Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953) is a mildly black comedy that might be described as belonging to the "failing to come-of-age" genre. For Fellini himself, however, it marked his coming-of-age as an international personage and one of the great directors.

Historical Background: Despite Fellini's frequent use of autobiographical snippets in his film, the actual facts of his early life remain largely shrouded in mystery. He was born in Rimini, Italy in 1920 and once ran away from a boarding school to follow a traveling circus (no doubt part of the reason that circus and carnival segments appear in so many of his films). He spent time in a succession of religious schools, which were very little to his liking. During his last year in high school, Fellini became something of the kind of idle dropout that he later so ably depicted in I Vitelloni. Like the character Moraldo, he made his escape from his provincial roots, traveling to Florence and then Rome, at age eighteen.

After gaining experience in the late forties as a screenwriter and assistant director, Fellini got his first shot at directing with Variety Lights (1951), which was poorly received. His second film, The White Sheik (1952), a satirical farce about the world of comic books, was another failure at the box-office. Fellini well understood that another disastrous venture might be his last, but, undaunted, he set about making I Vitelloni (1953) and crafted a huge success that would secure his popularity in Italy, as well as international recognition (it took the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival). I Vitelloni paved the way for the financial backing that would carry Fellini through a run of a dozen golden years, during which time he would make most of the masterpieces for which he is esteemed today, including La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957),La Dolce Vita (1960), 8 ½ (1963), and Juliet of the Spirits (1965). Amarcord (1974), another acknowledged masterpiece, came later. I Vitelloni and Amarcord are both semi-autobiographical recollections of Fellini's early years in Rimini, thus making fitting bookends for his most productive years.

I Vitelloni was made just a year before La Strada and the two hit the American art-house circuit about the same time in 1956. Together, they established Fellini as the leading name in Italian cinema for American audiences and revealed the emergence of Fellini's unique cinematic style. I Vitelloni was still fully steeped in the conventions of neo-realism (anything less would have been fatal to the film's success in 1953), but Fellini also unveiled the first signs of a new style that would soon become known as "Fellinesque." The leftist Italian critics, who were fully wedded to the social commentary of neo-realism, embraced the neo-realistic elements of I Vitelloni, but were dumbfounded by what was new in the film. For Fellini, I Vitelloni represented the point of departure in his career, much like Moraldo's departure at the film's conclusion. A year later, La Strada became the first substantially “Felliniesque” film by abandoning the constraints of neorealism in favor of more universally human and spiritual themes. Naturally, Fellini was accused of betraying the leftist cause. It made no difference, however, because La Strada won the Academy Award in 1956 for Best Foreign Film and secured Fellini's international reputation.

Martin Scorsese named I Vitelloni as the inspiration for his film Mean Streets (1973), but the influence of I Vitelloni can also be seen in such films as American Graffiti (1973), The Last Picture Show (1971), and Diner (1982) – virtually anytime films center on a group of young men or women hanging out idly.

The Story: The story concerns a group of five young men, 20-30 years of age, who lay about in the small provincial town of Rimini, drinking, carousing, trolling for women, or talking about the women that they dream about. The film's title, "Vitelloni," means literally "overgrown calves" and fits these men to a tee. They're all single, unemployed, and still live with their mammas. They're just about content enough to get by from one day to the next. They don't so much have dreams or ambitions as excuses and fantasies of bright futures that might materialize miraculously. In the meantime, they grasp at any pleasure that's available. Their parents dutifully struggle at supporting extended families, but derive precious little satisfaction from life.

The leader and role model of the group is Fausto (Franco Fabrizi). He gets the most screen time and is revealed as a deceitful and chronic womanizer. He impregnates Sandra (Leonora Ruffo), the sister of one of his pals, Moraldo. When the symptoms of early pregnancy cause her to faint shortly after winning the town's "Miss Mermaid" beauty pageant, Fausto's first thought is to get out of town as quickly as possible, but his father (Jean Brochard) forces him to do the honorable thing and marry the girl. The wedding ring, however, proves no barrier to his continuing preoccupation with chasing skirts. He's even enough of a cad to try to seduce a married woman sitting next to him at the movie theater while his pregnant wife sits beside him on the other side. Fausto is forced into taking a job as a clerk in an antique shop, but is soon hitting on his boss's wife. When he's fired, he steals a statue of an angel and then tries to peddle it unsuccessfully at a convent and a monastery. The guy really has no shame! Fausto does show just a hint of human decency when he experiences genuine concern for his wife's safety after she disappears following one of his nights of philandering. Fausto takes a well-deserved belt beating from his father (Jean Brochard), at one point in the film, and the scene reportedly garnered enthusiastic cheers from the Italian audiences on a regular basis.

Then there's Alberto (Alberto Sordi), a foppish clown, who dresses up like a woman for the town's carnival and who enjoys showing off. His only serious concerns in life are the possibility that his sister, Olga (Claude Farell), might run off with the married man she's seeing and cause his dear mamma to cry. He wheedles 500-lira out of Olga, who actually works for a living, to spend on the horses. Albert gets drunk at the carnival and staggers home to the accompaniment of incessant trumpet riffs, just in time to see Olga making her getaway with her lover. Later, Albert callously gives a bunch of road workers the "up yours" gesture as he and two of his buddies are out riding in a car. When the vehicle suddenly breaks down a hundred yards down the highway, Albert and the driver make a run for it and the poor guy sleeping in the back of the car, Leonardo, gets his butt kicked by the construction workers.

