felixoteiza At the end of Intervista, Fellini mentions the complaints of one former producer because of the usual dark ending of his films and that he kept asking him for "a little ray of sunshine". Well if something can be said right off the bat of VL is that in its case that little sunshine wasn't necessary after all. If this movie was the work of a single director I wouldn't hesitate calling it mediocre but as its was a joint effort I have to conclude there were two conflicting, almost opposing, styles at work there, so the film works its way to its conclusion as a ship sailing with two skippers struggling for possession of the helm, each one prevailing at given a time and producing as the result a rather zigzagging course. Black humor flirts with drama and then with tragedy, but that's all.I haven't seen many Fellini works, but I have seen enough to deduce they are structured on 3 basic components, each one originating its next, something even more clear during his neo realist period. First, individual/collective drama--sometimes presented at as black comedy turning into drama--which occasionally ends up in tragedy, all that the product of fascism, war and the resulting social desegregation and dislocation. Second, as the fruit of it, a thoroughly troubled relationship between his own generation and authoritative figures in society: parents, teachers, priests; institutions in general--fart noises, raspberries, being a usual form of revolt. Third, the childhood traumas resulting from the other two--girl being burned alive in Julietta for ex.--that will manifest later in life as emotional/sexual stagnation. That's the blueprint for most Fellinis I've seen and because of that I conclude about VL is that this film is not a pure Fellini but a very diluted, hybrid, even adulterated one. He was certainly kept under tight control here.Fellini shot VL in the same period he made two other films similar in settings, characters: Il Bidone & I Vitelloni, All three show people who are leeches of others—relatives, society—who see them just as preys or at least as sources of income; the only difference being that he loves the characters in IV (I explain that in that review) while he is indifferent to those in IB and VL. That allows me to conclude that had he been left alone doing this one he would have delivered these people to their (probably sad) fate, as he did in IB, but that every time he was about to do so, the other skipper took the helm and moved the ship the other way. I don't agree wit the DVD text, about Fellini, Latuatta loving these characters. I think the first thing writers give characters they love is dignity and in the case of artists, that means talent, at least a bit of it, and what we see here is only a bunch of talentless drones. That's why I don't think Fellini loved them. He may have loved real life vaudeville artists but fiction characters are different. They are our own creation and it just may happen that we disliked them and that we show it by making them pathetic. We may pity them, but pity is not love.VL is about a troupe of vaudevillians living a day to day existence. We have there the usual characters, magician, clairvoyant, female dancers, etc. To the troupe arrives and sticks like glue, a young, attractive woman who wants to be dancer too. The troupe reject her because they would have to share an already poor pie with one more member, but also for jealousy. Something happens then that forces them to accept her and rapidly she becomes the main attraction. Now most in the troupe love her, specially its director, Checco, who was fond of her from the start anyway, to the great dismay of his girlfriend, Massina's Melina. But the new girl shows up to be just a manipulative leech, only interested in using Checco as a stepping stone. Using her influence on Checco she spends troupe money in hats and dresses so she can frequent ritzier places. In one of those places she finds her next Svengali and then she takes off with him. At the end we see her waving Checco goodbye while taking off to Milan. Later aboard the train where the troupe travels to some provincial town, Checco profits from the brief absence of his now wife Melina to work his charms on yet another young woman who just got into the train.The story is trivial and predictable; we know early on that only lame things will happen because Fellini's pathos is kept well under control. For. ex. when they are all invited by a duke to his estate. During he night he aristocrat tries to work his way into the starlet's bed but he's stopped by Checco, who suddenly appears keen in preserving decency. Later there's absolutely no tension between him and Svengali II when this last steals the girl from him. The only pathos we see in the whole film is when he goes back to Melina, asking her for money, because of the starlet and Melina cries, pitying herself. The rest is lame, predictable.In all, not interesting enough for regular viewers. Only for those interested in Fellini's work, to see the results of his genius being kept under tight rein. 6/10.

rzajac I just saw this for the first time, after sampling much of Fellini's later work over many years.The most surprising thing to me was the sense that Variety Lights (VL) foreshadows Fellini's later "indulgent" work. Here, he bathes the viewer with genuinely warm, almost disconnected bits of life in all its spendor. The fine editing makes it all work; I laughed and sighed out loud through much of this movie, and the first 10 minutes hooked me. A little later in his career, Fellini (with help from other fine story people) showcased straight-up storytelling in La Strada and Cabiria. Subsequent to that, he began exploring "story space" in alinear, character-focused ways, from La Dolce Vita and beyond.The point of all of this is to express my surprise that Fellini appears to have ended his career somewhat as he started it. VL is almost a "throwback" to the directions he took later in abandoning more traditional storytelling methods. Maybe it'd be better to put it this way: When he began diverging from a more conventional narrative style, he was actually taking a step *back* to the style we see in VL. A very good comparison is against his "Fred and Ginger," which explores story space in a studiedly chaotic way, then bowls you over by tying things together with a profoundly touching moment at the end. In "Fred and Ginger," Fellini gracefully brings together his old and new styles. In VL, he seems to bring these together before the new even happened!The tremendous abilities of the actors and actresses are delightful in VL. Something conspicuous in post 8-1/2 Fellini is the purposeful lack of traditional acting craft; Fellini talked about this repeatedly in interviews. In VL (as in La Strada and Cabiria), Fellini shows that he was perfectly capable of directing actors who are plying their skills.Because VL seems to cover the strengths of most of Fellini's career, it is a very fine example of the best he could do. Check it out.

nnad Variety Lights is Fellini's debut film. The film consists of ideas and motifs that would succeedingly appear in movies like 8 1/2 and The Clowns. However, these traits are still undeveloped but we can see how they would be used as personal metaphors for the director. Running under an hour, the film is shown in black and white with legible subtitles and moving at a smooth pace. The story follows a variety show troupe and an female audience member who is so inspired by one of their performances that she asks to join their group. We are then presented with the rise of the performer's act and how mistakes like having her dress fall off soon attracts the attention of the audience. Soon the variety show begins displaying a more racy repertory all which is fronted by sexy novice. Some images in the film like large behinds and women in bikinis may have been provocative for its time in America --although Italy's standards tended to be more shocking. Nevertheless, as discussed in the documentary Rated X, Fellini's movies was generally restricted to Adult theaters due to subject matter, although much more provocation was soon to come. Variety Lights features Masina, Fellini's wife, in a supporting role as a dancer with few scenes, although she still gives a good performance nevertheless. Masina would soon gather more attention to her acting in succeeding Fellini films like Night of Cabaria and La Strata. However, the focus of this film is directed at De Filippo for his role as the impresario and Poggio as the desperate actress. Veriety Lights is not the best Fellini production but still worth a look.

zetes If you enjoy Fellini's earlier films, Nights of Cabiria and La Strada, specifically, Variety Lights will please you. A sweet-hearted film not much in the vain of Italian Neorealism (Nights of Cabiria and La Strada were more like the neorealistic classics), but more like the poetic realism of 1930s French cinema, Variety lights is straightforward, unlike Fellini's later films, for instance, La Dolce Vita, and very enjoyable. It never impresses as deeply as most of Fellini's masterpiece, but, hey, it was his earliest directorial effort. You also have to see it, Fellini lovers, for Giulietta Masina's supporting role; it gives you a hint of her later masterful roles. 8/10