Federico Fellini’s early masterpiece I Vitelloni earned the director praise as his first great work after the cold reception of his first film The White Sheik. I Vitelloni tells of a group of friends in Italy that aspire to greatness, and wish to go off and lead rich successful lives. However, their dreams are starkly contrasted by their current lifestyle and beliefs. Not one of them willing to actually do any work, and all in their 30’s, their dreams are but mere fantasies as we learn more about their moral ineptitude and general lack of motivation.
In line with his neo-realist style of filmmaking I Vitelloni takes place exclusively in Italy and follows this poor misguided group of friends as they try their hand at life, and seem to all but fail along the way. Fellini mocks them as they build up their actions to be self-righteous, but as the audience we see that they are nothing more but sad and unwise in their endeavors. Fellini was said to draw upon his own childhood memories in creating this story, along with fellow writers Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The only qualm I had with the film was that it was hard to believe at times that these characters were all 30-year-old men, but acted literally like little boys. A few scenes were outlandish and seemed unrealistic in that sense, but overall it was an interesting movie. This film is meant to be observational and humorous, and it does a good job at showing how life can be for a certain group of people during this time in Italy.
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