The history of Italian cinema from 1946 to 1975 via film endings that I like

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1 The history of Italian cinema from 1946 to 1975 via film endings that I like 1 The best of cinema A tribute to Italian cinema. In films, Italian films are my favorite over any other country. 2 Films endings from Italian Neo-realism films Italian Neo-realism was a film movement that emerged from the second world war. Filming was done on location. Italy was shown as it is after all the bombing it took. They tried to use non-professional actors for the leading role. These films showed the lives of the poor after the war. Showed the affect of the oppression of fascist Italy and the war, in creating mass poverty. It is claimed again and again that the first neo-realist film is Ossessione by Luchino Visconti (1943). Because it had some of these qualities (filming on locations etc). Its an Italian version of The postman always ring twice. Well, perhaps. The endings in these films are typically purposely shocking. These films could be seen as a look to the present and the close past (only on the resistance, as if all Italians were in the resistance). Its a political critic, from the left side of the map, on the affects of the war. Note an important difference: these films were not a critic of the Italian role in the war. Probably, they 1

2 thought that this goes without saying. Mostly a critic of what came later. This films contain a lot of death. Even if there is no death (see The bicycle thief ) there is a lot of pain and humiliation. The right wing did not like these film much. A defamation of Italy they called them. In We all loved so much a left wing intellectual bitterly arguing with a right wing typical demagog that complain that: Bicycle thief is a film that betrays Italy. Italian Neo-realism was the first to give a consistent floor to the claim that cinema can deal with serious things and that cinema can be art. This together with the films of Bergman and Fellini, decides the question that was in the air all those years: cinema is an art form. The films of the new French wave also helped. The name neo-realism is because they thought back then that documentaries are realism. This is a very funny thought in our times. But we are talking on the year 1946 before all the affect of the sinister post-modernism. Therefore, the films imitated documentary films, and were about mundane things in life: eating working. Also loving but with a low key. Without drama. The simple things of life are interesting enough, they said. The name neo-realism was chosen, of course, by critics, to call films that try to imitate documentaries. If documentaries are realism, imitating them, neo-realism. A documentary is far from realism. You do not have to go as far as the films Olympia and Triumph of the Will of Leni Riefenstahl the Nazi documentariest. She served four years in prison for her crimes. Among the worst of her crimes are these two films. The films of Mike Moore just as an example, are left wing demagog propaganda and nothing more. These films are worthless, because propaganda films are worthless. By definition. Documentaries are not realism, not the truth and not even close. They are an opinions often combined with lies and manipulations. Even political films like Z seems garbage to me after the years have gone by. 2.1 Rome the Open City 1945 It was Roberto Rossellini s Rome open city that really set the movement in motion. This is a landmark in the history of cinema regardless of the value of this film. Not many times, one film changes cinema. Some other films that did that were the racist Birth of a nation, the German film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Russian film Battleship Potemkin, the American film Citizen Kane and the French film Breathless. So few films! Rome the open city started filming when Italy was occupied (by the Nazi) but ended after the occupation. The resistance was glorified. The description therefore is not true to 2

3 the facts. For example it is not shown that there were separate groups among the partisans, that did not like each other so much (one of them were the communists). The film has many Christian symbols. Rossellini was a communist. But then again, maybe he is not a strict communist, or maybe I dont understand the film. Communism and Christianity can not live together. Open City set the ton: focused on simple Italian people. A lot of children were used, and this persisted in some other films. The pries/hero of the film, has many altar boys that idolize him. I will describe only small part of the story. Because I want to emphasis how important were the shocking endings. The priest Don Pietro Pellegrini helps the resistance. The Nazi commander gets a hold on the priest. Tries to question him but the priest does not break, even when he see s that the Nazi actually killed his friend for not talking. He looks at his dead friend with pain but proudly and says: you did not speak! The scene also has a dead women covered by a coat. A cruel Nazi lady chillingly steals the coat. One of the Nazi officials looks at this act and says: We are indeed the master race. Don Pietro is taken to be executed, publicly. He does not care: Dying is not hard. Living a righteous life is the hard thing he says. Seating on a chair a firing squad is to shoot him from behind. Albeit, the soldiers that are to shoot him are all Italians. Many altar boys show up to where Don Pietro is to be killed. Start whistling him a known tune until he takes notice of them. The film ends like that: The Italians fire at Don Pietro. The children lower their heads. It turns out that the squad missed on purpose. They could not take the idea of killing him. The children look at the priest with hope again. The angry Nazi commander personally goes to the Don and shoots him in the head. The altar kids lower their heads again. Then we see the devastated children leaving the place, face down and devastated but in pairs. Not one of them is alone. What a terrible ending! However, this film borders in propaganda and glamorization of the resistance. 2.2 The bicycle Thief Vittorio De Sica s 1948 film The Bicycle Thief is maybe considered the most famous in the the genre. Considered the best (I disagree. For me Germany Hours Zero is the best). Again with non-professional actors. The father and son did not act before, and to the best of my knowledge did not act after this film. 3

