Federico Fellini

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yoloswegmaster
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Re: Federico Fellini

#176 Post by yoloswegmaster » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:02 pm

The transfer for La Dolce Vita is already great.

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tenia
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Re: Federico Fellini

#177 Post by tenia » Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:59 am

It can be improved upon without any doubt. It's an ageing 2012 restoration. It reminds me of older DataCine scans but since it was actually performed on an Arriscan, it probably just has high-frequencies filtered out. Not to say it's bad, but I wouldn't score it higher than 8 out of 10.

8 1/2 however has 2 HD masters : one from Criterion and one from Gaumont, but both have weaknesses (though I'd favor the Gaumont one).

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#178 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:03 pm

Happy birthday, Maestro! 100 years ago today!

Where's that damn box set? Or at least the several blu-ray upgrades we need? I would love a good blu-ray of Intervista, for one example.

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#179 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:47 pm

Incidentally, the version of Juliet of the Spirits that's on the Criterion Channel is a restoration by Cinema Forever. I think this has been released on blu-ray elsewhere in the world. It looks great.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Federico Fellini

#180 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:11 pm

OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:03 pm
Happy birthday, Maestro! 100 years ago today!

Where's that damn box set? Or at least the several blu-ray upgrades we need? I would love a good blu-ray of Intervista, for one example.
You’ll get it soon enough. Would expect it to be announced tomorrow. It wasn’t going to be announced today because it’s a holiday and the Bergman was announced on a business day around his centennial birthday

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#181 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Wed Jun 15, 2022 5:19 pm

If you were programming a mini-retrospective of Fellini, and it came down to choosing between La Strada or Nights of Cabiria for one of the films, which would you choose, and why? My feeling is that La Strada has over the years become the more well known film, and would be a better draw. Am I wrong?

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hearthesilence
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Re: Federico Fellini

#182 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jun 15, 2022 5:39 pm

OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Wed Jun 15, 2022 5:19 pm
If you were programming a mini-retrospective of Fellini, and it came down to choosing between La Strada or Nights of Cabiria for one of the films, which would you choose, and why? My feeling is that La Strada has over the years become the more well known film, and would be a better draw. Am I wrong?
I would agree, La Strada is better-known and likely to be a better draw...but Nights of Cabiria is the better film and it may still draw a good crowd. A 35mm print opened a Rialto retrospective at MoMI several years ago and it sold out of its screening in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater (i.e. the bigger theater).

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Dylan
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Re: Federico Fellini

#183 Post by Dylan » Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:01 pm

That's a tough one, with both of those being Fellini's most successful and best-known works pre-La Dolce Vita. While I truly love both films, my impression over many years of being a Fellini fan is that Nights of Cabiria seems to be more beloved. I personally prefer La Strada, though not by much.

What other films would you be showing La Strada or Nights of Cabiria with? That might influence my overall decision making if I had to choose only one to be part of a restrospective.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Federico Fellini

#184 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:54 pm

For me, while both are great films I feel that after time Nights of Cabiria is the better film. One reason, if you're looking to highlight Giulietta Masina Nights of Cabiria is her great work. The film is all her. She is brilliant. Nights also foreshadows where Fellini is going in the 60's. So I vote for Nights of Cabiria but you can't go wrong if you program La Strada instead

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Federico Fellini

#185 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 15, 2022 7:37 pm

I doubt I'm the first to have this thought, but Nights of Cabiria and Juliet of the Spirits would be a very interesting double feature exploring Giulietta Masina's psychological relationship to reality through cinema. The first film touches on her naivete and ultimately demonstrates the tragedy of that quality's recurrent outcomes when ignored whilst simultaneously championing that trait's ability to rebound from pain resiliently in the final sequence. The way the entire composite digests following the end's more charitable exhibition transcends pity, and reveals that it's not actually a simplistic 'naivete' but a willingness to see the good in the world that both fatalistically destroys her (by its inverse we are primed to witness first- an unwillingness to see the bad, which also persists) and is her greatest asset in making life worth living. The denouement, in addition to the rest of the picture, is wholly set in realism though- with Masina able to look up from the emotional quicksand of her defeatist agony into the peripheries of sublime occurring around her with the parade. Juliet of the Spirits also deals with Masina's delusions propagated by her unwillingness to see the 'bad' in her husband's infidelities and banal existence, but sublimates her rebellion from her complacent lifestyle with a willingness to see the sublime in peripheries, only in a fantastical space rather than a real one.

