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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Fantastic!

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

An early Fellini and a wonderful one at that. While it is not my favourite Fellini(my top 5 being Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord and La Strada), it is one of his best and sadly one of his more neglected works. The film does look gorgeous, with rapid yet fluid cinematography and beautiful scenery. Nino Rota's score brings great pathos to every scene it appears in, the script is funny, tense and moving and while familiar in a way the story is engaging. The character studies are just as impressive, these are distinct characters that you do care for. You don't perhaps quite identify with them in the way you do with the titular characters of La Strada and especially Nights of Cabiria, but they are not as detached as some of Fellini's later films like Casanova or Satyricon(my least favourite Fellini but still has its interest points). Fellini's direction is restrained yet quirky and charming, the complete opposite of self-indulgent or dull like him and some of his later films have been criticised for being. The acting is very good indeed, Franco Fabrizi as Fausto especially is superb. All in all, a wonderful film and one of Fellini's better films while not quite among my absolute favourites from him. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I only watched IV to see Leonora Ruffo again, years ago, without knowing I'd be getting the best of Fellini as a bonus. Now, I'm not an expert, but I disagree with the idea that in IV he paid his dues to Neo-Realism, so he would be taken seriously by the cinema elite. To me, IV is the most surrealistic film he ever did. The melodrama here is just a wrapping. These people are not real, they are only memories; ghostly shadows of past existences living in some kind of Purgatory. All this is happening only in Fellini/Moraldo's subconscious mind. How do I know that? Think Marx. Marx would have scratched his head watching this. Where's the economy here, what kind of activity these people live off?--he would have asked. We see clerks and shopkeepers, but no real economic activity as such going on; no production or exchange of goods. This isn't the real world--he would have concluded. Now, in some Westerns or adventure flicks this economic anchor is given by cattle driving cowboys (Open Range) or by gold prospectors (Treasure of S.M.) but in metaphoric works such as High Noon that element is mostly absent. That is a way of recognizing a subjective theme, the first hint an artist gives that he's not really dealing with physicality but with abstractions. These guys are just projections of Fellini's identity onto the world, even if he probably never acted like a Fausto or an Alberto when young. What IV implies is that he could have acted like any of them; or that he thought he could, or wanted, to act like them. That's something people who interpret dreams say also: when for ex. you dream of courageous Uncle Joe, isn't about him you're really dreaming but about your own courageous side, using UJ as a reference. These guys are simple archetypes which Fellini-Moraldo wanted, feared, expected, to become one day. So, no melodrama here, no tribute to Neo-Realism; this is a Fellini as matured in its surrealism as he ever was. The true nature of these guys as archetypes is further proved by the fact that they may have served as models for characters in later films (and I would add to the list The 70's Show, with Kelso as Fausto; Eric as Moraldo, Fez as clueless Poldo and Hayden as a rather disenchanted Alberto.) Consider too that you don't evoke characters in dreams to make them work as laborers, clerks, but to make them act out your fantasies and fears, etc. Fausto et al may have been slackers, as Moraldo remembers, but even in that case they are brought here as simple references; to expose the lazy, idle, days of his own youth. There's also the kid.For some time I wondered why Fellini would have included the Guido subplot. Then it struck me: the kid is Moraldo himself, the child he leaves behind when he goes away. See how comfortable Guido feels there, wondering why (adult) Moraldo would want to leave--and notice how he manifests himself right when Moraldo sees his sister finally married and his own departure as imminent. That's called decoupling. What gives it away anyway is the camera angle in their first scene, by virtue of which the boy doesn't appear as coming from the distance but instead as descending upon Moraldo, like an angel. And see how warmly they greet each other, as if they had been friends forever. Also, nobody but Moraldo sees or hear him until the end. The train conductor ignores him when closing the door; yet minutes later, with Moraldo gone, another conductor--or the same--strokes his hair. It's obvious: both can't be seen at the same time, as they are different aspects of the same individual.Fellini never ceased to amaze me with his capacity to get masterpiece bits out of the most ordinary things in life--like the incident prone car trip here, for ex. Great acting by all here, you can't really single out any particular performance. And I can't finish without mentioning the deeply nostalgic, beautifully moody, Rota score. The strong accord of the beginning, jump starting the movie, always makes me jump on my seat. 10/10.

