Greekguy In May 2012, the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles played a series of double-feature evenings, each time pairing Fellini's 'I Vitelloni' with a film from a director who had made it clear that this 1953 Fellini film had been a formative influence on his work. The film was shown first in tandem with Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, then with George Lucas' 'American Graffiti', and lastly with Barry Levinson's 'Diner', in what was a fitting tribute not only to the influence that 'I Vitelloni' has had but also to its ability to meet even the highest of comparative standards.The story of this film is simple enough – the audience follows a group of five young men, all of whom are friends, through the off-season in their hometown, a small seaside city in Italy. The narrative focuses on the leader of the group, Fausto, and his relationship with Sandra, the sister of his friend Moraldo. Of course, the state of this relationship, and the changes it undergoes, will also have an important impact on the group as a whole, and on Moraldo's relationship with Fausto in particular.A number of Fellini fans have not warmed to this film – it seems perhaps too tame for them. Certainly, it is less theatrical than 'The White Sheik', the film Fellini made one year earlier, but then again, although there is still pageantry and magical illusion, particularly in the carnival segment, this film is not about actors or films. Instead, it's about youth, and male youth in particular. Contemporary viewers sometimes comment that this, too, is a bit difficult to accept, since the young men personifying that youth are around thirty, but that is only a question of cultural semantics – for this society, i.e., Italy in the early 1950s, the state of youth continued until marriage, or until one left home and struck out on one's own. The central characters of this film are thus 'youthful' in that they live at home, on borrowed money. They cannot find work, or they cannot keep work. They dream, but lazily, without urgency.What makes the film wonderful, however, is not their laziness but the truthfulness in their stories. This is not a 'slacker' film, except perhaps in roughly the way that 'Hamlet' is a slacker play. No, this is a film about the comfort and the discomfort of friendship, the sting and the sweetness of love and the painful transition to adulthood. The actors do a wonderful job, the location is as authentic and provincial as it can be, and the camera and the music work in perfect partnership. Indeed, in a film that has a good deal to say about how important we each are to one another, it is fitting that its internal elements all coalesce so smoothly.

TheLittleSongbird 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

jotix100 It came as a total surprise finding this film on a cable channel recently. Not having seen it in quite a while, we decided to watch it again. ¨I vitelloni¨ is one of Fellini's classics that one can see from time to time and still find new things in it. This was Federico Fellini's third work as a director, although his connection with the Italian cinema went way back, because let's not forget he had a glorious career as a screen writer for the likes of Roberto Rosellini, Pietro Germi and Alberto Lattuada, among others.The reigning style of that era was the neorealism, which is reflected in the way Fellini dealt with the central story. That movement liberated movie directors from filming in a studio, as most of their films were shot on actual locations. Italy at the time was going through a terrible time after their defeat in WWII. Unemployment was rampant, something that is easy to understand in the way ¨I vitelloni¨ got involved in bringing out the problems .We are taken to a small town where a group of five young men try to while away their time since no jobs are available to them. There is Fausto, the handsome man who has impregnated his girlfriend and is bound by honor to marry Sandra. Leopoldo, an aspiring playwright lives in a fantasy world, having fallen in love with the maid from the house next door. Alberto, relies on his sister Giulia, who works in the local newspaper, for pocket money. Finally, Riccardo, appears to be the most grounded member of the gang, goes along for the fun they have being together. Moraldo, who becomes Fausto's brother-in-law, acts as the conscience of these aimless men; he is the only one that has the courage to leave the small town.Fellini collaborated in this film with Tulio Pinelli, a genius in his own right, and Ennio Flaiano, to create a story that was relevant as it depicted the times their country was living. Fellini was blessed in that he worked at the time when he could rely on someone of the caliber of Nino Rota to work on the musical score that serves his picture in unexpected ways. The cinematography was shared by three of Italy's leading cameramen, Carlo Carlini, Otello Martelli and Luciano Trasatti; they captured the town just as probably Fellini wanted it to look.The acting is dominated by Franco Fabrizi who plays Fausto. With his good looks, it's easy to see him as the vain man who wanted to satisfy his desires in whatever way he can. Leopoldo Trieste makes an impression with his 'Poldo, a pathetic figure living with his head in the clouds. Alberto Sordi, who had worked with Fellini in ¨The White Sheik¨, has a small part as Alberto. His scene at the carnival ball when he dresses up as a woman, goes from funny to tragic as he runs into his sister who has decided to run away with her lover. Franco Interlenghi makes the most out of his Moraldo.¨I vitelloni¨ is highly recommended to all fans of the Italian cinema golden years, and specially to Federico Fellini's admirers who will not be disappointed with this minor masterpiece.

Michael_Elliott I Vitelloni (1956) *** (out of 4) Federico Fellini film about a group of young men who are in no hurry to grow up and leave their small, lifeless town. It's easy to see the major influence this film had on American Graffiti but overall I was a bit letdown with my first Fellini film. Going by various books this here is often highly rated, although I noticed in the HTF Director's Guide that there were several who didn't rate it so highly. The performances by the entire cast are wonderful and the cinematography is brilliant throughout. The biggest problem I had with the film is that it ran out of gas around the one hour mark and it really didn't pick back up until the "search" at the end of the film.