I Vitelloni
1956 Directed by Federico Fellini
Synopsis
The story concerns a group of five young men, 20-30 years of age, who lay about in the small provincial town of Rimini, drinking, carousing, trolling for women, or talking about the women that they dream about. The film's title, "Vitelloni," means literally "overgrown calves" and fits these men to a tee. They're all single, unemployed, and still live with their mammas. They don't so much have dreams or ambitions as excuses and fantasies of bright futures that might materialize miraculously. In the meantime, they grasp at any pleasure that's available. Their parents dutifully struggle at supporting extended families, but derive precious little satisfaction from life.
Cast
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Excellent character study, unique array of characters, who are easy to relate too. Funny, moving, anyone who has grown up in a small town will understand a lot of the themes. Franco Fabrizi is exceptional. The screenplay is well written, with well thought out character arcs and consequences.
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As we are introduced to the young group of vitellone who form the quintet of friends that spend their days lounging in cafes, walking deserted streets, and looking out to sea, a thunderstorm erupts which leads Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), the most tormented and conflicted of the group, to proclaim, “It’s beautiful outside, like the end of the world.” As the storm comes down, the revellers at the “Miss Mermaid” contest move inside, one of the members of the band carrying a drum with, as we come to understand, the appropriate name “Happy Boys” written across it. Thus, Federico Fellini’s I vitelloni (1953) opens both in a distinctively self-referential and Felliniesque manner, in the midst of a spectacle. In Italian, vitellone,…
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Hey, these Italian proto-slackers are really identical to the Jarmuch-kind of slackers who have populated indie cinema the last 30 years, or so. The main difference is that Fellini's slackers are more sharply dressed.
A great film with a great Nino Rota score.
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An early film from the great Federico Fellini. It doesn't rank for me among his true greats, but I did admire and enjoy it. It's one of his more accessible, upbeat works, and a great introduction to his catalogue. Its influence is still felt in modern cinema today.
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Stanley Kubrick's favourite film and a huge influence on Martin Scorsese (amongst others), Federico Fellini's I vitelloni depicts a group of young men who are trying to find meaning in their lives. A clear progression in his style that points towards his masterpieces to come, Fellini's second film is a compassionate, poignant work.
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A marvellous, involving and moving, swirling, humane and believable look at life an Italian seaside town. At first when we are introduced to the bunch of ‘young’ men, I thought that, as with US and UK films of the period, we were having to accept 30 year olds as 20 year olds. But no! These layabouts, loafing about, picking up girls and older women, are 30 year olds still living with their mamas and expecting everything to fall into their laps (and their lips!). Getting pregnant still a big deal, of course, and if the ‘youngsters’ think little of the consequences the older generation certainly seem to get together to get some sort of result. There are many wonderful sequences in this, ever beautiful tapestry of life in the 50s and the director even manages to get in plenty of carnival in this early film.
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An absolute classic. For reasons i cannot put in to words this gets a place in my all time top 10.
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As we are introduced to the young group of vitellone who form the quintet of friends that spend their days lounging in cafes, walking deserted streets, and looking out to sea, a thunderstorm erupts which leads Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), the most tormented and conflicted of the group, to proclaim, “It’s beautiful outside, like the end of the world.” As the storm comes down, the revellers at the “Miss Mermaid” contest move inside, one of the members of the band carrying a drum with, as we come to understand, the appropriate name “Happy Boys” written across it. Thus, Federico Fellini’s I vitelloni (1953) opens both in a distinctively self-referential and Felliniesque manner, in the midst of a spectacle. In Italian, vitellone,…
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Excellent character study, unique array of characters, who are easy to relate too. Funny, moving, anyone who has grown up in a small town will understand a lot of the themes. Franco Fabrizi is exceptional. The screenplay is well written, with well thought out character arcs and consequences.
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This is like a more grounded, less fantastical version of Amarcord. It is everything that film is - a love letter to Italy; a story about growing up in a small Italian village amongst a tight-knit community; and an homage to Fellini's youth - and yet it feels much more authentic. This really is a terrific film, in part because watching it, you get the impression that this is how it must have been to grow up in Italy in the 1950s. It is at once magical and unreal, and yet startlingly normal at the same time.
Following a group of five young men as they navigate young adulthood in the post-war period, I couldn't help but think of my…
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Hey, these Italian proto-slackers are really identical to the Jarmuch-kind of slackers who have populated indie cinema the last 30 years, or so. The main difference is that Fellini's slackers are more sharply dressed.
A great film with a great Nino Rota score.
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A elegiac and beautiful tale of 5 saps who are children at heart, and adults on the outside. It meanders, wanders, and finds its resolution in a small act of happiness. Not nearly as great as Fellini's best (linear) film, La Strada.
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Ni-nis: la película.
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Or LEMME GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE BEFORE I KILL MY ASSHOLE FRIENDS. Messy, moving memories abound.
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For I Vitelloni, Fellini drew extensively from his own childhood experiences growing up in a small rural town. The film follows the lives of five young, reasonably affluent, entirely dissolute twenty-somethings as they spend their days sleeping, idling in cafes, womanising and big-noting themselves to each other. The title, which from some accounts is a provincial term for fattened veal or by others (including the co-screenwriter) it is a corruption of the word for a bloated intestine, alludes to the protagonists stagnant, aimless existence. Their lifestyle, of course, puts them at odds with their parents, girlfriend, sisters and friends and, as their happy go lucky ways begin to catch up with them, each of the 'vitelloni' faces a personal crisis…