4 The story was remarkably simple: A father gets a job. He is extremely poor. The job seems like a joke: he is hanging posters for American films done by rich people. What he does it at least ironic. The glamor of these posters contrasts the poverty all around. His bicycle is stolen. He can not do his job fast enough and will loose it. Most of the film the father and his son are franticly looking for the stolen bicycle. But they can not find it. The father stops and looks desperate on a parking space for bicycles, filled with hundreds of bicycle, making his pain worse. The film ends like this: For a long time the father thinks what to do. He sees a pair of bicycles in the middle of a street and nobody seems to guard them. For a long time he and his boy seat on the pavement as he contemplates what to do. And if to do. If to steal the bicycle. The desperate father finally becomes a bicycle thief himself. Steals the bicycle he needs for working from the apparently empty street. But the bicycle owner is right next to the bikes and he shouts at other people: stop him! Stop him! He stole my bicycle! A multitude of people run after the father and catch him. They want to send him to prison, but his child comes running and crying to him Papa Papa. The more influential person of them (I think he is a policeman but I am not sure) looks at the kid and understands that as he puts it The father has enough problems as it is. Shows sensitivity. He tells everybody to release the father and they do that. The father starts crying walking with his child that probably never saw his strong father crying, and is probably shocked. We see him walking, with his child shot from behind. Many other people walk along. Suddenly we can not see them anymore among the many people. The multitude of people hide him. He is just another dot among many. This image, is strongly symbolic. Its a memory I carry with me. In my opinion is one of the strongest of endings in this genre. As it tells us, there are many many dots like this father. Like the song Elinor Rigby says: no one was saved. The father did not even get some Christian salvation and forgiveness for stealing the bicycle. He is now just a dot and a thief, without work. 2.3 Shoeshine A very emotional and strong film by De Sica. Again it is about children that shine shows. Their names are Giuseppe and Pasquale. Two adults Attilio and Panza make them act illegally by tricking them (one is the brother of one of the children). 4

5 Later they are jailed, due to the ugly behavior of Attilio and Panza, but wont give their name. The police that questions them and beats them. But they dont talk. But later Pasquale is tricked into the belief that his friend Pasquale is in unbearable pain. So he gives the names of Panza and Attilio to the police chief. And the two friends become enemies. Giuseppe manages to escape prison. Pasquale tells the police were does he think his ex friend went. He leads them and they find Giuseppe riding a horse across a bridge. The film ends like this: Pasquale starts to hit Giuseppe. Giuseppe falls off the bridge and dies. Pasquale cries over his dead friend body when the film ends. 2.4 Unmerto D Umberto D. is a tough film (De-Sica. Who else?) about an old man named Umberto Ferrari that is thrown out of his rental home. No compassion, no forgiveness. They want to change this homes to luxury homes for the rich. He only has a dog to comfort him, a dog he cared for several years. Homeless Umberto considers suicide. In a very dramatic scenes he tries to find a new owner for the the dog. Because he wants to suicide. But he cant find a new owner: nobody would take the dog. The film ends like this: Desperate Umberto decides to suicide with the dog. He takes the dog into the train tracks. But his dog gets very scared from the coming train and runs away. Umberto understands that he mistreated his dog. If he wants to be better than those who threw him to the street and stole his home, he has to take care of the dog. If he will commit suicide and the dog will live, it will probably not be for a long time as nobody is willing to take care of a dog. After all, humans are hungry. Who would care about a dog? He does not suicide and makes the dog trust him again, by playing with him in the park. He will be with the little dog until the end. However, since he is homeless, nobody can promise us that this ending will not come soon. This is neo-realism for you. 2.5 Germany hour zero The best film of the genre in my opinion. The other neo-realistic films of Rossellini slightly distorted the reality (like the way he glorified the resistance in Rome the Open City and Paisa ). Germany, Year Zero was shot in 5

6 Germany. The name means that the Germans want to erase the crimes they did in the second world war, and set the time to 0. Erase the past. A child named Edmund takes care of his sick father. His father is a strong burden on the family. Then the child meets an ex teacher of his, that is still a proud Nazi (the film was made in 1946). The teacher delivers the Nazi ideology to the child as follows: His father uses the others. He is sick and this is like being crippled. And those takers and weak should be killed. To give place to the strong and healthy. The fact that they are strong and healthy means that they should have more rights, as they are better people. He convinces the child to poison his father food. And Edmund does exactly this! The film end like that: The child goes to his Nazi teacher and tells him what he did. The teacher, very startled, denies that he told him to kill his father. He says: I only that the weak should perish so that the strong can survive. The boy goes up a tall building that is in ruins (they shot in real location and Germany was full of bombarded places). He looks from there at his father s coffin being taken away. Finally, he understand what he did, and jump from the high building and dies by suicide, in a ruthless ending. A lot of death and a lot of suffering. But this was about to change quite fast. I did not speak on a very good movie: Miracle in Milan because in my opinion it is not neo-realism. 3 The descendant films of the neo realistic films: comedy Italian style Aristotle said that comedies should have good endings. The Italian comedy that lasted from the fifties to the start of the seventies, violated this rule big time. After neo-realism genre, a genre of comedy, in Italian style was born. The ending of those comedies were not better than the ending of the neo-realists films. Simply cruel most times. Aristotle would not have approved. On the other hand Aristotle said that comedies should be about simple people. And in that the comedy Italian style excels. But if the films end badly, are these films comedies? Most certainly yes. First because they were very funny films. Second because of the cynicism and satire. I think that sad comedies are most times better than the funniest comedy. See the film The great dictator and the film Planes trains and automobiles. These are two sad comedies that have sort of open ended 6