While the latter film is more entertaining, lighter, extravagant, and superior (though both are near-perfect), there's an argument to be made that its central conceit is sadder- for Masina has 'matured' in age but her existential inertia and emotional vacuum decided by fear have stunted a perceived ability to engage with the real world, at least until the end (which I read as incredibly optimistic). Regardless of how you read the endings of the two works across a spectrum of heartening to devastating, in relation to their respective accompanying bodies, the films present a Sisyphean fluidity of nonlinear progression between an individual and their literal and imaginative social, psychological, and spiritual schemas, which aligns broadly with so much of Fellini's own ethos regarding our journeys through life, populated with euphoria and crises and everything within that canyon, but wise enough to know neither the peaks nor valleys indicate a fixed cap to character growth or consciousness, even if other deterministic factors may exist to influence these variables- never as more tragic than La Dolce Vita

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#186 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:40 pm

Dylan wrote:
Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:01 pm
That's a tough one, with both of those being Fellini's most successful and best-known works pre-La Dolce Vita. While I truly love both films, my impression over many years of being a Fellini fan is that Nights of Cabiria seems to be more beloved. I personally prefer La Strada, though not by much.

What other films would you be showing La Strada or Nights of Cabiria with? That might influence my overall decision making if I had to choose only one to be part of a restrospective.
This theater is dipping it's toe into revival screenings. The person who actually does the programming asked my advice. At the moment, the format is one director each month, one film a week.

So, you can see the difficulty of having to reduce someone as brilliant as Fellini to just four films. Right now it's these four:

8 1/2
La Dolce Vita
Amarcord
La Strada

I advised La Strada, not only because I love it, but I think that perhaps it's better remembered. But, I told the programmer to ask around and get other people's opinions, and that's what I'm asking you guys. One thing: La Strada is the only upgraded film from the Fellini box that got a standalone release so far, whereas the Nights of Cabiria DVD is out of print. Criterion must have had some reasoning behind that decision.

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#187 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:45 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Jun 15, 2022 7:37 pm
I doubt I'm the first to have this thought, but Nights of Cabiria and Juliet of the Spirits would be a very interesting double feature exploring Giulietta Masina's psychological relationship to reality through cinema. The first film touches on her naivete and ultimately demonstrates the tragedy of that quality's recurrent outcomes when ignored whilst simultaneously championing that trait's ability to rebound from pain resiliently in the final sequence. The way the entire composite digests following the end's more charitable exhibition transcends pity, and reveals that it's not actually a simplistic 'naivete' but a willingness to see the good in the world that both fatalistically destroys her (by its inverse we are primed to witness first- an unwillingness to see the bad, which also persists) and is her greatest asset in making life worth living. The denouement, in addition to the rest of the picture, is wholly set in realism though- with Masina able to look up from the emotional quicksand of her defeatist agony into the peripheries of sublime occurring around her with the parade. Juliet of the Spirits also deals with Masina's delusions propagated by her unwillingness to see the 'bad' in her husband's infidelities and banal existence, but sublimates her rebellion from her complacent lifestyle with a willingness to see the sublime in peripheries, only in a fantastical space rather than a real one.

While the latter film is more entertaining, lighter, extravagant, and superior (though both are near-perfect), there's an argument to be made that its central conceit is sadder- for Masina has 'matured' in age but her existential inertia and emotional vacuum decided by fear have stunted a perceived ability to engage with the real world, at least until the end (which I read as incredibly optimistic). Regardless of how you read the endings of the two works across a spectrum of heartening to devastating, in relation to their respective accompanying bodies, the films present a Sisyphean fluidity of nonlinear progression between an individual and their literal and imaginative social, psychological, and spiritual schemas, which aligns broadly with so much of Fellini's own ethos regarding our journeys through life, populated with euphoria and crises and everything within that canyon, but wise enough to know neither the peaks nor valleys indicate a fixed cap to character growth or consciousness, even if other deterministic factors may exist to influence these variables- never as more tragic than La Dolce Vita
That's a great idea, but there isn't any budget for double features at this point. I'd love to do La Strada along with I Clowns, for example. Hell, I'd like to do his entire filmography, but this theater is trying to transition to more revival screenings, and it's taking small steps at this point. Poco a poco.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Federico Fellini

#188 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:57 pm

For what it's worth, if I was going to see one Fellini film in a theatre it would be Juliet of the Spirits, hands down. And I should mention that I represent everyone

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swo17
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Re: Federico Fellini

#189 Post by swo17 » Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:23 pm

I second replacing Amarcord with Juliet of the Spirits. But I would also pick La strada

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hearthesilence
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Re: Federico Fellini

#190 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jun 15, 2022 11:53 pm

It's not my favorite Fellini film but I would prefer Amarcord over Juliet of the Spirits (and Roma over both, though it's probably a less popular film). I think the four you named are probably the most popular ones, but for my own tastes, I'd be more interested in The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, Nights of Cabiria and 8 1/2. I think those are his four best, but as a programmer, you'd need to pick at least one of his color films for sure.

