian Grey-sort of self-indulgent myth that gets it's value from being this way.While other filmmakers,even accomplished ones would just be hilarious repeating the same sort of characters under different names and plots,Fellini keeps us wanting more and more of his personality,every piece of this intricate puzzle-whether it's this film,La Dolce Vita,81/2,Amacord or several others-providing the intellectual excitement of having discovered more,of having taken a fabulous mental journey,without having revealed(or not even wanting to completely reveal)all of Fellini.. There are humorous moments too and,from a comical viewpoint,Sordi's performance is the best-especially in the extravagant,delirious carnival scene when he dances dressed as a woman to the timeless melody "Titine"(which made film history due to Chaplin's unique performance in Modern Times,Sordi's gestures to the same tune also revealing his immense comical talent,maybe it's Fellini's tribute to another master of cinema,note that while Chaplin sings gibberish,but he suggests a possible storyline with his mimic,the same tune is here strictly instrumental,accompanied by Sordi's mainly visual,almost silent comic style of humor),and,after wards experiences a burlesque hangover including a trumpet,an over-sized head and a seemingly endless monologue.Or,again Sordi in the scene when he's mocking men working at a road for no particular/infantile reasons.Another interesting,yet somewhat tragicomic scenes shows a strict,patriarchal father beating up his son,though his son is an adult,married and with children-showing how traditional family life was regarded in the past,not only in Catholic Italy,at an extent that might seem surrealistic today. Besides its very humorous moments and some highly beautiful(yet without the tangled symbolism usually associated with Fellini,just clean,simple,yet high quality visuals)the message of the film is a rather serious,even depressing one-in spite of their hedonism and immaturity,the Vitelloni exhale a bottled up,almost James Dean-like rebellion against the hypocritical,superficial,narrow-minded society of the fifties,however they lack the courage/will to express it or aren't even aware of it. In his later films Fellini will analyze his complex relationship both with society and himself over and over again-however this film is definitely not a failure in his effort to understand this relationship,just an anticipation of probably even more rewarding cinematic art-works.

Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 27 December 2017]

'I Vitelloni' has that post-war existential feel to it, and effectively transports us to a small town in Italy where five young men dream of escaping someday, but have no clear plans. There are some wonderful scenes that are easy to identify with - carousing in the street at night, walking along the beach, and dancing the night away at a party. The friends all feel a sense of bleak malaise, facing a future in a small town with nothing much to look forward to. While the older characters are hard-working models of virtue who have lives that really don't seem all that bad, the scene when Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) is put to work is priceless. His face beautifully expresses that moment when one has to face the realities of the world.

The character of Fausto dominates the story, at first as he's forced by his father into marrying the girl he's gotten pregnant (Leonora Ruffo), and then as he can't keep himself from hitting on other women. He's incorrigible and a hard guy to like; we cheer when his father (Jean Brochard) breaks out a can of whoop-ass and he's the recipient. There is something missing to the movie though. The characters are developed unevenly, most of all Riccardo the singer (played by Fellini's own brother), and sometimes the events feel a little disconnected. Perhaps that's the point though. And we really feel something for Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) as he reads an aging actor (Achille Majeroni) his screenplay, only to be horrified by the latter's response. How sad that Vittorio De Sica turned down the role because he was afraid of being identified as actually gay. Lastly, we also identify with Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), who wanders the streets at night alone, befriends a young boy, and eventually makes it out; a feeling which is amplified knowing he represents Fellini himself. Not a perfect film, but it works.

Quite tame and outdated

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 14 September 2023]

(1953) I, Vitelloni (In Italian with English subtitles) DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Federico Fellini, quite tame and outdated slice of life film which is supposed to be an autobiography of director's Fellini's life centering on five school chums just out of school, and are uninspired, spend a lot of time drifting, and just coming to grips of becoming adults themselves! Out of it's five main characters, there was only one character I identified with the most amongst the rest who're unethical buffoons, especially Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) who usually refuses to accept any responsibilities for his actions and is a womanizer!

This was a major hit in Italy as well as the rest of the world. Some parts of the film's themes is somewhat the bases of many films, including George Lucas's "American Graffiti", the very effective "Five Easy Pieces" directed by Bob Rafelson and "Diner" to name a few.

Lavoratori...!

[petra_ste · 9/10 · 29 October 2013]

Here's an example of why this movie - admired by Kubrick and Scorsese and following five young deadbeats roaming around a small Italian city - is great.

One of our protagonists, Fausto, is fiercely berated by his stern father. Fausto's girlfriend (sort of) is pregnant and the young man - who fancies himself to be a casanova - must marry her to save her honor (and his own family's). Humiliated, he leaves the house and finds his friends waiting for him in the dark street outside. They've heard everything and stand there looking at him, all awkward and sympathetic... and suddenly burst into a colossal laugh.

No matter how realistic, most movies have a certain conventional, staged quality to them; few manage to portray small moments as vivid as the little bit of schadenfreude I mentioned above, or as other scenes showing how sad parties get late at night, how creepy a meeting with a near-stranger can be, how much resentment boils beneath the surface even between friends. Each one of the five heroes eventually faces troubles and humiliations, a darker undertone showing through the cracks of the light facade.

