Parallel Programming #1 - I Vitelloni

LE REGARD DE BAZIN - I Vitelloni

It is Fellini's 1953 film that inaugurates this series of "parallel programming", a concept which partly inspired this blog. These posts should be short and will be like little informal diary entries, to serve as mementos and digestifs, to help mull over the respective films. Added to this the "parallel programming" will introduce me to films that I may not have otherwise watched, and in cases where I have already seen one of the films scheduled (Bazin's champions or otherwise) I will make note of it, although most films scheduled will be unobtainable, as the Cinematheque is good at giving retrospectives and screenings of neglected films and filmmakers.

To the film at hand. This post coincides with the reopening of the Cinematheque, if not my viewing of the film.

Much has been made of this film being the prototype for the "slacker" film, but I'm not sure there is much of a lineage between it and the loosely defined genre. What is of course striking is Fellini breaking away from neo-realism, concentrating on a frivolous middle class milieu, with very slight hints of his more zany style to come and eventual dispensing of realism altogether. This is Amarcord without the range of characters and the extravagant style, his fascination with small town life is quite compelling and at this point, not populated by grotesques, at least not physically.

So if parallels with American slacker films are exaggerated, what is it similar to? With the recent talk of dream double bills, I started to think and then it hit me. Billy Liar (and the British new-wave, certainly the attitude towards women). Billy Liar, Tom Courtenay's character, is so eerily similar to Fausto Moretti (the main character along with Moraldo, who is also the narrator; I think that's right....) and some of the plot elements are strikingly similar too. I simply couldn't believe that the writer hasn't seen it. Billy Fisher is a composite of Fausto the womaniser, Moraldo the dreamer, and the playwright, yet it is with Fausto whom Billy truly shares his characteristics. Small town life is envisioned well in both, both characters have no respect for their bosses and lose/quit their jobs (although there is no great Shadrack! scene in Vitelloni). For the Italians, as with the British, railways are very important and provide a link to The City. Where Billy half-heartedly tries to go to London, Moraldo succeeds in catching his train to Somewhere.

I must add that Nino Rota's score was quite wonderful, not amazing, but better than most scores. Also, Fellini's use of Rimini, his home town, makes it more personal and he would get better and better at this as he went on, culminating in the wonderful Amarcord. None of that horrible Cinema Paradiso nonsense.

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The rest of the 27/08/08 --- Needless to say, the Leisen and the Becker are unavailable and amazingly, there remains no dvd at all of Stroheim's Greed. There was a screening on Arte of the 4 hour version; along with Napoleon, are there any more anticipated releases? Perhaps the next few years will see their belated re-release. I suppose we shouldn't hold our breath. Rashomon, of course I have seen, but I'm afraid it's narrative innovation did little for me I have to be added to the few who are immune to its wonders (is Rivette among them, or did I imagine that?).

I must stop using parenthesis so much....