Watching Fellini's films is a wild ride through a history of the man, a history of film technique, and history itself. As the above quote suggests, Fellini left a lot of himself in each of his works, but over the course of his life the style of his work changed radically. He came out of the age of Italian Neo-Realism in which films were severely "authentic" in stark contrast to the French New Wave stylizations that would follow. His early films in the 1950's were of this type, including La Strada which was one of my favorites. The man himself might disagree with these characterizations and categorizations, having once said "realism is a bad word. I see no line between the imaginary and the real." Moving forward in time, Fellini would go on to create some of the most beloved films in all of cinema, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and Amarcord. As expected, I enjoyed these movies as well.
As I mentioned, Fellini started out in realism and then migrated towards more stylized artsy fare. His work can be divided into eras and decade: realism (50s), stylization (60s), and nostalgia (70s). La Dolce Vita was the bridge between the first two groups, and caused quite an uproar upon its release due to its fervent sexuality. The films tend towards the long-side, but they have a kind of necessary momentum to them that fuels them forward from the start to the end. Apparently Fellini filmed chronologically and didn't review his footage before moving on to the next scenes. Ray Bradbury quoted him as saying, "Don't tell me what I'm doing. I don't want to know." His artsier movies, 8 1/2 and Fellini Satyricon are easy to get lost in. There are dreamlike visuals that demand study, but the next scene is underway before the last is clearly understood. In 8 1/2 this momentum works. Many filmmakers have tried to make a "meta" movie about filmmaking (this was Fellini's 8 1/2th film, having made 7 and a short before this), but few have succeeded in making it so dramatic, so complicated, so compelling, and so gorgeous. In fact I can't think of any, other than maybe Contempt which I watched earlier for this same project. On the other end of the spectrum, I found Fellini Satyricon (so named because "Satyricon" had a copyright issue) to be sloppy and extremely difficult to stay engaged with. The visuals are striking, for sure, but the plot and story (mostly just ancient myths) were all over the place. Though it came last, I actually watched Amarcord first. It surprised me with its frank look at religion, sexuality, and other such themes subtly tucked into a bildungsroman story in a small Italian town. It was funny too, which I always appreciate.
I had never seen any Fellini before this project, and now it's easy for me to understand why the man is so highly regarded. He dealt with depression and other demons throughout his life, but he never hesitated to turn the script and camera inward to take a serious and interesting look at himself through the lens of art. He shared this art with the world, and the world is better for it.
- La Strada (1954) - 8.5
- La Dolce Vita (1960) - 8
- 8 1/2 (1963) - 8.5
- Fellini Satyricon (1969) - 5
- Amarcord (1973) - 7.5
Next up is Francis Ford Coppola.
No comments:
Post a Comment