Dolce Vita 2009 viewing

Fifty years ago, I saw La Dolce Vita either just before, or while I was at Ruskin College. If it was before Ruskin, or out of term it would have been at the Academy in Oxford Street, while at Oxford it would have been at the little cinema at Headington. I lived at Ruskin Hall, Old Headington 1961 1962 and then a short distance away from the cinema 1966-1967. I bought the film script with 96 pages of photos in a 1961 publication by Ballantine Books of New York. The English translation is by Oscar DeLiso and Bernard Shir-Cliff and this adds dialogue to the that subtitled on the DVD.

I experienced the film again some time later on TV and at the end of February 2007 I watched a DVD version though my Internet mail order subscription.

The film was regarded important at the time but is not included in the Barry Norman 100 best films, and my memory of previous viewings is that I failed to appreciate the significance, and was not emotionally engaged, understanding more later. It was Saturday evening late, after a meal when I decided to view again and found it difficult to concentrate, even dozing off. This was not the fault of the film but a condition developed over the last couple of years which can made going to the theatre, attending concert or going to the cinema after food in the evenings, problematic. I decided on a second viewing with a note book over lunch the following day March 1st 2007.

Asked by a relative what I wanted for Christmas I decided on a collection of Fellini films which included La Dolce Vita and deciding to review and re publish MySpace Blogs on Google, and finding that my Blog on the film was next, I decided to watch again today after lunch. 11th February, 2009. and that the 10th was on the experience of the film. Commenced a review, revision and addition of my original notes before going out for the Daily Mail DVD of the day, some other shopping and returning for Prime Minister’s Question Time and then having another viewing over lunch. I went to boots to look for creams and devices to work on my feet where the skin has become very rough and unpleasant to the touch. Nearby here were digital thermometers and I have been forgetting to get one since being unable read an old family mercury based one a year ago when I experienced a bad cold with breathing problems and a urinary tract infection with perspiration soaking my clothing at one point. I bought the second least expensive for under £10.

I begin by explaining why this film has continued to interest and haunt me. It represents a way of life which I reject, layer upon layer of decadence, yet I have also always been attracted to it.

La Dolce Vita introduced everyone to the world of celebrity and the paparazzi with its central figure an established columnist and would be serious writer, played by Italian heart throb Marcello Mastroianni. an Italian Cary Grant or Ray Milland, replacing their laid back humour with angst.
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When released some did not like the film because there is no plot, no story as such, only a series of scenes, exploring through the eyes of one individual the society of the Italian and European celebrity, film star, aristocracy and intelligentsia, with an mixture of American, English and French accents as well as Italian. (These days some criticise films for conventional story telling- revised Para and added note 9.50 11.02.2009)

This is a bleak film with desolate landscapes devoid of ordinary people and even the working class characters are a couple of ladies of the night and their gentlemen minders, together with a girl a girls at a night club. There is one girl encountered at a beach side restaurant, and in the last scene of the film, who represents youthful innocence and idealism..

The opening sequence is that of a helicopter carrying an outstretched statue of Christ, possibly over the undeveloped ruins of ancient Rome, (The San Felice aqueduct) and across a development area of cold concrete post war flats for the working class, and then to a rooftop penthouse playground with young women sunbathing thrilled by the sight above and who attempt to communicate with Mastroianni and his cameraman, who are following in the second helicopter (He is called Marcello in the film as well as in life). They mouth to the girls that this is a statue for the Pope which is something which I believe actually happened, but do I know that or is it a mental trick? One of the girls comments that they want our telephone number. I miss that they ask the girls if they want to ride with them although the helicopter already looks overcrowded. For me the scene indicates that although this is something serious of religious significance, Marcello this is as just another event and of more interest are the scantily dressed young women. (Revised prior to watching the film at 9.55am when I was listening to a double CD volume of the originator of New Orleans Jazz, King Oliver and his Rhythm Kings and revised again at 1.45pm)

The next scene has Mastroianni doing what he does best, writing about the trivia of the personality in a nightclub scene. The film notes say this is a place for people with money but also place which attracts women and men of the night. I was struck that many individuals looked bored and this appears to have been intentional

Marcello tries to find out what is being eaten and drank at table sixteen. The prince is eating snails and the wine is Soave. Someone interjects Vapolicella and Marcello bribes the headwaiter for his assistant to take a photograph. There is uproar as a body guard intervenes. Marcello is summed to another table another table where one of the girls looks vacuous, probably paid for, and the man tells him off for organising the incident and say he has created a situation when the husband of the woman with the prince finds out. Marcello says he is doing his job

Marcello is a regular here and goes to speak to a woman Maddalena -Anouke Aimee who is upset because her date has not arrived (and has a black eye) and suggests the establishment be closed because it is so awful. They leave together going into the Via Vento, the Italian centre of high and low life, she drives and other paparazzi arrive and take photos of Marcello and Maddalena and one comments she is more photogenic than any actress. She says the same every night don’t t they get sick of their job and he says that she should be used to it. During the journey Marcello says she has too much money and she retaliates that he has too little.

They encounter two ladies of the night with their gentlemen protectors and take one on them to her partially flooded basement flat in the city area of dead souls. They make love, spending the rest of the night, this is by implication, there is nothing explicit shown in this film of 1960, and it has to be presumed their hostess spends the night with her protector who criticises that she had not fixed a price for the use of her room.

The hero returns to his live in girl friend, (Emma -Yvonne Furneaux) who has taken an overdose. Her role is to represent the mother type love of the traditional wife although it is evident that she is too self obsessed with her predicament and that he is never there except occasionally for bed, so that when she offers to make a ravioli she remembers that she is missing the salad. She recovers but he has to square the situation with the police for Italy is a post fascist (in theory) Catholic country and attempted suicide is both a crime and a mortal sin.

One reviewer of the film, Rumney Taylor makes the point that the opening sequence is intended to remind us of the pagan origins of Rome, and there are subsequent scenes of orgy although nothing of the order of those of Satyricon and Caligula which I remember well, but not the orgy sequence of Fellini's film a decade later of Roma, while he suggests that the flying Christ is intended to remind that Rome remains the seat of Catholic power. (It is true that the Church saw the film as an attack on itself as it was on contemporary Roman paganism- added 2.50pm).