7 ending. And are very emotional. So comedies Italian style are full of doubt sarcasm, do not contain heroes like the priest in Rome Open City but just anti-heros. But make no mistake: they are comedies. Among those stands The hard life by Dino Risi as my favorite film in my favorite genre (comedies Italian style is my favorite genre) and one of the best films I know. As usual, I look to the sight and sound poll of 2012 and say: there is no single Italian comedy in this list. What happens? Why they clearly take comedies less seriously? These films are completely forgotten by critics as a whole. Even when we talk on neo-realistic films, only one ranks high: The bicycle thief. The roughly 20 years of comedies that invented a new style of sad comedies, namely comedies Italian style, will prevail. They live as there will always be people that will remember them in love. Some critics that I know, love these Italian comedies. On the other hand, the famous (in the USA) late critic Roger Ebert, has a list of (I am estimating here) close to 500 Great movies. Among them the preachy and phony film Hedgehog day. But he did not chose a single Italian comedy. I fail to understand why. I really do. Not selecting any film of, say, The hard life, The easy life, We all loved so much, Bread and Chocolate and The big war Big deal in Madonna street and the so many other comedies that were made in Italian style. 3.1 Relation to neo realism The Italian comedies of the period are an expansion of the neo-realistic films into satire. Those who liked the neo-realistic films critic the comedies for leaving that genre. Saying that it betrays the spirit of neo-realism. Am I expected to act like a judge and say who was right? I cant. Nobody can I think. Fellini asked: why do you think that for a long time people will be interested to see films on their own lives with no fantasy and no imagination (invention) at all? What I can say in behalf of these comedies is that they were bitter comedies. Ended with failures. All those I will present are comedies but Italian style with a lot of tragic consequences. So those who did such comedies, among them Vittorio De Sica himself, just developed the neo-realism in another way. Albeit, they argue about this subject for many years. Till today. I am not the one to say who is right. I like Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli and Ettore Scola most. In Italian comedies, my favorite three. Fellini is more important to me that the 3 put together. But how many Fellini do we have? Their comedies at times are better than the comedies of even of Woody Allen. I will also speak on Cinema Paradiso simply because I like the film. Cinema Paradiso is a much more modern Italian comedy. It still maintains some of the rules, but Cinema Paradiso is a bit different. A bit nostalgic, and emotional, even if one 7

8 terrible things happen in Cinema Parasido as well. A key to understand those comedies made in Italian style, is the so called economic miracle that Italy went through after world war two. How proud were they for this success! It was based on the so called Marshall Plan American initiative. To help Europe. The United States gave a large amount of money to rebuild the European economies. The danger was that these countries will fall into communist influence. It was named after the American secretary of state George Marshall. However, to get rich again, the Italians engaged in some compromises and some corruption. If we rave Italy for its neo-realistic films that took an inner looking on the poverty after world war two, we also should point out that this genre was short lived. Maybe 10 years. They disappeared quite fast. The comedies that replaced them are better films in my (lonely) opinion, that all the neo-realistic films. Only in the seventies did the influence of the war completely disappeared from Italian Cinema. And such comedies were very rare after that. 3.2 The hard life by Dino Risi One of the best films I know. But again, I am in a small minority as usual. This film spans the time of the resistance (1944) until the economic miracle of One of my favorite actors, Alberto Sordi plays the part of Silvio Magnozzi. You should see him, and his extraordinary demonstration of identification with his character. A most amazing tour the force of acting. He is one of the best actors that ever lived. The character starts as a partisan. But in this satire, he replaces this dangerous life style, by a comfortable life with a woman he meets. Magnozzi is sent to to ask help from the locals of some village. He meets Elena. He will have a very long relation with her with ups and downs. Elena refuses to help him as she heard that the partisans are thieves. In this type of cynical comedy, it later turns out that indeed they are. Nothing like the glorious description of the resistance, Rossellini style. Elena saves his life when a Nazi wants to kill him. This scene was claimed by many to be an homage to Rome Open City. But who knows: was this really the intention? Silvio goes with Elena to an old mill. They live there. He finds it very comfortable. So cynically, Silvio abandons the cause and spends the rest of the Resistance with Elena in a very safe place. Clearly, this part of A Difficult Life is a parody. Silvio lies and says that he was very active in the Resistance. This allows 8