Featuring an iconic scene with a young Alberto Sordi gesturing obscenely to a group of road workers before his car sputters and stops next to them, to his terrified dismay.

9/10

Life as a Carnival

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 12 September 2007]

Federico Fellini's story of "I Vitelloni" is about five friends trapped in their small Italian town; they go out drinking and pick up women, while avoiding work and responsibility. The five are Franco Fabrizi (as Fausto), Riccardo Fellini (as Riccardo), Franco Interlenghi (as Moraldo), Alberto Sordi (as Alberto), and Leopoldo Trieste (as Leopoldo).

This film certainly does not represent Fellini's best work; it's very difficult to become interested in the lives of the five wastrels - their stories are, indeed, dull! However, if you watch long enough, you can become involved, and interested in their lives. The main story (explicit, not implicit) is the relationship of "Fausto" and "Sandra" (played by Eleonora Ruffo) - he gets her pregnant; but, he doesn't really want to settle down and accept responsibility; you get his resolution in the end. The more subtle story is: will one of these guys get out of this life they are trapped in? You get an answer in the end.

The music (by Nino Rota) is great; if you're reading subtitles, the music helps you feel emotions - a fine trait in Fellini's films. There are some beautifully directed and photographed sequences, but "I Vitelloni" is not extraordinary Fellini. The ending, if you hang in, is exhilarating.

******* I Vitelloni (8/26/53) Federico Fellini ~ Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo Trieste

Fellini shows Italy's possible new path

[lee_eisenberg · 9/10 · 27 January 2008]

I interpreted Federico Fellini's "I Vitelloni" as an allusion to Italy in general after World War II. Just as each of the characters tries to figure out a new path in life, the Italian Republic now had to extricate itself from the stigma of Mussolini's fascism, and thus move forward in becoming the society that the world knows today. I see Fausto's and Sandra's relationship (or lack thereof?), along with the lives of Fausto's friends, mainly as a window into what happens in Italia during the post-war era. One might say that the final scene represents a complete forsaking of what Italy used to be.

Of course, this is just my interpretation; I could be totally wrong. But whatever the movie's real gist is, you can't deny the magnificent job that Fellini did directing. Clearly "La strada" was just around the corner. I should say that this one isn't particularly bizarre in the vein of "Satyricon" or "Roma", but it doesn't need to be. Fellini made a timeless masterpiece, and it deserves as much recognition as possible.

And yes, Riccardo Fellini is the director's brother. They look alike.

Federico Fellinic's composed drama and a complete textbook on Human characters study from the changing phase of Italian Society.

[SAMTHEBESTEST · 7/10 · 29 September 2021]

I Vitelloni (1953) : Brief Review -

Federico Fellinic's composed drama and a complete textbook on Human characters study from the changing phase of Italian Society. I Vitelloni has no extraordinary story te tell, nor it has that single-file storyline. It's a character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy. Everyone comes with different shades, nature and features which makes this human drama to outscore lengths of human-character material. Five men and five chapters of human character study and that's too much. But that's not all, it has several other characters too and even though they are smaller comparatively, they play important roles in the narrative. The film has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy, which i suppose was mainly about unemployment after the World War II. Not all the characters in the film are good, some are decent, some are filthy, some are unethical and some are extremely preserving. Take Fausto's character for instance. He is a womaniser, he has a pregnant wife but he would go on kissing some other married woman just after a short meeting at the movies. If that's not enough then he would even make a pass at his boss' wife who is quite older than him and later he even had a one night stand with a stage performer. Yet, he has no regrets to make and that part is pretty bad to see but only until we see his reformed character at the end. Other four main characters aren't this dramatic but only has one or two things in their lives. One a writer, one is confused about his future, one is happy-go-lucky guy and one is an ambitious singer. That's all about it and there is nothing more to it but the composed storytelling of Federico Fellinic makes It Vitelloni A definite watch. That Youth oriented comic flavour keeps it light hearted and therefore it never feels boring.

RATING - 7/10*

By #samthebestest.

Perhaps the weakest I have seen from Fellini so far

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 February 2020]