Marcello is immediately back to work as he join the pack for the arrival of a blonde film star, Annita Ekberg who adores the publicity of the pack and has no problem ingratiating herself by eating from a platter of Italian meats, Parma ham, as someone is carrying a large ham but script says pizza. Marcello appears relaxed, refusing to participate in scrum and he chats airhostess for information or just chatting them up, although. A motorcade forms from the airport on to the city and then the press corps are invited to her hotel room. Marcello continues to be relaxed refusing to jockey for position, besieging the actress with the usual silly and simple questions. Marcello is more concerned about the condition of his girl friend who from a phone call learns she is in another state fearing he is alone with the actress in her room. The reason for being relaxed emerges as Marcello has the confidence of the director of the film which the actress is to star and he agrees that Marcello should show the actress something of the city. During this scene the male friend of Sylvia arrives, drunk, Robert.

The best bit is when an English voice asks the star, Miss Rank, if she has ever made a film in England. The rank organisation formed in 1937-1996 by J Arthur distributed films, acquiring Odeon and Gaumont Cinemas, studios at Borehamwood and Paramount Pictures. The trade mark was the Gongman.

Scene sixteen opens in the Dome of St Peters and as they go outside she loses her hat and a relationship between the two is established. They move to a night club transformed from the ruins of Roman Baths of Caracalla where the band is playing Arrivederci Roma. The camera shows as an old woman with a young boy and old fat man with a Chinese girl. As Marcello and the actress dances closely he utters the immortal seduction lines : You are everything Sylvia, Don’t you know that you are everything, everything, You are the first woman on the first day of creation. You are the mother, the sister, the lover, the friend... an angel, a devil, the earth, the home....Yes that’s what you are, Sylvia, the home... He continues while she sings the song, why did you have to come here? Go back to America please... Do you understand? What am I to do now?”

An American actor, who she already knows well enters and Marcello is abandoned as Sylvia and the new arrival dance exotically. The next arrival is a rock and roll star and this prompts Sylvia to initiate dance which involves just about every one present. Robert looks on sketching. As the party continues we understand that Sylvia is a media creation and Marcello has great difficult extracting from the party for himself. He takes on a tour of the city ending a bar where eh lead the actress outside in the car while he rings Maddalena and asks if he came bring the actress to her home with she shares with her father, and who like Marcello and others tends to wear dark glass indoors and at night. Close to the Trevi Fountains Sylvia takes an interest in 65 kitten. Then the two arrive back at the hotel where Robert is waiting, asleep drunk, photographed by the Paparazzi. Marcello arrives with Sylvia and Paparazzi turns their attention to the new arrivals. Robert hits Marcello in the stomach and he doubles up.

Marcello is in a church where he is approached by a friend Steiner or the other way round. One is there because the priest has found a book needed. Steiner compliments Marcello on a recent writings questioning why he does not write with such clarity more, revealing his true self. He invites Marcello to visit him. He takes Marcello up stairs with the approval of the priest to the church organ and becomes engrossed in playing the Bach Toccata and Fugue.

Accompanied by his faithful live in girl friend Emma and the photographer they travel 45 mins to where some children. There si a large crowd of media, locals and pilgrims. The children are locked in the police station for their own protection. A priest believes the children have made up the story for publicity and attention. ‘Miracles are born in solitude and not in such chaos.’ More and more media arrive at the spot where the miracle is said to happen and people ring their sick children and elderly elatives to be cured. Darkness comes but still the pilgrims and media from all over the world assemble. A relative of the children is interviewed. There is fresh excitement when Rome gives permission for the children to attend.

Marcello climbs a lighting scaffold to obtain a better view. The girl friend promises the Virgin Mary that she will come everyday barefoot if Marcello wants to marry her, but in the next breadth she admit he has changed and no longer loves her.

The children come and kneel down close to the tree where the Virgin is said to have appeared. The public also kneel and prey. One man preys for a win in the lottery. The rains comes and causes further chaos. The girls runs in one direction saying she can see the Madonna. The children now run in different direction with the crowd and media following them. The girls says where a church must be built if she is to reappear. The children are led away and the remaining pilgrims rush to the tree to take a piece, destroying it. Emma the girl friend of Marcello is among them. Dawn breaks and a pilgrim dies and is given the last rites.

Marcello takes Emma to meet Steiner at his home where he is having a soiree. I regard this as the pivotal scene of the film and is perhaps the major exposures of intellectualism on film. I have quoted at length from the translated text and stopped the DVD every few seconds of frames in order to ensure that I have faithfully communicated what Fellini wanted to communicate. The worlds plus the film and acting make the whole.

Steiner says to Emma that he knows her well although they have not met. She loves Marcello more than Marcello loves himself.

An oriental woman is playing a guitar and uttering sounds, a chant of some kind. Another guest says something inane. “I’ve always said so the only authentic woman is the Oriental woman.” His wife says why did you marry me and he says it was a great mistake. And goes on in the same vein as Marcello to the actres earlier, “Mysterious, maternal, lover and daughter at the same time. The Oriental woman delights you by crouching at your feet like a tiger in love. The joy of being submissive, of being dominated body and soul.” The host attempts to change the subject by introducing Marcello and his wife but the man continues. “I believe we have a great deal to elarn from these magnificent Oriental women, because you see they have kept close to nature, the nature they have conquered after centuries and centuries of Civilization. Civilization? Can you tell me what good it serves? “

Steiner explains to Marcello that trhe man has written dozens of books and speculates how he has remained so optimistic and in such good health.

A woman dressed in the habit of a monk calls out to Marcello, saying she she knows from Steriner that he ahs two loves and cannot make up his mind: Journalism and Literature. She tells Marcello to remain free to burn and not freeze. Marcello explains that he wants to write like a woman, Clear, honest, without rhetoric. The female poet says Yes we must all think of tomorrow. But we must not forgfet to live today.I believe that if one really lives intensely, with complete spiritual fulfilment, every moment becomes a year and every year makes one five years younger.

The poet turns to Emma recognising she is not an intellectual and who has challenged Marcello about his knowledge of the female and asks how she spends her time. Emma is embarrassed and cannot asnwer except to ask the poet, Iris, to respond who says, three oblivions, smoke, drink and bed. Steiner interjects “and you call that wisdom?”

Someone calls for quiet and turns on the tape recorder explaining that this is a dialogue between feminine wisdom and masculine uncertainty and replays what has been said but when Steiner is heard saying I am not any taller than that there is a clap like thunder. The recordings has been overplaying sounds of nature, thunder, the sea which Steiner has previously made. Emma is interested in the sounds. There is the sound of birds at day break. Emma enjoys the sounds while the intellectuals look for meaning and significance.