9 him to becomes a political activist for the left. He still lives with Elena after the war. And it turns out that its hard to make a living after the war. Elena dreams of the big city Rome. They move there. A place she thinks will provide her with a better life. Silvio, becomes a journalist in Rome. Now, starts the part of the film in which Silvio decides that he will not get corrupted. Because of that, he looses a lot of what he has (not accepting bribes will do this to you). Elena leaves him. While she is shown as kind in the film she will not stay with a person with no work. The question is, will the hero become corrupt out of desperation, or will he stay true the the values of the resistance and of the poor? A memorable scene is when frustrated Silvio spits at the passing cars, because he thinks they sold their souls. For a long time, he refuses to have any of the economic miracle. Now comes a devastating jump forward of several years. And a disappointment. Some years later Silvio betrays the working class principles. Embraces the economic miracle. Its 1961, Silvio is working for a corrupt businessman. His wife came back and they return to the village. Elena cries when Silvio points to the mill where they lived once. The hard life became the easy life. He now has a lot of money. He just had to betray his principals to get this. It seems that the Easy life has won. The ending: The hard life returns Silvio and Elena are in the villa of his rich boss. Silvio is publicly humiliated by his boss. His wife too. They look at each other and then see without words that indeed they had enough. Silvio returns to the roots: all of a sudden Silvio hits his boss so hard that the boss falls into a pool. He chose to take the Hard life and no be humiliated by a capitalistic pigs. When Elena and Silvio walk out a luxury car is offered to them. They refuse. A rejection of the Economic Miracle and its corruption. But the ending is very open ended: how will he make a living now? And, will they stay together? 3.3 The great war by Mario Monicelli A true gem. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca meet when they are soldiers in World War I. They are played by my two favorite Italian actors: Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman. And the film is cynical again. They are just two cowards. Do all they can, and many not so nice (and certainly cowardly) acts to make sure they will end the war alive. Silvana Mangano in an uncharacteristic role plays a hooker. We see them in battles with hardly any free time. The others find 9

10 quite fast that these two are very coward soldiers. So they get a job as those who deliver messages to the staff. While basic, this job is very dangerous. A mistake causes them to be trapped by the enemy: Austrians. They are to be killed because the Austrians say that they are spies. The ending: Like with the previous film, it is humiliation that makes the two cowards change. The Austrian are vane and has nothing but contempt to the Italians. In a way completely opposite to all the film they act. Giovanni Busacca refuse to give any informations and insult the Austrian back! The coward changed! Jacovacci does the same. They are killed. But it is the Italians that win the battle at the end, and ironically will never know that there was one occasion in which the two acted bravely. They hardly see their bodies when they arrive there. This is Italian comedy for you. Funny (the film is definitely funny) but also ends in a way that looks as directly taken from the neo-realism. 3.4 The easy life This film by Dino Risi is almost cult. This film is considered his best, probably. I disagree of course. This comedy has an ending that is truly shocking and the shock comes when you dont expect it. A young, shy law student named Roberto is invited to celebrate the 40 years holiday of a stranger named Bruno (played by my beloved Vittorio Gassman). Bruno wants to make a phone call. Roberto invites him in. Bruno wants to return a favor to Roberto. He says he will buy him a drink. Now, the naive law school student Roberto, will go and see things he never saw before. Bruno is very charismatic so the young student accepts spending time with him. Bruno drives his car, that he loves so much. The street they drive in, is called Via Aurelia. In fact Bruno calls his beloved car by the same name. Roberto meets a lot of people partying and has nothing in common with them. But he cant stop. Addicted. We are clearly talking on the easy life here. The time of the economical miracle. Bruno is nothing like Roberto. He is is loud, brave, street smart, charming. Charismatic. Everybody loves him. Roberto, is the complete complete opposite. In a symbolic film, a good Italian student makes a mistake. He chooses the luring economical miracle over hard work, a choice that by the standards of the comedy Italian style is a betrayal of the cause (these comedies would not have existed if it was not for the economic miracle). In Tuscany the two men become involved with various adventures, and it even seem that they change each other a bit. Roberto, childhood, as he 10

11 now discovers, was not all rosy. He changed the past to the better. Bruno is exposed as much less carefree than he pretends. Ending: A story of mail bondage between two completely different men. We have seen many like this, but these films do not end like this one. Roberto dares Bruno to speed and attempt a maneuver with his car. In an accident, Roberto goes off a cliff with the car, and dies. He payed for selecting the economic miracle. Bruno is left devastated but alive. 3.5 Big Deal on Madonna Street A founding comedy of the genre. The way it ends, is typical comedy Italian style. It was directed by Mario Monicelli. The actors (at least the main ones) were Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Carlo Pisacane, and Tiberio Murgia. The success in the box office of this film, helped their careers. Especially of Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman. And to my delight, Toto the famous comedian has here a small part. The film is about a bunch of misfits that plan an heist of a pawnshop. They are to enter this pawnshop from an abandoned adjacent flat. As usual trouble arrives all over, like the empty flat being suddenly rented by some people. In a very funny scene they hire a thief (this is the small part of Toto) that teaches them how to break into a safe. As in many Italian comedies, the fate of some of the group members is very bad. One of the main characters Cosimo dies in a failed robbery. Another one named Mario, decides not to participate. A third one is wounded badly and so on. They manage in their clumsy way to enter the apartment. They make one a hole through a water pipe. Then they need to make another hole. Finally this knocks part of the wall. The ending: After they knock the wall they realize that they are just in another room in the same apartment that borders the pawnshop and not inside the pawnshop. Not even near the safe with the money. What happened is that this adjacent apartment was remodeled. They did not know about it, hence the mistake. But as in a good Italian comedy, after they accuse each other, they just come together again and make a meal together, and eat. Later the newspaper reports that food was stolen from the apartment. And the film ends with this irony... What an Italian style ending indeed. 11