"I vitelloni" is an Italian/French co-production that is of course in the Italian language from beginning to end and it is also set in Italy, so the French factor is really only there in theory you could say. The main reason why this film is still see by many these days is that the director is Federico Fellini and he is also one of the three writers in charge of the story and screenplay here. Even if Fellini was just in his early 30s when he made this movie, he was far from a rookie and already had several Oscar nominations before he added another here. But an official winner he never as. Foreign Language Feature did not go to the person, otherwise he would have many trophies. Not much later, he won for the first time in this category, but this movie here did not only makes waves in Italy back then, but also in America and also not just at the Oscars, but in New York where this film won a prestigious award together with two other films, one of them being considered a real classic today and Japan was certainly one of the defining nations around that time when it came to which country produced the best movies. Anyway, let's not drift away. This one here runs for 100 minutes roughly, so it is certainly not among Fellini's longest movie by any means. And it is a black-and-white film still, which should not be taken for granted for the years 1953 as there were color films from much earlier, but black-and-white movies were still very dominant in terms of quantity. And actually quality as well in my opinion. I am not an Italian film buff, but a German film buff, so I cannot really say too much about the cast here, but of course what immediately catches the eye is the inclusion of the young Alberto Sordi, who may not have been on a level when it comes to Italian actors as Fellini is for Italian filmmakers, but who is nonetheless considered one of the best and most memorable actors the country ever had. Perhaps rather thanks to his charisma and recognition value than through versatility, but that's alright. He played one of the characters at the very center of the movie and the other was played by Franco Fabrizi I guess. Those two had most of the action and screen time in here. First credit went to another actor, but this one played a really quiet character, who did not have as many inclusions as you may think he did. But he is pretty present at the very end again. And there are more. The title, whhich is also translated as "spivs" here on imdb, makes obvious that there is a gang of young men at the center of the film, who may not be the most reliable fellows.

We follow them throughout this film from beginning to end and how some of them change for the better and others not so much. This mostly refers to the way how they treat women. You can definitely say that the very first scene (one that makes every #metoo supporter furious in anger and me too a little bit at least, even if I am not one of them) already is a prime example of that when one character talks to a girl, even gets a bit physical with her although she does not want to and eventually gets away from him reminding him and us how there is another woman he did not treat too well. This would be the one who wins a beauty contest at the very start and not much later, we find out that the guy got her pregnant and as a consequence of that, he tries to get away packing his suitcase because he is clearly scared of the responsibility that comes with it. However, everybody knows by then and he is held back and has to deal with his duties as a family man for a while. However, he keeps flirting with other women. Almost all the men do in here really and it is very telling. The cinema scene is the perfect example. How he uses his feet to approach somebody else while holding his girl (the stunning Leonora Ruffo, hard to believe you could want somebody else when having her safe) in his arms. And then follow her even. Pretty resilient this fella. There are more scenes like this, but this was maybe the most memorable (for most outrageous) one of them all. Still, there is a transfoormation for the better. When he meets the lady from the theater later on again, he is not too interested anymore. Instead, he is worried about finding his significant other and finally he really seems to care for her. This was maybe also the most dramatic scene here as we don't know what happened to her and could be worried, but honestly this film never really had me on the edge of my seat at any point. It is definitely far more of a comedy than a drama, but it was just never funny. It is frequently Fellini's approach to go more for a dolce vita feeling and a lifestyle he depicts to entertain the audience instead of going really for jokes and funny moments, but if this approach is not wlorking (and it didn't for me), then there is almost nothing really. Admittedly, the scene when he gets (almost) punished violently towards the end for how he treats women (or one in particular) was fairly funny I cannot deny with the face expressions from the characters and honestly, he really deserved it. Also how he almost manages to get out and open the door and the funny dude who stands out there and easily pushed him back in was hilarious as well. But for a 100-minute film, this just wasn't enough from any perspective in terms of the quantity of moments that entertained me well. I also think people who may not know Sordi in contrast to me (although most do probably, if they are interested in old Italian films like this one here), may have an even harder time to keep the central characters apart.

Fellini's typical approach sometimes comes through, especially in terms of the aforementioned dolce vita moments, but also the moments when we hear music and there is some kind of celebration going on. There is always in his films, at least once per movie. The music there comes from the people you see, even if there is also a soundtrack/score in here and sometimes it is impossible to overhear, too much actually for my liking. And the narration he goes for in here is also nothing that he never did on other projects before or after this one. And there are always so many characters in his films. Sometimes it works when he has three hours to elaborate on them all in a sufficient manner, but not if he has barely more than half of that like it is the case for this film here. I felt that they thought we would really care about almost everybody and their one or two scenes, but they simply did not get the proper elaboration/presentation they should have in order to really make audiences care about them. The females are really the best example. Most of them, even those with more screen time and not just one or two scenes, are restricted to crying and complaining, maybe begging even, but they never play a real role story-wise and in my opinion this film is really a perfect example of how female characters should not be written in a film. This is one of the films Fellini made before he started working really regularly with Mastroianni and his wife Masina in key roles. I think I prefer the ones starring the latter. I definitely do not prefer this one here. In my opinion, the rating here on imdb is way too high and the Oscar nomination is also not deserving at all. The film feels pretty messy and all over the place at times and definitely could have needed much better focus. I have zero intention to ever watch it again to be honest. Like I said, here and there we get an okay comedy moment, but the flaws are just too frequent for me to even think about giving this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. If you want to start taking a look at Fellini's many works, then this would be a bad choice to pick to start going.I give it a thumbs-down. Watched this one like several others on the big screen for the first time (some not the first time, but this one yes) on the occasion of a Fellini retrospective here in Berlin on the occasion of the man's 100th birthday and it was the weakest of them all. Skip.