Tag Archive: saraghina


NINE! NEIN! NEIN!

You know of course - zees eez madness Daniel!!!

There is a rumour (started here and now by me) that when the star-studded cast were shown the rushes to Rob Marshall’s ‘Nine’ they campaigned vigorously for the title to be changed to NEIN!

For, make no mistake, this movie is a prize turkey of the first order!

Daniel Day Lewis was presumably lured by the chance to swagger about like Marcello  Mastroianni and to romp with Penelope Cruz but the cost is that his reputation for choosing his roles astutely now lies in tatters.

Nine is a musical remake of 8½ , a Fellini classic from  1963, and  is a movie treatment of a unfathomably successful Broadway show. Lewis was the main reason I wanted to see it , I certainly wasn’t drawn by the prospect of another musical from Marshall, whose ‘Chicago’ I loathed.

It’s hard to know where to start with this catalogue of woeful and offensively bad movie-making. Continue reading

La Saraghina rhumba

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 :