12 3.6 Bread and Chocolate This film was done much later. In It was directed by Franco Brusati. But the way Nino Manfredi acts is what you remember. Nino Garofalo has no work in Italy (also he is from the poor south) and needs to go to Switzerland to look for work. This was a fact these years. A large amount of Italians migrated to Switzerland for work. And were hated. The influence of Charlie Chaplin is all over this film, including the ending. The Italians love Charlie Chaplin. In my opinion, Giulietta Masina (the wife of Fellini) to a certain extent imitates Chaplin in her acting in several films that she did. As its so typical to Italian comedies, he gets in trouble. He loses licence to work and is caught urinating in public. He still need to work so he becomes an illegal worker. After many adventures he finds shelter with a group from Napoli (which is south Italy). Then he falters: he idolizes too much the some young blonde, Swiss teenagers that he sees, and thinks that if he will look like them, he will be better off. He dies his hair blond. However, soccer will lead to his fall (its an Italian comedy after all). In a bar, he cant help but celebrate a goal his beloved Italian soccer team scores. Ending They understand that he is Italian. Nino is arrested and deported by train. But then he gets off the train in one of the stops. We leave him without knowing if he will return to be illegal in Switzerland or go back to Italy and suffer poverty. A Chaplin-like unclear ending. 4 The man who knew how to end films best: Fellini Fellini worked in the neo-realistic time, but very fast went to fantasy films and took the heat for the betrayal. He was a modernistic director. Invented kind of films that were never seen before. Combining dreams and reality without any warning. Here are few of his wonderful endings. 4.1 La Strada How did Fellini become famous? He did a gem called I Vitelloni that should have made him famous. The film talks about childish young men and their adventures in a small town. And the film is so pretty. But it did not leave Italy and Fellini did not become famous yet. 12

13 When Anthony Quinn arrived to Rome to make a high budget film Attila. Fellini decided that he is perfect for his next movie La Strada. This film was on a brute and a shy lady that he buys. Quinn, Fellini was sure, should play the brute. Fellini selected actors if their look matched what he imagines them to be. For example in La Dolce Vita he had a part for a pure girl named Paula. He did countess screen tests and did not find a Paula. One day he was in the house of one of the producers. When his daughter came down, he looked at her for a second and says: Paula! And indeed this part was given to the young lady without any experience in acting before. So he wanted Quinn for the brute. The role of the naive girl was already given to his wife Giulietta Masina. He asked Quinn for two weeks to do the film. Quinn thought he was a bit insane and refused. Enter Roberto Rossellini. Even though he was a communist he was already an established director at that time. Like a good communist, he had a mansion(!) with a movie theater(!) in which he screened movies to Quinn very day. They were friends. One day Rossellini screened the film I Vitelloni. Quinn was very moved. Really emotional. He asked: who is this genius director?? Rossellini said: the name of the director is Fellini. Shocked Quinn said: This is this crazy man that is after me for two weeks and wants me to act in a film he is making called La Strada. Quinn changed his mind and joined La Strada. Quinn never regretted it. It was one of the most important films in his career. While he was busy with Attila during the day, they shot La Strada at nights. Putting things short the plot is like that. A simple shy girl Gelsomina is sold to a brute Zampano (Anthony Quinn) for 10,000 lire by her mother. The girl departs the same day. Zampano, a street performer treats her very cruelly. She is to say each time he appears E Arivato Zampano!. Zampano consistently acts cruel to Gelosima until Gelsomina falls sick. Zampano then decides to leave knowing that she will probably die. The ending Years go by and Zampano overhears a woman singing a tune Gelsomina often sang. He learns that a family took Gelsomina in, but she died shortly after he left her. Zampano gets drunk and wanders to the beach, where he breaks down and cries uncontrollably. The end. La Dolce Vita will also end in the sea. The film got Venice Film Festival Silver Lion prize in It also got an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing in 1958, and there were many more award. Fellini became famous for life. This ending had a lot to do with it. 13

14 4.2 Nights of Cabiria This ending is even more beautiful than the ending of La Strada. The story very shortly: Cabiria is a hooker that many time is used by men who pretend to love her but want the money that she saved over the years. The film starts with one of these men throwing her to the sea, She tries to find salvation in religion. But after that cries No hemos salvado!, namely we were not saved. Or more precisely: We have not changed. She searches for a chance to better her life. After she attends a show of a magician that hypnotizes here, she meets Oscar, who seems really kind. He promises her her a good life. For a while she trusts him. Ending: Oscar starts to act strange when they take a walk. Cabiria understands that Oscar, just like the rest, just wants to steal her life saving. Albeit, he does not want to kill her. She gives him all the money and runs away crying and saying I dont want to live anymore. Cabiria walks the long road back to town when she is met by a group of young performers playing a magical tune. Its hard for me to describe how beautiful the music is. Only such music can cause such a reaction of Cabiria. They pose a show for here and she begins to smile through her tears ending the film. The ending was so powerful that at that after this film Fellini was considered a master already. One of the most powerful endings of all times. 4.3 La Dolce Vita A journalist called Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) looks for the meaning of life. He is a reporter, but the journalism he engages in is some type of yellow journalism. There is another journalist in his news paper called Paparazzo, which is the origin of the word Paparazzi. Like few films such as Rashumon and A clockwork Orange a film added a new term into the language. This is rather rare. Marcello find no meaning for his life. they seem empty. Its already the time of the economic miracle. And the corruption is all over. This film did a big noise as the sexual insinuations in the film to orgies and homosexuality angered the church. This just gave more publicity to the film. Today, it looks completely innocent film. So what is the meaning of life? 1. Is it sex? He meets a prostitute but such sex has no emotions. He has a mistress Maddalena (Anouk Aime from Jules and Jim ). He also has a Fiancee called Emma. The sex with all these girls is very 14