The two young children of the family arrive in their night clothes and they are Emma interact because they view rhe world the same way and Marcello understands the longing of his girl friend for marriage and children. Marcello tells Steiner Will ever accomplish anything? Once I had ambition but perhaps I am losing it, forgetting everything. Steiner “Don’t believe you must take refuge in yourself. Any life, even the most miserable, is worth more than a sheltered existence in a world where everything is organised, where everything is practical, everything has its place.” He offers to introduce Marcello to some of his contacts but it will involve giving up writing for semi fascist magazines.

He take Marcello with him to say goonight to his children and comments that “sometimes the night, this darkness, this calm weights on me. It is peace that makes me afraid. Perhaps because I distrust it above everything else. I feel that it hides only an appearance, that it hides a danger. Sometimes I think of the world that my children will know. They say the world of the future will be wonderful. What does that mean. It needs only the gesture of madman to destriy everything. “ His face eflected in threw window shows great sadness and pain. No we should live more in the spirit of those phrases I read just now........or rather we should come to love one another outside of time, beyond time. To live detached.

Marcello is at the seaside writing at a simple beachside restaurant a pretty innocent young waitress lays out the tables inviting him to stay for a meal as the food is good. He chats her up, flatters but she is unimpressed with his sophisticated ways. Emma rings to enquire when she will see him again. She is triumphant. His attempt to be a serious writers appears to have failed.

The film takes us back to the Via Veneto at Night. It appears Marcello has returned to his former life. On arrival Marcello is advised that his father has arrived, is eating and had been there for two hours He calls him Papa and Papa says he has been in Rome since the morning. He has been looking all over for him. He has been in Rome in a matter involving the government. He has a letter for Marcello from his mother. You could write more often and come and see once in a while. How long is it since you have been home?
After a little more father son family talk father indicates he is not ready for bed and Marcello says there is nothing more to do but nightclubs. Father mentions he has heard of a club called Chin Chow Chit Chat or such like. Marcello says it is Kit Kat and ld nightclub. Father insists on paying although Marcello earns five times more.

They go to the night club with the photographer assistant and where three girls dressed as cats are sort of dancing. Marcello would not go to this kind of club, not sophisticated enough but the impression obtained is that his father has been therefore, sometime ago, Nothing has changed he says just as I remembered it! It was 1922. Papa tells the story of a night club in Paris where a beautiful girl starts to strip and when she is naked it is a man. quickly evident that father and son know little of each other. One of the acts involves six girls in flapper dresses who dance among the guests and one of these is well known to Marcello and this intrigues his father. The girl, French, called Fanny accepts the invitation to join them for champagne. She tells Papa he looks too young to be the father of Marcello. Pap responds Lets not talk of age. Let’s not reawaken the desperate sorrow that presses upon my heart.” He continues do you know what makes us old Boredom. Now he sits home feels like an 80 year old. Handing a glass of champagne to the girl he praises her legs. The girl comments that Papa is much more charming than his son. They dance and father continues to flirt and the girl comments that after all he is like his son. The girl offers to cook then spaghetti and she take his father while they follow behind with two other girls from the club. They however go off into the countryside arriving at the apartment where his father has been over an hour later! Fanny is in street on her way to find a chemist because pap is complaining of feeling ill and has given her a note of the medication he needs. Father recovers and insist on taking an early morning train to be back home by 10am. Marcello is anxious about this and wants his father to stay. Father is determined to return home and foes off in a taxi leaving Marcello in the street, alone. (For evening meal I have three fish cakes and baked beans and after a salad lunch I eat not one or two hot cross buns but three.)

It is even more lively than usual in the Via Veneto and there are lots of cars and a fight breaks out. Marcello sees a girl her now who says she is on her way to the castle of her fiancé and Marcello accompanies her together with the younger brother of the fiancé, another girl who does not speak Italian and a an old woman Aristocratic. It is a long drive and when they arrive the party is ending. The castle home of the Prince Masclchi, don Giul has become a mausoleum. This is the old order of power and tradition and there are aspects of here which remind of Last Year in Marienbad.

The group, if they were young we would say a gang, but I prefer a tribe. They need to party unable to bear the reality of themselves alone, and having already gone to party on party they are all seek a different kind thrill. Some are drunk others are drinking more. Some dance. Marcello meets various people and then finds Maddalena- Anouke Aimee and she completes he introductions advising Marcello who they are- Jane with a fund of dirty stories-the she wolf who likes to give milk to the young- a couple who own half of Calabria and the best whorehouse in Rome- a young woman with 80000 acres and two suicide attempts, a man with two castle who is with his Swedish lover Nico. Marcello and Maddalena tour property looking at paintings and Marcello says he has been thinking of her and does not understand. She says she does not understand herself. The talk of marriage and love and Maddalena describes herself as a whore, that’s all I am and will never be anything other. She goes off with someone, possible the man who brought her.

The party carrying lighted candelabra make their way to the old villa at one end of the park and Marcello joins them. They are interested in Marcello because he works for a living. They are off to hunt ghosts. The younger son of the Prince says he would turn the building into a whorehouse but his father will not allow him. They see a rat passing by. Some try to hold a séance. The next scene is dawn the guests, some in costumes and ending their night of seeking entertainment and thrill, There is a priest passing with an altar boy, The fiancé wants to eat spaghetti. The Prince’s mother is on her way to Mass and asks the others have been up to. It all seems a pointless worthless experience. (23 15 after watching England outclassed by Spain at Serville 2.0 although we several good chances to score).

Marcello and girl friend Emma are in car stationary in the country having a disagreement; She is wanting commitment from him accusing him of being a egotist with a closed and empty heart, She gets out of the vehicle and runs away sobbing when he tells her leave him for good. Marcello takes the car to where she is and tries to explain that he cannot spend the whole of his life loving her. She gets back in the car still trying to make him understand how she feel and he her. They are upset with themselves for not being the other person the wants and needs. This time Marcello goes off leaving her alone walking in the middle of no where. Dawn finds her still walking and then the sound of a vehicle approaches.

The couple are asleep in their apartment, Emma looks blissfully happy. The telephone rings and Marcello is called out. Steiner has shot his two children and shot himself. Marcello gets into the apartment because he is a friend rather than a newsman. The police Commissioner has to leave to meet Mrs Steiner who is returning home by bus. Marcello accompanies as he knows the woman. While it is difficult to engage or feel sympathy when any of the characters in the film so far, apart from the ordinary living people to which Marcello’s father has to be added we not come to one moment of unbearable experience as Mrs Steiner oblivious to what has happened does not understand why the media has gathered, is first reassured seeing Marcello and gradually realises that something is wrong, my children she pleads. Then we learn that although shot they are not dead and will survive.