There seems to be many 'literal' translations for I Viletoni. The Young (Fatted) Calves a popular one, meaning spoilt young men. For me, though, their swooning and parading, showing off and dis-regard for authority and discipline veers me to that other show-off: the buck.What struck me immediately was the sumptuous photography, set design and even then, Fellini's night-time street scenes are full of lighted magic and intrigue. Only in these sorts of Italian films do you want to step out into the night and join these characters - most other directors portray their nocturnal going-ons as seedy, no-go, dangerous places.The four central characters are exsquitedly well groomed, especially Fausto, the womaniser. For unemployed layabouts (Fausto briefly found work in a religious curio shop) he is one sharp dude, who looked to me strikingly like Richard Burton - and indeed, Sandra, his long suffering wife, as Elizabeth Taylor. I couldn't help comparing the domesticity to the British kitchen sink dramas of the '60s, or even the odd early Bergman. I also felt some of Preston Sturge's influences may have been bestowed on Mr Fellini. I totally see where Marty Scorsese gets his influence from, especially in his Mean Streets. You can almost tick off which character would be which, but being the great man he is, naturally updated it, transferred it and made those night-times daring and dangerous. The scene where they all go by train out into the country and argue as to which bird is in song, reminded me of a similar one in Trainspotting. Of course, the despairing arguments in that one are of a rather more spurious and coarse nature! The Carnival scene is superbly exuberant, full of 'colour' and pizazz. You can almost hear the buzz and crackle and laughter. When Fausto helps his drunk friend home, much to the annoyance of Sandra recalled another Italian tradition - the love of your 'brother' (or friend) over that of any woman, whether she be wife or not. That spills over and continues with Scorsese to this day. The ending too, has the emerging hallmarks of Fellini - thought provoking, complentative, still. But, for me, this isn't Fellini's greatest. More concise and focused than the (often) rambling La Dolce Vita, but where I prefer Scorsese's Taxi Driver over Mean Streets, I yearn for more of a story and unfolding narrative than pure character study, however well done. I enjoy Fellini's allegorical ding-bats and his opening up of the hypocrisies of religious tradition. You don't get those in I Vitelloni.Sharply observed and styled, definitely; ultimately satisfying? Not totally.

It came as a total surprise finding this film on a cable channel recently. Not having seen it in quite a while, we decided to watch it again. ¨I vitelloni¨ is one of Fellini's classics that one can see from time to time and still find new things in it. This was Federico Fellini's third work as a director, although his connection with the Italian cinema went way back, because let's not forget he had a glorious career as a screen writer for the likes of Roberto Rosellini, Pietro Germi and Alberto Lattuada, among others.The reigning style of that era was the neorealism, which is reflected in the way Fellini dealt with the central story. That movement liberated movie directors from filming in a studio, as most of their films were shot on actual locations. Italy at the time was going through a terrible time after their defeat in WWII. Unemployment was rampant, something that is easy to understand in the way ¨I vitelloni¨ got involved in bringing out the problems .We are taken to a small town where a group of five young men try to while away their time since no jobs are available to them. There is Fausto, the handsome man who has impregnated his girlfriend and is bound by honor to marry Sandra. Leopoldo, an aspiring playwright lives in a fantasy world, having fallen in love with the maid from the house next door. Alberto, relies on his sister Giulia, who works in the local newspaper, for pocket money. Finally, Riccardo, appears to be the most grounded member of the gang, goes along for the fun they have being together. Moraldo, who becomes Fausto's brother-in-law, acts as the conscience of these aimless men; he is the only one that has the courage to leave the small town.Fellini collaborated in this film with Tulio Pinelli, a genius in his own right, and Ennio Flaiano, to create a story that was relevant as it depicted the times their country was living. Fellini was blessed in that he worked at the time when he could rely on someone of the caliber of Nino Rota to work on the musical score that serves his picture in unexpected ways. The cinematography was shared by three of Italy's leading cameramen, Carlo Carlini, Otello Martelli and Luciano Trasatti; they captured the town just as probably Fellini wanted it to look.The acting is dominated by Franco Fabrizi who plays Fausto. With his good looks, it's easy to see him as the vain man who wanted to satisfy his desires in whatever way he can. Leopoldo Trieste makes an impression with his 'Poldo, a pathetic figure living with his head in the clouds. Alberto Sordi, who had worked with Fellini in ¨The White Sheik¨, has a small part as Alberto. His scene at the carnival ball when he dresses up as a woman, goes from funny to tragic as he runs into his sister who has decided to run away with her lover. Franco Interlenghi makes the most out of his Moraldo.¨I vitelloni¨ is highly recommended to all fans of the Italian cinema golden years, and specially to Federico Fellini's admirers who will not be disappointed with this minor masterpiece.