1953 - Italy
Director
Federico Fellini
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This film suffered a bit from my expectations — hate it when that happens, though it’s almost unavoidable. On the one hand, though it’s a hopeless comparison, the plot reminded me of my absolute favorite novel, Woolf’s The Waves: childhood friends at a turning point in their lives, set against the backdrop of a coastal town… On the surface they’re similar, but I say hopeless because there’s no way any real technical or thematic overlap would occur between a conventional neorealist film and a radical modernist prose-poem. And at the same time, I wanted this movie to resonate deeply with my own life: as I am a young person at a turning point in my life, stuck in my habits with no real ambition or edge, aimlessly flailing about and constantly plotting escape.
And I know if I’d approached the film as exactly what I knew it would be (a conventional neorealist early Fellini) I would have appreciated it on its own terms. On the whole it is a well-constructed narrative full of compelling characters — and it’s light-hearted and full of life. I should know better: based on my recent cinematic loves and choices, I should be watching wild, broad Fellini, not this. I’d need a month-long immersion in neorealism to remember how to properly relate to it. I’m still rating this highly: it’s an exquisite film. Just another that came at a slightly wrong moment…
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 Lauren, 25, out-of-work librarian. At the moment, TLC is but a review blog and catalogue of my film-related perversions. I always plan to do more with it — and to one day step outside 30s Hollywood again. Who knows?
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» Rachel Getting Married 2008, Jonathan Demme
» Elegy 2008, Isabel Coixet
» Jeopardy 1953, John Sturges
» 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her 1967, Jean-Luc Godard
» Appaloosa 2008, Ed Harris
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» Duel in the Sun 1946, King Vidor
» Dragonwyck 1946, Joseph L Mankiewicz
» The Spiral Staircase 1945, Robert Siodmak
» The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934, Alfred Hitchcock
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