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Dylan
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Re: Federico Fellini

#191 Post by Dylan » Thu Jun 16, 2022 12:09 am

My impression has always been that Juliet of the Spirits is one of Fellini's more divisive films. I have met people who consider themselves fans of his but have never been able to sit through it. I would leave it out of a small retrospective simply because it generally doesn't seem to get as good of a response as many of his others do (I think it's one of the greatest films ever made - probably a personal top 20 film - but that's me). Considering that, I would go with Amarcord instead. It was an extremely popular and beloved film when it was first released and for many people of a certain age, including my father, it was thee Fellini film. Also, by including a 1970s film, the small retrospective can cover three decades of Fellini films, rather than ending with 1965.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Federico Fellini

#192 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jun 16, 2022 12:17 am

That may be true, but when you're in a theatre and focused entirely on the giant magic machine in the sky rather than at home with distractions around, I think more people will be willing to get swept up in its fantastical eye candy. I was one of those people who struggled with it back when there was only a mediocre DVD presentation and I had outlets to disengage from a less grounded narrative structure

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Black Hat
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Re: Federico Fellini

#193 Post by Black Hat » Thu Jun 16, 2022 2:27 am

Satyricon, bar none, is the Fellini best seen in a theater. If only to experience the "what the fuck is happening" energy from the audience. In second place would be Roma. It's an entirely different, and much better, big-screen movie.

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#194 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:51 am

All of these are great comments. Like I said, if I could re-arrange reality, it would be a Fellini festival that included everything down to the Dior and rigatoni commercials.

But the concern at this point has to be getting butts in seats. You have to consider popularity. Look at TCM's Big Screen Classics program. They have that catalog, and you get Smokey and the Bandit? There always has to be consideration of what will get people to attend. The ones I recommended are all Oscar winners, except La Strada, which was nominated. And although Nights of Cabiria is one of Fellini's very best, and won Best Foreign Language film, it has been neglected. The only way to get it on blu-ray is to buy the Criterion box set. Even the DVD is out of print. Hence, my impression that La Strada is better remembered.

These are all considerations that do not at all make any judgement on which film is 'better.'

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Re: Federico Fellini

#195 Post by yoshimori » Thu Jun 16, 2022 2:11 pm

Black Hat wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 2:27 am
Satyricon, bar none, is the Fellini best seen in a theater. If only to experience the "what the fuck is happening" energy from the audience.
Yep. Satyricon. Petronius is the UrFellini.

patreig
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Re: Federico Fellini

#196 Post by patreig » Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:32 am

OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:51 am
And although Nights of Cabiria is one of Fellini's very best, and won Best Foreign Language film, it has been neglected. The only way to get it on blu-ray is to buy the Criterion box set. Even the DVD is out of print.
There is a nice Blu-ray from Studio Canal available in Europe.

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OldBobbyPeru
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Re: Federico Fellini

#197 Post by OldBobbyPeru » Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:08 pm

patreig wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:32 am
OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:51 am
And although Nights of Cabiria is one of Fellini's very best, and won Best Foreign Language film, it has been neglected. The only way to get it on blu-ray is to buy the Criterion box set. Even the DVD is out of print.
There is a nice Blu-ray from Studio Canal available in Europe.
I have the Fellini box set. My point is that Criterion chose La Strada to release as a stand alone before Nights of Cabiria. They must have had some reasoning behind that. Again, I'm not saying one is better, they're both masterpieces, the question is which of the two is a bigger draw now, in 2022.

aurevoir
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Re: Federico Fellini

#198 Post by aurevoir » Fri Jun 17, 2022 8:08 pm

OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:08 pm
I have the Fellini box set. My point is that Criterion chose La Strada to release as a stand alone before Nights of Cabiria. They must have had some reasoning behind that. Again, I'm not saying one is better, they're both masterpieces, the question is which of the two is a bigger draw now, in 2022.
It might depend on who your audience is, but I don't think either is vastly more popular than the other.

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Black Hat
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Re: Federico Fellini

#199 Post by Black Hat » Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:37 am

OldBobbyPeru wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:08 pm
I have the Fellini box set. My point is that Criterion chose La Strada to release as a stand alone before Nights of Cabiria. They must have had some reasoning behind that.
Anthony Quinn.

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