15 problematic. And he also meets Sylvia (Anita Ekberg). A huge woman in more than one meaning. Marcelo and Sylvia spend the rest of the evening in the alleys of Rome where they wade into the Trevi Fountain (I have been there and its quite pretty with many coins in the bottom of the fountain as its a wish fountain). The scene there is made as ridiculous as possible. She does not understand what he is saying uttering what?,what? all the time. Sylvia is anointed symbolically by Marcelo s by pouring on her head head with fountain water. Like a goddess. But her manager attacks Marcelo who is still lost. Its not sex. 2. Is it religion? Religion is posed as an option but two young boys that claim to have seen the Madonna are killed in a car accident. Religion does not work either. 3. Is it knowledge? There is an intellectual named Steiner that Marcelo admires. But later Steiner kills himself and kills his two children. No its not knowledge. 4. Is it family maybe? Marcelo meets his father. They never were close. There is a scene from 81/2 in which Guido tries to find a person that will play his father and always says: its not quite it... Complex relation with the father. He cant even find someone to play the part of his father, because he basically does not know his father. Marcelo and his father go to a club. Marcelo introduces his father to a pretty lady called Fanny. She indeed takes a liking to the father. But it ends since Marcelo s father becomes ill, all of a sudden. Marcelo s father has a mild heart attack. Marcelo wants him to extend his stay in Rome. We should get to know each other, he says. His father, refuses and leaves. So much for family. Its even worse with his fiancee Emma. They have terrible fights. No family is not it. So its not any of those things. 5. How about innocence, kindness, purity of soul? He then meets in a restaurant a young girl Paula that he says looks like the angels in the paintings of Raphael. She is pure and innocent. For real. 4.4 The ending Innocence is no solution for Marcelo as he is corrupt from the core. After a decadent party orgy, in which Marcelo takes an especially active part, and even rides a woman like a horse, they go to the Beach. Lets face it, Fellini loves the beach. They find there an very ugly monster fish. They start to worship this ugly fish. After all the film is a lot about moral decadence of the 15

16 economical miracle. About the unethical things the Italians did to become rich again. But on this same beach with the symbolic monster, he also finds purity. Paula, the adolescent innocent angel of the painting of Raphael appears in the Beach. She talks to Marcelo inviting him to go with her. Marcelo can choose the monster or Paula. He tells Paula: I cant hear what you say. I cant hear. Paula speaks to him but he is cut from her, and signals that can not hear her due to the noise the sea makes. And he chooses the monster over Paula in a very symbolic act. The film ends with a long final close-up the pure face of Paula, while Marcelo leaves. She smiles her innocent smile. What an amazing ending is this closeup. Pure magic. Marcelo found no meaning to life. So is life meaningless? 5 81/2 81/2 is the number of films Fellini did before this film. This film is his most personal one. 5.1 I Vitelloni His films before either had women that were passive accepting of their destiny or man that actively try to fight their bad destiny (but fail as in the old tradition of Italian films). The two main films of such are Il Bidone, that can be translated to English as The Swindlers, and I Vitelloni. The former film is not even a good one. But I Vitelloni is both a masterpiece and related to 81/2. His film I Vitelloni shows a bunch of people that refuse to grow in a small city. Probably. this city is made after the city Fellini was born in, called Rimini. And at least in part this film is based on his life. This is a comedy drama about silly young men and their childish behavior. Its a sad comedy (albeit without death) which may be labeled comedy Italian style. I Vitelloni does not have the strange Felliniesque people and images. It does not have odd characters. The camera here is static like saying, in this place, dreams can not be achieved. Life is like the camera: static. But at least the male try and dont accept passively with a smile their failures. The film has marriage and infidelity. Infidelity is part of not growing up. The place is described as provincial and small compared to the big city Rome. Fellini loved children and his cinema is based on his childhood. And on the theory of the enemy of Frued, Carl Jung (he did not like Frued). Vitelloni 16

