Il Maestro: Federico Fellini and the lost magic of cinema
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Apparently the picture was originally poorly received and quickly recut to a shorter time, but reconstructed in the 50s back to 110 minutes—so it's best to make sure to see this version.
One other, even earlier film that has the same lifelike quality for me is ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ by Dziga Vertov, which is not even a fiction film per se but sort of a documentary. Originally a silent film, but now best enjoyed with the soundtrack by Cinematic Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYZ5847FiI
P.S. Wim Wenders said in his quasi-documentary ‘Tokyo-Ga’ about director Yasujiro Ozu, that previously films were about life as it is, as opposed to now that both life and films feel more and more like dreams. That's the impression that I get most from European films from around the 50s and the 60s: French new wave, Fellini, Bergman—even though Fellini constantly swerved into the territory of fantasies. ‘The Rules of the Game’ is also in this company for me.
In comparison, the most famous works of cinema about ancient Rome -- Ben-Hur, Spartacus, I Claudius, and so forth -- are laughably sanitized and similar to our own world, which is the common failing of most historical drama of course. Fellini ditched the convention by, among other things, staying extremely faithful to the original source. The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter is a jolting and bizarre read. A lot of the humor and wordplay, I'm told, is lost in translation.
If you're looking for films full of sex and violence in ancient Rome watch Caligula[1] (starring, appropriately, Malcom McDowell in a role not too different from the one he played in A Clockwork Orange). Unfortunately, apart from the sex and violence this film doesn't have much going for it. But I'd still rate it far higher than Satyricon, except on the visual level, where the latter film has few equals.
Although briefly touched here, he was surrounded by talent that boosted his vision: Giulietta Masina, Nino Rota, and, of course, Mastroianni. 8 1/2 is beyond words; for some reason I still tear up in the "circus ring" finale, but I watch it on YouTube every couple of months (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvrcRSvpI78), it is so sad and yet refreshing in some sense (I had an outfit like that when I was a kid, but it was blue!) Little known fact: Barbara Steele (of Black Sunday fame, this movie plays in the background in a scene in Matrix 2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(1960_film)), who plays a sweet young thing in the movie, was dubbed, because her own voice was not found feminine enough :-)
I also love "La Città Delle Donne", although many find it overdone; unfortunately it was not included in this essential set. The "woman hunter" depicted here is really scared to death of them.
In his The Great Movies Roger Ebert writes:
"Movies do not change, but their viewers do. When I saw La Dolce Vita in 1960, I was an adolescent for whom “the sweet life” represented everything I dreamed of: sin, exotic European glamor, the weary romance of the cynical newspaperman. When I saw it again, around 1970, I was living in a version of Marcello’s world; Chicago’s North Avenue was not the Via Veneto, but at 3 a.m. the denizens were just as colorful, and I was about Marcello’s age.
When I saw the movie around 1980, Marcello was the same age, but I was 10 years older, had stopped drinking, and saw him not as a role model but as a victim, condemned to an endless search for happiness that could never be found, not that way. By 1991, when I analyzed the film a frame at a time at the University of Colorado, Marcello seemed younger still, and while I had once admired and then criticized him, now I pitied and loved him. And when I saw the movie right after Mastroianni died, I thought that Fellini and Marcello had taken a moment of discovery and made it immortal.”
As I also love and pity Marcello when I now watch the film, I must be getting old (Ebert was 49, I'm about that age)! No worries though: now I'm having the joy of introducing them to my son.
I have the same issue with Lubitsch films - Trouble in Paradise's only physical release is a Criterion DVD! Yet, it comes and goes from the Channel.
My feeling about today's mainstream A movies is that the directing is top-notch, the acting is unprecedentedly good on average, the stars are charismatic in the extreme, visuals/set design etc. are better than ever, and scripts are steaming piles of shit.
Anyway, not trying to be rude, seriously--may I learn more about the appeal of Fellini to you? Just feels dated to me, even though I'm a decade older than you. I have literally been trying to like Fellini since I was in college in 1978.
The answer, of course, is distribution. Theaters are beholden to the big budget franchises and streaming deals are hard to come by unless you're playing at one of the big film festivals. Even if you taking a streaming deal, your film can slip under the radar unless someone decides to invest in a marketing budget. A Sun comes to mind: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/consider-this-a-sun-oscar-...
I think tho that the aftermath of covid will shake everything loose finally.
I've also seen a lot of pretty marginal content streaming on Amazon.
I'd be interested to see your list.
We are. You are just not watching them. Indepent cinema is booming. They have never been as many festivals and the quality of what they screen has never been higher.
If you start looking at world cinema it's even more impressive. Nigeria now has the third largest cinema industry in the world.
The issue is not production but distribution. Good movies are made. They are just not marketed. Meanwhile, people are mostly offered American blockbusters which are at an all time low quality wise.
If Fellini had a hand in its making it would be a masterpiece, rather than an excuse for an upcoming money grabbing sequel.