Personnages
Alberto - Personnage léger, capricieux et émotif. Son affection sans borne pour sa mère, l'attention jalouse qu'il porte à sa sœur, ainsi que quelques scènes équivoques (dont celle du carnaval) font planer sur Alberto un soupçon d'homosexualité.
*
Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
14 November 2005
Somewhere on his way from neo-to sur-young Federico Fellini had made a "I Vitelloni" (1953),lighthearted unconventional, bold, and above all entertaining film that tells the story of hopes and miseries of four friends, four young men, "I Vitelloni" in a small seashore province town. "Vitellone" means "idle young person of the provinces, often an eternal student". The title matches its characters very well. They live in the town where nothing much happens; they don't have jobs and spend the money given by their loving families. They have the most ardent hopes and they face the cruel disappointments.
*
They are different - cynical skirt chaser Fausto who is forced to marry a girl pregnant with his baby; the intellectual and ambitious Leopoldo who dreams of becoming a famous writer; the irresponsible "big child" Alberto (Alberto Sordy, the famous comic, absolutely wonderful in his early role), and Moraldo, the only one of the group who in the final scene will leave the town of his childhood to start a new life.
I loved I Vitelloni. Nino Rota's music is above any words (as always) as well as the young director's camera work, the character study and acting. I think of "I Vitelloni" as more realistic and sober "Amarcord" in B/W. One of scenes was absolutely stunning -the carnival - the music, the dancing, the camera's rapid but fluid movements - simply breathtaking.It is without doubt that Fellini influenced a lot of directors, and there are similarities between "I Vitelloni" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" and Barry Levinson's "Diner". Stanley Kubrick and Marin Scorsese both named "I Vitelloni" as one of their favorite films.Highly recommended: 9/10
Was the above review useful to you?
29 out of 43 people found the following review useful:
Scorsese Knows Best
*
I first saw this film as a college student in an Italian Cinema class. I was impressed then, and recently saw it again and was touched anew by these characters.Then I noted that Martin Scorsese,in his documentary about Italian film on Turner Movies Classics("My Voyage to Italy") names this film as a huge inspiration for his film "Mean Streets" -- and I felt totally exonerated that I had always placed this film up there with La Strada, 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, and Amarcord.
Scorsese sets the record straight about how these characters are successfully fleshed out -- including Moraldo, the Fellini autobiographical character. This is a film of simple beauty, and while it may lack the complex allegorical meanings of La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, the story more than delivers in its straight forward approach to story telling.Forget Diner (a decent movie), Slackers, Clerks, and any other "slacker/loafer" movie; I Vitelloni transcends the genre -- and it is a true classic.Rent this film - it will not let you down.