17 means large young calves. Again, this term was introduced to day to day Italian language. A character called Moraldo, is the serious one in the film that does not participate in the pranks. He looks. He watches the others doing their things. In 8 1/2, Fellini alter ego is a cinema director. It would not be hard to guess that 81/2 was close to Fellini s heart. An important detail is that the the director is called Guido, He also has issues with growing up. Is too fixated on his childhood. Is obsessive. Sleeps around which for Fellini is a symbol of not growing up. But this male is weak and passive. Guido has a writer block and can not even start the movie he is trying to do. Like those passive women in La Strada and The nights of Cabiria. Worse, everybody wants him to make decisions all the time and he cant. I Vitelloni, is a hint to the future. Moraldo, gets into the conclusion that there is no future in this town. Like Fellini that left Rimini to Rome, Moraldo leaves this small town to Rome. When he goes to the station Moraldo meets a small boy. The name of this boy is Guido. Like the name of the director in 81/2. The boy he is walking down the train tracks. The child seems happy. Moraldo asks Are you happy?. Guido answers: Why not? Children are simple. They do not have yet a complicated persona that can make them miserable. Of course he is happy. He is a child. Does not yet has to grow up yet. No wonder that the old Guido is very unhappy at the start of this film. He has to reconnect the Guido the child. 81/2 starts with a mental breakdown of Guido almost ends with his death. He is saved only in the last moment. It was claimed that Fellini indeed had a nervous breakdown, and did the film after that, but versions vary. His film 81/2 is a combination of his women films and his male films. And a summary of all his cinema till then, and more or less end the big theory that he had. After that he made more specific films. In The film sails on he mourns the death of classic Europe. He likes clouds, so did a film about them. But this was before he solved his problem, in a quite long process in 81/2. Jung: said, that in order to solve your psychological problem, you must solve the relations between you and the women in your life /2: the film Guido is a film director. The film starts like this. Guido is in a car. There are many other cars around but those in the other cars look at him with void faces. He starts ascending to the sky, namely starts dying. He is saved by being drugged with a rope down from the sky. He collapses. He still thinks 17

18 his life has no meaning and his films are phoney. He is basically Marcelo. He is on contract for doing a science fiction movie and those who work with him constantly ask him questions he does not know the answer to. He has a writer s block. He does not want to lie on the screen again. The key scene (this may be lost on the public) is a scene in which a magician is asked to read his mind and it turns out that what is on his mind is the word Anima. The feminine part of the male according to Jung. Women are worshiped in the film of Fellini if they are feminine. In his last film there is a scene that looks like taken from Cinderella. The protagonist finds a shoo and he tries to fit to the unique woman. But it fits all the women. This is how much Fellini liked women. But he was very mysoginic. He likes women if they act like mothers and lovers (a combined thing in the films of Fellini). He detested the feminists. The film goes from reality to day dreaming without any warning. So its hard to watch. Even harder to understand. But still, its a landmark in the history of cinema. A film that is sure to make a divide between critics and directors that adore it, and the general public that was not able to understand anything. In one of his dreams, all of a sudden he helps his father go inside a grave in a very surrealistic scene. Among others he reminisces about his childhood. Many women related to him are there. His wife Luisa is there, his mistress is there. He dreams of a hooker from is childhood. On the beach. Again on the beach. Why the beach all the time? I dont really know. He loved the beach. In Amarcord we have a beautiful scene with a ship, and in The ship sailed on the film happens in the sea. Now I will list all women archetypes according to Jung. Jung is different than Frued. To solve your mental problems you have to solve the relations with the women in your life with all their archetypes. At one scene his wife is transformed into an image of his mother which says a lot about what Fellini thinks a wife is. And then the fantasy woman arrives: Claudia Cardinale playing herself! In the language of Jung, there are the five female archetypes: mother, mistress, hooker and the woman of your dreams. wife, His trouble has to do with his feminine side. He is not connected to his feminine side which means that he cant get to his emotions. Since he is not connected to to his emotions, he cant do good art. Like Bergman said: a good film is a dream. In other words you have to connect to you sub-conscience and find there the truths. The artistic truth that is. A notion completely separated from the real truth. The real truth is so important in the films of Wells Kubrick, Altman and many more. Fellini was one that searched for artistic truth, a completely different thing that is inside him. Such directors tend to improvise, and many times shoot without a scripts (Fellini after 81/2 never had a script). They use 18

19 their intuition to decide on the next scene. Tarkovsky seems to be this kind of director as well. And so is Renoir. While for example Hitchkok is like Wells and Kubrick, the script is super important, in the films of Bergman, Fellini, Renoir Tarkovsky its not the case. So I am talking on a specific kind of cinema. The artistic truth school of Bergman, Fellini, Renoir, Tarkovsky and others. Getting to the unconscious (like in a dream). Those directors improvise a lot. Back to Guido. He is not in touch with his emotions. If there is a block, how can he direct films again? The other side of the brain, the logical side, makes him doubt. Judges him. Undercut his feminine side, the side of the brain that is in charge of intuition. The logical side is very judgmental. In the Seventh Seal Bergman makes death a person. In 81/2 Fellini makes his superego (the part in you that tells you what is not allowed) a person. We see only one scene from the film he wants to make. The science fiction film. A scene he imagines in the film is when a nun brings the hero water. They the nun is changed into Claudia Cardinale (that plays herself) representing the woman of his dreams. The man playing his superego tells him: the scene with the water glass is no good! In his dreams and fantasies about this scene with the water she wears all white. But when Claudia shows up in person, she is wearing all black! Guido rides with Claudia Cardinale that turns to be a very smart woman (what a nice gesture by Fellini!) and they talk about the film. Claudia: I don t understand. He meets a girl that can give him a new life and he pushes her away? (She talks on her character that gives him water). Guido: Because he no longer believes in it. (Still doubting himself). Claudia: Because he doesn t know how to love. Guido: Because it isn t true that a woman can change a man. (Still worrying on things like truth and being realistic from psychological perspective which has nothing to do with art. Still worried about logic). Claudia: Because he doesn t know how to love. Guido: And above all because I don t feel like telling another pile of lies. (Still the superego tells him that his film is not rational and does not make sense). Claudia: Because he doesn t know how to love. Guido: Could you walk out on everything and start all over again? Could you choose one single thing, and be faithful to it? Could you make it the one thing that gives your life meaning... just because you believe in it? Could you do that? The life has no meaning from La Dolce Vita is still the state of mind of Guido, toward the end of 81/2. What would save him? 19