The final scenes commence as cars race to the coast in the night full of lawyers, dancers millionaires, transvestites, hangers on and whores. They a breaking into a beach villa for a party. Marcello is here. Marcello toast a woman who has annulled a marriage and announces that he is no longer a writer or journalist, Marcello says that the party is a bore and he has never been with such boring people. A couple of transvestites dance. A girl offers to strips but others say they have seen her naked already. The woman whose marriage has been annulled offers and the offer is accepted. But when she is topless on the floor the owner of the property arrives. The party begins to break up, people insult each other. There is sexual horseplay. A girl becomes very drunk. And Marcello smothers her with feathers from a cushion to make her into a chicken. It is dawn again.

The guests prepare to leave but they see something at the edge of beach and they go down to explore. Fisherman are bringing a giant Schooner fish that is said to have been dead for three days after break the fisherman‘s net. While the party members examine and comment on the fish Marcello’s attention is diverted to seeing the girl he encountered when he was attempting to write his novel. She calls out Hey Mister but what she says cannot be heard because of the wind and distance. Marcello signals to her to join him in his car or is referring to when they were in his car? One of the girls in the party comes and leads him away. The girl continues to look at him as they move away. One interpretation is that the girl represents his youth and idealism and she is calling to him saying there is still time if he makes the effort to join her. Marcello realises it is too late and continues with his life of one layer of decadence upon decadence.

I am reminded of the saying when the Gods decide to punish they give us what we wish for.

Juliet of the Spirits

Last Sunday I decided to watch the first programme in the Ice Dancing competition in preference to the first programme in a new series on the history of Christianity and the next episode of Lark Rise in Candleford, knowing that both could be viewed later on the Internet. I left until this morning the programme headed Jesus was a Jew presented by Howard Jacobson of Jewish background and now a non believer who would like to do so. Howard is three years younger than me, became an academic and prize winning author as well as creator of TV programmes.

This is an important programme because Howard draws on experts from both the Catholic and Jewish clergy belief systems to establish some difficult truth for Catholics and Christians who have not studied the history of early Christianity.

There is an agreement that Jesus and the apostles were of the Jewish faith and were not baptised a Catholics as such or had the intention of establishing a new or fundamentally different religion to Judaism.

The baptism mentioned by John the Baptist was a Jewish act of renewal in which John, Jesus and the apostles took up the cause of persuading Jews to repent their sins and get back to living according to the morals and tenets of their faith. During the age of the apostles, that is when they were alive, their role was to bring news of what had happened to Jews who lived in other lands preaching whenever possible in synagogues. There was no emphasis on converting non Jews to the faith, not was there agreement about how Judaism should change. There was no hierarchy, written restatement of the Jewish faith. The evidence is that he was no endorsed by the apostles as one of them The apostles had been asked to pass on the teachings but were not told how to do it.

It was Paul of Tarsus, having never met Jesus, who following a revelation decided to preach, to write, define not just a return to Jewish spiritual values but some of the key present day tenets of what became the Catholic and Christian belief systems. It was subsequent churchmen who decided that his writings should become the core of the New Testament and declared the word of God.

The programme declared that the break between Judaism and Catholicism as a separate church hierarchy and belief system did not take place until after the Romans commenced the destruction of the Jewish second Temple as part of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. It is said that from this the point that the split with Judaism was more political than theological as Christians concentrated on the conversion of Romans, emphasising that this was a new and non Jewish belief system. Then as happens when individuals and groups reach agreement on breaking away, relations between them and their childhood faiths become strained and then openly. It was not until 1965 that the Catholic Church declared that the Jewish people had not been responsible for the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

I had part of a roast pork joint for lunch with roast potatoes and a third of the tined carrots and peas I had commenced to use the previous day. During the afternoon I continued the Fellini Fest .

I have previously written that I regard the performance of Giulietta Masina in La Strada as one of the great acting roles of the motion pictures and eleven years later one critic reported that Federico had said Juliet of the Spirits, Giulietta degli spiriti. was a gift to his wife not just using her name in the title or creating the central character for her to play, but because of its theme of emancipation.

Masina plays a wife celebrating 15 years of marriage in this fantastical colourful extravaganza in which subconscious takes over reality as she finds out that her suspicions of her husband’s infidelity are correct. The couple live in the best residential area, close to woodland and the sea. She has nothing to do all day, with not one, but two, servants, and a gardener handyman, and to prepare herself for the return of her husband when he returns late, allegedly working hard as his business organising parties, conferences, exhibitions on an international basis. The have no children but she enjoys the regular contact with those of her sister. Mother and grand mother.

The film opens on the day of their wedding anniversary as she cannot make up her mind about which wig to wear or no wig and which outfit. When she tires of a dress it is given to servants and our first reaction is that this is an overindulged women which quickly turns to sympathy as the husband arrives late with friends and relatives wanting to join the celebrations and he dismisses the romantic cosy candle lit dinner for two she has had the servants arrange for them.. She tries not to show her disappointment but being a loving wife she puts on a good front playing the caring hostess and going along with séance about which she is clearly uncomfortable.

It is only when he calls out the name of his mistress when the couple are in bed that her suspicions are aroused and reinforced when he gets up to make a phone call in the middle of the night. At times bored, at times threatened by her world crashing Giulietta lets her subconscious into the daylight seeing her fantasies come to life, including haunting childhood experiences when she was humiliated by her father while acting in a holy school play. She confides her fears to her sister who arranges for the husband to be tracked and she is subsequently shown by film, photo and sound recording his affair with an attractive fashion house model who believes Giulietta will be abandoned for her,

Meanwhile Giulietta has become involved with the extraordinary woman living next door in a psychedelic house with psychedelic friends. Whereas Giulietta married her first love, is shy and unassuming, her neighbour surrounds herself with the unconventional, admits to lovers and his uninhibited. Given the shattering of her security it would be understandable if Giulietta reacted strongly with what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and although there are visual images which suggests she begins to test out the options available to her with a young man suitor my impression is that she remain true to her natural self. Given the impact of La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8 and a half this film is disappointing apart from the performance of Masina. It may have been just as excuse for Fellini to experiment with LDS. As to the title there is a séance and Giulietta does conjure strange individuals and sights

In struggled to remain awake in the evening deciding that the Ice dance ladies are a poor lot and that there is only one of the ten remaining contestants with any natural ability. the former X factor contestant Ray Quinn, with one of he ladies showing some promise.