Riccardo (played by Fellini's brother, Riccardo Fellini), gets little screen time or development. All we really learn about him is that he's a tenor who dreams of performing in an opera house but will probably never get beyond singing at the local festivals. Then there's Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) who fancies himself a playwright, but who lacks the discipline for serious work. He has his eye on the neighbor's maid. He thinks that his big opportunity is at hand when a famous, old, and corpulent actor, Sergio Natali (Achille Majeroni) agrees to read one of his plays and invites him to his dressing room. Natali joins Leopoldo and his friends at a pub, but when the others become distracted by a group of actresses, Natali invites Leopoldo to walk with him down to the beach, where the homosexual actor has in mind deflowering his naïve admirer. Leopoldo realizes at the last minute that the big opportunity at hand was not exactly what he had anticipated.

The fifth of the men, Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), is Fellini's stand-in and the moral focus for the film. He's more introverted than the others and an observant creature. After he is drawn into helping Fausto steal the angel statue, he gradually becomes increasingly disgusted with his brother-in-law, especially after observing him repeatedly cheat on his sister, Sandra. Moraldo is the one of the group who has to help the drunken Alfredo home and cover-up for Fausto's infidelities, to keep Sandra placated. Moraldo is also the only one of the five for whom we can hold out any hope. His quiet exit from Rimini, at the film's conclusion, provides a fitting stand-in for Fellini's own escape from provincialism to pursue his artistic aspirations. Fellini himself actually intoned the final farewell spoken by Moraldo as the train pulls away. Moraldo's moral awakening is linked to his conversations with a fourteen year-old boy who works at the train station and it is appropriate that the boy should be there to see him off.

Themes: I Vitelloni is a scathing attack on the indolence and the lack of imagination that permitted too many Italian men of the postwar generation to settle for a life of dissolution. The message is delivered mainly via Moraldo's growing perception that his brother-in-law is not a good role model and that life in the hick town of Rimini would offer little opportunity to test one's potential. We can almost hear Fellini breathing a sigh of relief when he relives his own escape from boredom via Moraldo's departure. Fellini would later say, "For a young man in Rimini, life was inert, provincial, opaque, dull, without cultural stimulation of any kind. Every night was the same night." Life in Rimini consisted of little more than trying not to make mamma cry.

Production Values: Fellini gives us some of his patented weird characters, here, in the form of these perpetually preening young lay-abouts. The films loaded up with the kind of observational details characteristic of neo-realism. We watch, for example, a cloudburst interrupting a beauty pageant, dinner rituals, and a wedding ceremony. Then there're all the grimy faces and dwellings of the Italian lower class. At the same time, we see the beginnings of the elements that would become hallmarks of Fellini's style in the near future. The carnival scene can be easily seen as a harbinger to the many circuses, carnivals, and parades that would occur in his future films. We can also see the first of the gargoyle-type masks and faces that Fellini loved to build into his work. Fellini introduces a dream-like element for the first time, when the young men stare wistfully out over the ocean from a dock, and an early fantastical moment, when a simpleton fondles the purloined angel statue. It's the same statue, in a sense, that becomes the giant Christ flying over the city of Rome in La Dolce Vita. For the first time, we also find Fellini incorporating biographical snippets, as he would do so repeatedly in future films. I Vitelloni represents Fellini's first tentative experiment with finding his own unique voice.

Fellini's camerawork is not quite so masterful in this film as it would later become. Some scenes are a bit more static than what one could expect later on. The beautifully composed black-and-white photography is restored to pristine condition by Criterion for its DVD release. Nino Rota provided an outstanding score.

Franco Fabrizi's performance as Fausto almost qualifies as an Elvis impersonation. He had the look down as well as some of the preening gestures. He later appeared in The Swindle (1955). Franco Interlenghi's low key performance as Moraldo is suitably affecting. He had already worked for De Sica in Shoeshine (1946). Fellini's loyalty to his performers was much in evidence in his insistence that Alberto Sordi play one of the five vitelloni. Sordi was not very popular, at the time, with the Italian audiences and was one of the chief reasons for the box-office failure of The White Sheik (1952), Fellini's previous film. Sordi redeemed himself nicely with a fine turn in the comic role of Alfredo. Leopoldo Trieste was another holdover from The White Sheik and later worked in Divorce, Italian Style (1962), Don't Look Now (1973), and Cinema Paradiso (1988). Jean Brochard provided some excellent comic work as Fausto's father and later worked in Diabolique (1955).

Bottom-Line: The extras on the Criterion DVD version of this film include a fascinating thirty minute interview with Leopoldo Trieste, Franco Interlenghi, Moraldo Rossi, Tullio Kezich, Vincenzo Mollica, and Vittorio Boarini. There's no commentary tract, but the film trailer is included along with gallery stills. There's a handsome ten-page booklet featuring an essay by Tom Piazza.

It took me a while to warm to this film, but I was fully won over after the first third or so. My initial reservation had to do with the fact that the five men are exactly the kind of frat rats that I've spent much of my lifetime trying to avoid – the party animals, cads, and ne'er-do-wells. I was starting to fear that I'd have the same problem with this film that I have with La Dolce Vita – the lack of any character that I find remotely appealing. These just weren't the kind of guys that I wanted to be like or to hang with, at any stage in my life. Apparently the intelligentsia of Italy had a similar kind of reservation and never warmed to the film, but the masses loved it, recognizing in the characters their own friends and townspeople. I can't say that I grew to like the group of five friends (except Moraldo), but Fellini makes them so interesting that you can't help enjoying their peculiarities and foibles. I'd rank I Vitelloni as my fifth favorite Fellini film, after 8 ½ (1963), Amarcord (1974), and La Strada (1954), and Nights of Cabiria (1957), but ahead of Juliet of the Spirits (1965) and La Dolce Vita (1960). That's high praise indeed.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12