20 Claudia: I don t know... could you? Guido: No, the character I m thinking of couldn t. He wants to possess and devour everything. He can t pass anything up. He s afraid he ll miss something. He s drained. (He fears again. He is totally tired because of the doubts that consume him). Claudia: That s how the film ends? Guido: No, that s how it begins. Then he meets a girl at the springs. She gives him water to heal him. She s beautiful... young, yet ancient... child, yet already a woman... authentic, complete. It s obvious that she could be his salvation. You ll wear white... with long hair, just as you do now. (She is actually wearing black he is talking about the her hair. Her hair in the film will be like now in the car). Then he admits to Claudia that there is no film. There is a hugely high tower which is a phallic symbol that they tear it apart. This is a step in the right way of getting attached to the female side of his. He says there is no film but there is one: 81/2. A film on doubts. He is very ironic here. In summary: Guido thinks too much and does not feel, and has a strong superego. He does not know how to just love without the fear of pain that love brings. If he could love, the film will play itself. Such a confession is a bit rare in cinema. Everything said here is on the way Fellini was feeling at the time. He allowed us to reach his innermost thoughts and emotions. To confess. Quite brave. Because he also says that the films before this one were not totally honest. At the end he understand that truth in art means something else altogether then truth in life. Truth in art is what FEELS right. Who cares if its reasonable from a psychological perspective? He does not need a superego human or not. Then he decides to go by intuition and to finally get attached to his feminine side. Remove his superego. Guido refuses to be afraid anymore. So his films will be is illogical. So what? He leaves logic altogether. Stops caring about this. He will improvise and do what FEELS right at any moment. Symbolically, he gives up on his logic via a very violent act. A press conference takes place and Guido does not know what to answer. Guido goes below a table and shoot himself symbolically in the logic side of the brain. This is the moment he is saved because logic is gone. Both Fellini and Bergman insist that things like truth and logic as in life are the enemy of the artistic truth. From now on, all the films of Fellini are based on intuitions and momentary feelings and improvisations. He shoots them (all his films after 81/2) without scripts, and just films what he feels at the moment. Marcelo Mastroianni said that he did not know what 81/2 is about. Fellini never explained. He saw the film like everybody else. In cinema. And this is a hard to understand movie. His decision to give up on the logic and doubts 20

21 near the end of 81/2 solved his problems and changed his style. Actually, he became a different director, even more intuitive than before after 81/2. Its very honest as the questions raised on the screen are questions he really struggled with. On the other hand, I think the films after 81/2 really suffered from his refusal to work with a script and from all the improvisations. 5.3 Ending All the characters of the film come together. Those who he dreamed and those that he met. Everybody. Guido says: life is a celebration. Inspired by a childhood love of the circus, makes them all dance in a circle with some of the most beautiful music I ever heard. The film ends without a superego and without fear in one great song and dance of celebrating love in all of cinema. 6 A later Italian comedy: Cinema Paradiso 6.1 Some of the story The hero of this film, the child Toto recalls me of myself at his age. Probably this is true for many. Many of us looked at cinema as magic when we were children. I found there heroes like Tarzan and cowboys and later my childhood hero, Clint Eastwood. The village with all its colorful characters is similar to the place (Salta) my father was raised in. A small town in Argentina. There are millions of those. With the village idiot; In the case of the film the village idiot claims the square in front of the cinema theater belong to him. Those who spit from above the theater below and all the other pranks. My father told me that they used to do that in Salta. So this seems to be a rather universal film on a universal village. Toto is mentored by a slow minded cinema projector: Don Alfredo. Alfredo teaches him to operate the cinema projector. The celluloid way back then was highly flammable. This will come to haunt Don Alfredo that later says: Modernization comes too late. The name Toto is probably after the famous Italian comedian called Toto. See him for example in the film Big Deal on Madonna Street in which he has a minor role. In the cinema theater in the movie called Cinema Paradiso (Paradise cinema) they show movies of Toto very often, only that I cant recognize any of these films. He was the Buster Keaton of Italy because like him, he did not smile much. If I was Italian I would have probably recognized this short scenes. I always admired Italian actors and in particular Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi. The last two appeared 21