There was some coverage of the people attending the concert at the Lincoln memorial which the President and his family enjoyed behind a bullet proof screen. One network had bought out the rights so the news desks on both sides of the Atlantic were only able to show his short speech which provided a major indication of what he will be saying in his inaugural address. Times will be tough folks and whatever I said I would do getting here it is gonna takes years to achieve and only then if you, the people make it happen by exerting pressure on Congress who will want to go their own way. This I believe could make the difference between President not just becoming a historical first and remaining popular while in and subsequently out of office, but manage to change politics and society for the better. His effectiveness will depend on his West Wing, his Ministerial Teams and those appointed to run the Federal agencies.

Fellini Fest

On Saturday I decided to begin my own Fellini Fest despite my sleep, wake and work system being all awry and wanting to get on with converting slides to photographs via the scanner. I also wanted to see how Democrats, Republicans and ordinary citizens of the USA were approaching the anointing of Barrack Obama as the latest Moses, diverted by the miracle of the Hudson River and with one eye on whether Israel would have the sense to stop their assault on Hamas during the inauguration weekend and Russia realise that if the rest of Europe was to take them serious as oil producers and supplier they had to resolve their dispute with Ukraine and convince that there would be no more disruption of contracted supplies whoever was responsible and for whatever reason.

I was asked if I would like some DVD’s for Christmas and decided on Fellini rather than Bergman or Almodovar, choosing the neo realist La Strada, and boxed collection of La Dolce Vita, I Vitelloni, Giuliette Degli Spiriti and 8 and Half. I decided on Fellini rather than the brilliant psychological realism and spiritual explorations of Bergman or the anarchistic and raunchy humour of Almodovar, because in his later films Fellini explored the soul of the creative artist in the contemporary world of post World War Europe,

The truth about Federico Fellini’s Eight and a half is that it will only appeal to the film industry and to creatives. I cannot imagine the average Saturday night cinema audience sitting through more than a few minutes, or those now packing auditoriums to see Slumdog or Mama Mia, This observation is not intended as a criticism of the film or of the average audience who would not find Eight and Half engaging or entertaining.

At one level this is a film about a film with Marcello Mastroianni as the film director who declares I have nothing to say but I want to say it. In my case I always had something to say but failed to find a satisfying form of expression until 2002 and it was August 2003 before I commenced to work on 101.

The title 8 and a half reflects the quantity of film work by Fellini before 1963 when the work was created.

While the central actor in the film he tries to work out what the film is to be about and which actors he needs, he takes a break at a health clinic and reviews aspects of his life and relationships, in Fellini fashion, which is to surround himself with women, his intelligent and attractive wife and mother authority who knows him like a book and wishes for an honesty she can continue to love and live with, a married mistress who he wants to be fantasy lover, other, actresses and memories of women past. Being an intelligent and educated Italian, Catholic church figures also predominate his past and his present, and being the 1960’s he decides that the film framework should be science fiction and arranges for a set to created for a space launch using a full size Meccano like kitwork. There are a series of disconnected visual scenes of a Europe still struggling to break free from World War II and a few bouts of home truths about marital and adult sexual relationships, and some philosophising about religion and life generally.

As someone who finds it difficult to conclude a day without writing, I use word concepts to communicate images of life, whereas the film maker uses images to communicate word concepts, and as with all meaningful art, its value to anyone else arises from what they bring to the experience of what is written, said or shown. I believe what I am doing is art and it does not matter to me if no one else considers what I do as art or as art meaningful to them although it does matter to me if someone interacts and expresses a reaction..

The high point in Eight and a Half is when the central character, the Director, decides that he has nothing to say at that moment in a cinematic medium, and calls for the set to deconstructed within two days and the vast expenditure to be written off. However as a personality there is no sense that he has fundamentally changed and has not intention doing so. In fact his situation has improved because his wife and mistress appear to have established a relationship which offers the prospects of a ménage a trios. plus.

He has followed the advice of Paul McKenna that if you go to bed and do not fall asleep, get up do some exercise and until you feel ready to try and sleep again, and in general if you are not sleepy do not go to bed to try and sleep. His mistake was commence a film without knowing what he wanted to achieve.

I appreciate if you are a film maker having spent a large amount of other people’s money in pre production, a contracted performer, or with a commission with a set completion date there is a general obligation to meet the commitment and the professional should be able to do, but the outcome will necessarily be art.

The problem for most artists is not the artistic block. They are ready to perform but there is no one out there to sponsor and buy their work, so they have to do something else to provide for themselves and their families.

In a state communist society, the state decides on the importance of art in the lives of people, and controls the number of artists in training, the number who are paid to work as artists and what happens to their output and who is, and who is not, allowed to experience what they do or have done. Moreover it can set the framework in which work has to created and performed and punish those who refuse to act as required or whose work fails to measure up to state requirements, and similarly by control of the media it can control the number of professional critics and their response to any work allowed to be made public. From what I have experienced the art output actually reflects the totalitarian nature of the society.

In the film Eight and a Half a media person asks the central character the question How do you reconcile Catholicism with Marxism to which no answer is given but where the answer should have been, what a silly question because there is no conflict as both are hierarchical authoritarian totalities with in practice the same methods and objectives! Those with the power in the present can enjoy life to the maximum while those doing the work will get their reward as a concept, with in one the concept of an after life, a heaven, and in the other a better society for future generations. Today the same question when posed to the Muslim fundamentalist merits the same answer.

In the ideal unrestrained and anarchical free capitalist society anyone can be an artist whether they train or not, but there is no attempt to match the number in training, or seeking sponsorship with the need for artists within the society. Those who are poor, sick and starving sometimes leave behind work which future generations may consider to be great art but many with greatness potential will be forced to do something else and their work remain uncreated. Those in society with great wealth can determine what art is considered fashionable or good, regardless of what critics say, by the price which they are willing to pay for the art and their willingness to make the art available, and to whom, friends and family, those willing to pay or through charitable sponsorship.

