Tag Archive: Fellini


SORRENTINO’S YOUTH

Filed under: Gender, Health and fitness, Italy, Movies, Music, Photography — Leave a comment
May 24, 2015

YOUTH directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy, 2015)

1youth3“Youth is wasted on the young”, quipped Oscar Wilde, or was is George Bernard Shaw?

Whoever made this observation, knew something of the poignancy and sadness of growing old.

All Paolo Sorrentino’s films to date have featured elderly characters struggling to come to terms with the realisation that the best years of their lives are almost certainly behind them. Youth , despite its title, is no exception.Paradoxically, it is more about facing up to the inevitability of dying than the carefree pleasures of our ‘salad days’.

At its heart is the friendship between a retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) a film director who believes that he still has at least one great film in him. Continue reading →

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MARK COUSINS AND SCENE BY SCENE

Filed under: Books, Movies, Television — 1 Comment
August 7, 2013
Mark Cousins
scenebyscene

In previous posts I have praised Mark Cousins’ epic  ‘Story of Film’ – both the book and the Channel 4 TV series.

Cousins has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and the gift of articulating his enthusiasm for movies.

This talent is also evident in interviews he conducted for the BBC Scotland between 1999 and 2001 in a series called Scene By Scene.

The idea, which originated at the Edinburgh Film Festival  through an interview with Sean Connery, was a simple one. Top directors and actors were shown clips from films they had made or appeared in and talk about the background to them.

Cousins is from Ulster and his Irish accent is often confused for Scots. From comments on various forums, it’s obvious that his speaking voice irritates the hell out of many. Personally, I find the sing-song quality charming but whatever you may think about how he talks, it’s hard to criticise him for the passion and preparation he puts into his work.

Television is so full of shallow chat shows or banal documentaries that tell you nothing, that it’s a pleasure to find someone who doesn’t insult or patronise the audience.

Continue reading →
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WHY FREEDOM IN ITALY IS BAR-SHAPED

Filed under: Health and fitness, Italy — Leave a comment
June 8, 2013

Man is born free and everywhere he is drinking coffee in chains like Starbucks and Costa.

With a checkered history of philistine and fascist leaders, Italy may struggle to convince you that it is the land of liberty; but when it comes to the aesthetics of caffeine and cake consumption, it is a country where an independent spirit still reigns supreme.

Here, the high streets are not dominated by the standardised coffee shop brands but has bars with an identity as individual as the people who run them. They are emblems of emancipation in a sea of uniformity.

The best pride themselves on an attention to detail that is truly heartwarming in these drab times.

The bearded utopian, William Morris, once wrote that you should “have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. The finest Italian bars transfer this philosophy out of the domestic setting with a confident choice of furnishing, decor and lighting which effortlessly manages to marry functionality with  elegance.

The economy may be in free fall, but there is something consoling in the thought that these coffee bars will be the last to hit the ground. Continue reading →

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FELLINI’S CITY OF WOMEN

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April 8, 2011

La Città Delle Donne (City of Women) – a film by Federico Fellini (1980)

Fellini was a randy sod. He was 60 years old when he made this movie but , even without the aid of viagra, there is little sign of a fading libido. Quite the opposite in fact, his fascination with women of all ages, shapes and sizes knows no bounds. Judging by the profusion of big bottoms and ample bosoms on display, the preferred dimensions of his objects of desire are decidedly Rubinesque.

As with Fellini’s other movies, his alter ego is played with suave elegance by Marcello Mastroianni., here playing the part of the 50-something Snàporaz.

For all this character’s sophistication, he is reduced to the level of a guilty schoolboy when confronted by a squadron of amorous and sexually assertive women.

His journey into a mysterious forest and thereafter to a large gathering of liberated females begins after pursuing a voluptuous woman (Bernice Stegers) he encounters on a train.

He is confronted by a libertine’s nightmare of being surrounded by women who proudly declare they need men like fish needs bicycles (“a woman without a man is a pedigree without a thigh” is one of the surreal lines in their theme song). Continue reading →

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La Saraghina rhumba

Filed under: Italy, Movies, Music — Leave a comment
January 16, 2009

I first saw Federico Fellino’s 1963 movie 8½ (otto e mezzo) in London many moons ago but hardly remember it at all.

Watching it again now, the 60s swingingness makes it a bit dated but it still has a style and elegance enhanced by a  lovingly restored DVD version.

The most memorable scene is that of La Saraghina’s rumba to Nino Rota’s music .

The buxom Saraghina (which means ‘sardine’ in Romagnolo dialect) was played by Eddra Gale (b.1921 – d.2001) . She  was originally an opera singer.  Fellini discovered her in Milan, cast her as a prostitute and she was practically never heard of again.

This wonderfully  frenzied, sand kicking, eye rolling scene is how she will always be remembered and it is amazing to behold :

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