In the utopian socialist model the people collectively decide the importance of art in their lives, the number of artists they need and then ensure through training provision and sponsorship there is a constant flow of functioning artists and that their output is available for anyone in the community who wishes to share in their experience. The role of the state is that of a coordinator and facilitator. There will always be more artists produced than immediate need because some will die accidentally or naturally before their time or decide they want to do something else or what they produce does not meet the immediate needs and inclinations of people. The society provides opportunity for those who want to change and do something else, and enable those who started doing something else to become artists. The system is organic and changes according to collective preferences. There is no control or censorship over what is produced and what is available to experience.

In the UK we have attempted a compromise between the utopian socialist model and the unfettered capitalist. Anyone can be an artist but only a proportion will be able to earn a living and continue to do so throughout their lives. The state decides on the available finance to assist in the number of those being trained through its further and adult education system and then leaves individual educational and specialist institutions to determine numbers and directions. It also has an influence on the number able to earn a living through their work by using national and regional agencies to distribute patronage through commissions, through exhibition support and purchasing completed works for the nation. It is the private collector rather than the state which determines the market price for contemporary work and for historical art work although the recent tension between the Role of the State sponsored Tate and Saatchi has been productive, preventing either from becoming a dictator. The state through Parliamentary Law and the Judiciary through the rule of Law set and develop the framework in which completed art work can be distributed and performed. The internet and inexpensive travel has made art international.

Individual artists will still have their blocks, will want to do something different or come into art work creation after other activities but the scope and opportunity has reached the borders of utopia. If you want, and are prepared to pay the individual price, you can do. Yes you can.

Amongst the continuing alarming news of economic meltdown and banking failure, there has been the miracle of the Hudson River. Understandably the priority of the airline and civil authorities is to determine the cause of the near disaster, and the action that may be necessary as a consequence. It is right that the Pilots and crew concentrate on responding to their official enquiries and that any public statement is made within their obligations as continuing employees. Meanwhile it right that the escape is celebrated, those involved are able to recover and those who prevented any loss of life are honoured in time.

My sympathies are with Israel and the people of Gaza. The United Nations, and the rest of the Arab World must deal with Hamas otherwise Israel is fully justified in taking action to do so. When reporting the number of woman and children killed in Gaza over the past three weeks the international media should also list the number of women and children who have died because of starvation, preventable disease, armed conflicts, individual acts of violence and preventable accidents in general. I would be amazed if the total is less than 100000. The Good Samaritan is not selective.

Russia is said to have reach agreement with the Ukraine. The rest of us is right to remains distrustful and sceptical and urgently look for alternatives.

Someone in the Middle East is willing to pay over £100 million to bring a Brazilian playing football in Italy to Manchester. Manchester City will become the greatest city in the world to watch football and become hated by the rest of the world as a consequence. There is a moral in that.

A lot of people are going to make a lotta lotta money from the anointing of Barrack Obama on Tuesday. Unfortunately I will be on a coach travelling to London and miss the inauguration speech which hopefully will set the tone of the place of the USA in the world over the next four to eight years. Watching Fox and CNN has been fascinating. Fox News is about to have nervous breakdown. Do Republicans hold Wakes?

8 1/2 and Nine

Well I have done it. After 15 or more years of nearly doing it, I have gone ahead. I have taken Sky Films.

As someone who was taken to the cinema in the later 1940’s every Monday and Thursday evening by my care and birth mothers, went to the Children’s show on Saturday mornings, and was sometimes taken with older first cousins on Sunday evenings to watch the latest releases, I resisted taking out the subscription, knowing I would want to watch films morning, noon and night until I had seen all that was available and then over again, and perhaps again. I was right of course because now that I have taken out the subscription I want to watch films morning, noon and night

The reason for the change is that by switching Internet and telephone subscriptions to Sky I have been able to add an HD box and Sky films for the same overall cost than before. I know I should have kept the saving.

And so I have commenced a week of wall to wall films, not in HD yet, that will come in wall to wall films week 2. The first film was a great surprise, topical, continuous suspense, unable to work out its conclusion which is a good twist, although does not pass the test of subsequent consideration. However of the films experienced in the opening 24 hours, it was the most immediately satisfying as well as the first.

The theme of the Traitor is one of disturbing ongoing threat by fanatical Muslims against anyone who does not share their perverted mentality and the heroic self sacrificing efforts of a genuine Muslim against the damaging perversion of his faith by others.

However while at one level this a film about the battle between good and evil on the earth planet, it demonstrates the complexities and contradictions of arising when the same situation or set of circumstances is viewed by people with different backgrounds and perspectives.

The story is of Samir Horn, played by Don Cheadle, who is one of the eight listed producers, with Steve Martin also a producer of his story, directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff who provides the screenplay. The Sudanese Druze father of a Samir, a devout Muslim teacher, is killed by a car bomb when he is a child and he grows up also a devout Muslim, and an Arabic English speaking Sudanese -USA American.

When the film begins he appears to be an arms dealer selling Semtex and weapons to the highest bidders and to Omar, a senior operative in a terrorist network operating in the Yemen. Just when the deal is about to be sealed, the site is raided and they are captured and taken to jail where as terrorist suspects they are roughly treated. As appears to be common in prisons world wide there is an inmate with assistants who has control of everyone, dictating behaviour and roles, and Samir is badly beaten up when he intervenes in a situation of apparent injustice. This took be back to my own experience when with other male Operation Foulness prisoners we intervened as a new inmate was being picked on for brutal treatment by other prisoners because of his alleged specific offence. As in the film the prison officers either condone such victimization or encourage it by confirming or releasing information about specific individuals. In this instance it is Samir who intervenes, impressed by genuine devotion of Samir and invites him to join his planned and well organised breakout. He gives Samir the option of walking away when they reach the French port of Marseilles, or joining the Islamic Terrorist brotherhood. He joins and gains prestige by promoting and executing a plot to blow up the USA Embassy in Nice in which human beings are killed.

The group make their way to London where the bombing is celebrated and it is in London that we learn that in fact Samir is working undercover in a secret operation, we only learn later for an anti terrorist contractor with the USA counter Terrorism organisation. The bombing had been planned and designed not to cause loss of life with two fake bodies, but there had been an unexpected development in which seven migrants in illegal occupation of a neighbouring building were killed. Samir is badly affected by this development questioning the validity of the operation which we learn is to find the location of the organiser of the group as a means of stopping the major action which is known to being planned.

The plan is revealed to be using 50 long term placed suicide bombers to simultaneously blow up trans state buses thus bringing home to everyone in the USA/ Samir’s role is to deliver the bombs to the sleepers and advises them of how to detonate. He also devises a plan for the instructional emails to be delivered beforehand to be opened early on July 4th with details of the journey to be taken. He achieves 30 visits before it is necessary to curtail the distribution and head for a location from which they are to make their escape by a sea freighter.

While Samir has been making progress in identifying the head of the organisation finds himself identified by the FBI when returning to the USA who have been keeping watch on his former girl friend. Earlier when it appears that the original bomber for the project in France has been identified the young man is killed because he has broken undertakings not to reveal his work to anyone and admits he did mention to a relative to be in position to help his family after his death. Now when the Samir has also compromised the operation, despite his individual importance he expects the same fate, but he survives because the USA government put him on the most wanted list after finding the body of his anti terrorist contractor contact who Omar has killed when tracking the movements of Samir and it appears before Samir has been able to communicate information about the plan and the whereabouts of the organisation’s leader.

While this is happening a special FBI agent has been tracking Samir through numerous countries and apprehended one major cell and also had direct contact with Samir and given him contact information. He traces Samir and the group to the harbour at Halifax Nova Scotia where they are waiting to depart in the freighter when everyone is present. However while the net closes it appears too late to stop the execution of the plot on Thanksgiving Day. Samir takes the law into his own hands and kills the leaders and others and during the gun fight he is badly wounded. It is only when the FBI team arrive that we learn what happened in the plan. Samir has arranged for all the bombers to be on one coach including the coach driver so they blow each other up. This is a great twist in the story, but raises how it was possible in reality to have arranged this without also involving other passengers or vehicles in the vicinity of the explosion

The films ends a little later. Samir has recovered and the lead FBI contact tries to recruit him to undertake further work as the task is not done. Samir resists the offer overwhelmed with the guilt of the deaths on his hands despite the vast number of innocent lives which he has saved. However the door is open for a sequel.

Apart from the bully criminal in the prison early on in the film, the terrorists and ant terrorists in the film are not dehumanised but presented as sincere, if misguided individuals, or dedicated law enforcement officers. The film is well written, directed and acted and poses important questions such as how to prevent future terrorism and is killing innocent individuals ever justified ion the context of the greater strategy and objectives of the democratic state. The British government, having cracked the Nazi code knew of the proposed mass bombing of Coventry beforehand but took no action to intervene or warn the population because of the need to continued to use the broken code. This morning I also read in the Daily Telegraph that Britain may have known that radio telegraph operators dropped into Belgium and Holland had been apprehended (all but four of 50 odd spies were captured and executed) and replaced by those who did not include the correct mistakes used to established genuineness. If it is legitimate for democratic government to use such tactics why is in not for their opponents, include those who operate unconventionally?

1079 Fellini's Roma and Carmen Jones Carmen

Around1954/1955 I saw the film Carmen Jones for the first time with Dorothy Dandridge in the lead role. I was still at school and the aspect of the film which affected me was Pearl Bailey singing "beat out dat rhythm on a drum". It uncorked an attraction to wild music at least that is how I regarded jazz in the days before rock and roll, until I understood that considerable organised musicianship was required to create the spontaneity. I bought the LP as soon as I stated work and played and played until I knew all the contents.

I cannot remember when I first saw Carmen, the Opera, but I believe it was with the aunties locally in Croydon. I now have a number of versions on video, including three 90min recordings of the same production but with different lead singers. I also have the Regina Resnik, Joan Sutherland performance on CD;

I resurrected my interest in the past fortnight because a new production called CarMan is coming to the Newcastle Playhouse. I thought I had such a familiarity with the film because of the LP and seeing it on TV several times, and with the opera recordings and theatrical experiences that I decided to put myself to the test and write a film review before seeing the film, once more on mail order DVD. Of course I failed the test and had to resort to my reliable memory jogger, Wikipedia. I had known that Harry Belfonte had been dubbed, I had just forgotten the fact and the singer was Le Vern Hutchinson.
Fortunately my DVD player had not needed repair after all. I had gone to sleep in the afternoon while watching Fellini's Roma, and went to visit my mother leaving the disk in the machine and forgot about it and when I attempted to view again it would not load and I was too busy to arrange a repair as a I tried another DVD of my own without success. I decided to try the Carmen Jones Mail order library DVD and was able to watch the film, so it was not the machine. I soft wiped both the problem disks and they worked too, so belatedly for my piece about
Rome the city, I can now write about Roma, the film.
I like the film because it is a coherent and authentic work although set in the USA about Carmen who works in a parachute factory and where the bullfighter has become a prize fighting boxer.
Of course the music and singing in the opera is great but I have two reservations about most of the performance I have viewed. The first is the singing in French of a work about Spanish passion. This has always struck me an incongruous. Secondly, many of the female leads did not strike me as having that raw sex appeal which will make a man turn his back on a sweetheart, wife, family, and career, and then murder rather than accept he has been nut one more conquest for someone who like the bullfighter or boxer, likes the sport, and which has become a self destructive addiction.
I suspect more women, and men for that matter have the power within, irrespective of personal frame, but only dome project and then make use of what in the instance of Carmen was a lethal force. I only knew one Opera singer, who I was asked to drive to a Top of the Pops show because she knew he producer and he had promised that the camera would show her in the audience and for which she was wearing an amazingly short skirt even for the sixties, although the cameraman/ cameraman in those days had a titillating interest in young women in short skirts, or perhaps it was some visual editor or producer or director guiding to maintain and develop audiences. I digress, a little but this is an overall work about recreating past experience, and the image is appropriate for a Fellini film!
I have a greater recollection of when I watched Carmen Jones in a cinema theatre, than Roma which was issued in 1972 when I lived in Cheshire, and visits to the cinema were infrequent. Maybe I never have experienced at the cinema and it was a subsequent TV showing. I watched the film through this time without sleeping or a note book to subsequently work out the significance of images, having read some internet beforehand, I knew what to expect and look out for.
The main thrust of this documentary style montage without any story line, apart from inserting himself and his experiences, is to compare Rome of fascist wartime Mussolini with the sixties of hippies, bikers and when the buzz concept was alienation, and with references to Roman history and his own childhood.

It was one childhood experience which reminded of one of my own. Schoolteacher priests show pupils slides of ancient monuments and in the days before TV magic lantern shows were the thing, and I still have the one I acquired to show family event slides. In Roma, a slide of the bare back of a young woman, in bath costume, but this provoked a frenzied reaction from the boys who were told to avert their eyes. Around the same age the boys I went on school trip to a cinema at the park end of Oxford Street to watch a film about the life the previous Pope. It was a special morning show, we arrived late, and were accommodated in the managers viewing lounge at the back of the cinema. The film was a "Father Brown" story, I think, because I remember going to the Library for the books, except that the film was in French with subtitles and there was stunned silence at the time, although much commenting on the way back at a scene when a fly stopped briefly on a naked female breast. The contrast between the reaction of the Fellini schoolboys and the mixed audience of school children at the cinema sums up he difference between the English approach to sex and self expression and the Mediterranean people, and which includes the French.
Fellini has this attraction to bizarre looking women and brothels and in the film first draws an unkind picture of rampant men of all ages clamouring for their time with hard extrovert business women of the day and night, with two exceptions, the shyish, observing, rather bemused young man of himself, and the classy bright and sensitive "working girl" who agrees to going walk with him out, one morning, thus identifying himself as being different from everyone else. However his venom is focused on the hierarchy of the Catholic Church as an aging Italian Noble woman bemoans the loss of the previous relationship with the church, in a bizarre fashion of clerical habits thus indicating the belief that the church had become all fur coat and no knickers.

The film also confirms the belief which I expressed in the piece on Rome that Italians have nostalgia not for Mussolini the man or the brutality and acquiescence of the regime to Nazi doctrines, but for the sense of community and unit, and of getting things done which is government engendered. The film is rich in community activities and togetherness of war time activities and although there are interjected flashes of congregating hippies he appears to be sympathetic to police beating protestors and to an affluent diner who describes them as scum. The final sequence is a multitude of bikers roaring about the deserted streets of Rome making normal conversation impossible. It is evident that Fellini was not just reporting the alienation which many felt from society in the early seventies, he was expressing his own.

I have not researched or made any kind of special study, but it does seem to me that the Italians are more open and honest about what led and what happened in their country in the year of the reign of Mussolini than perhaps has been the situation in Germany, the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and we all have about the plight if other oppressed or starving, or sick people in other parts of the world since. I can never accept the indiscriminate bombing of non combatants by anyone in any circumstance. Did we really need to obliterate and maiming of German civilian populations, and when as now, we rightly condemn the former leader of Iraq for his use of weapons of mass destruction, does that put him in the same league as the US President who authorised the use of two atomic bombs, and would more have been used, if Japan had not surrendered? For those who argue that it is right to hold weapons of mass destruction as a deterrent and we would never use them in reality one has to accuse of being dishonest. If we have them we will use them in certain circumstances, and to argue that we have a God and one of his churches on our side. It is in the nature of Government, regardless of the form of government. I know it is irrational but I have a greater sympathy for a crazed for the behaviour of impulsively crazed soldier of Carmen, Carmen Jones and or in Iraq, Vietnam or where ever than I do for the Generals and Politicians who order them to unleash the devil

1013 Fellini's La Strada original

First the story line. A street entertainer with a strong man act breaking chains across his chest returns to the poverty stricken single mother to tell her that the daughter he has previously bought from her has died. He now takes the next daughter who is simple, trusting and curious. This was slave trading then and slave trading now.

He makes her his common law wife, although there is no indication that she has opposed this, and makes her a part of his act as well as requiring round the clock personal attention.

Her loyalty is quickly stretched by his unfaithfulness and periodic violence as well as jealousy when others show her interest and concern, and offer help. She spurns opportunities to break with him only to find that when she becomes sick he leaves her. When returns he finds that she has survived for a while but has died, this appears to mark the ending, or near ending of his life.

The film explores the nature of marital relationships between those with significantly different backgrounds and experiences. Anthony Quinn plays the street entertainer is essentially Anthony Quinn Anthony Quinn but the find was the wife of Fellini, Giuletta who is amazing and justifies all the praise that .Italy and the rest of the film world gave her. From interviews on the DVD. you can see she has the same romantic faith in life and I in others as she portrays in the film, but is also her own woman with her own interests and social life, while retaining the same warmth and open spirit. I will have to try and view other performances.

(I have been given the DVD and will re- experience and write an expanded response).

1012 Fellini's Satyricon

Having posted my re-experience of La Dolce Vita I will add my only other Fellini revisit to-date. His Satyricon set in pre Christian Italy. I had little recollection of the original cinema experience except the collapsing of tenements and leaving the theatre bemused.

I have no idea if the visual package is historically accurate or the language authentic, or simply an individualistic presentation of concepts, explored to the satisfaction of their creator.

The main character is distraught, revengeful, and desperate because the slave boy he abuses was taken from him by his best friend, partner, lover, fellow student and then sold off to a notorious actor, whose performance includes chopping off some ones hand or so it seems. Caesar arrives and intercedes for the main character and the boy is returned to him because the alternative is to risk losing the theatre and livelihood. Does anyone care?

Returning to their quarters the main character turns on his best friend and tells him to leave. The Jerry built tenements rising up like some tower of Babel start collapsing with terrible consequences but this was the norm for the times, as has been the situation in the Lebanon and Iraq and countless other places throughout subsequent time.

Then man and slave boy appear to set off and experience the sights and sounds of Rome in all their splendid colours of excess but to what point and where will it lead?

It leads o the valley of death a bleak sterile landscape where one character feigns death while the body of another is used to replace a hanging man who has been removed, and whose disappearance would cause death for the lover of the woman who is burying her husband.

At this point the main character, his friend's brother and their beautiful boy slave are captured by a marauding sea captain collecting young men for the pleasure of the diseased Caesar on his island, and during which voyage the main character is married as the wife the marauding captain in great ceremony. However fortunes change dramatically when a new Caesar with forces arrives to kill and depose the old Caesar and this frees the young men who are able to continue their travels which become a mystical odyssey.

They encounter a woman afflicted with nymphomania whose husband pays them to ease the problem while on the way to visit an oracle healer who is a pale girl boy child who for some reason the trio capture/transport to somewhere, with the consequence the being dies from lack of water and exposure to the sun. They then encounter a being with the head of a creature and the body of human.

The fake Minotaur leads the principle character into an arena where the nobles sit resplendent in their robes and metal headdresses while the young man looks on from high up on rocks as if all the people of his past are there to witness. However the gladiator listens to his appeals because he is a sensitive poet and not a fighter and in turn appeals to nobles to accept the young man.

The nobles explains that this is all a joke and everyone laughs and as a reward he is given a woman, and required to perform before the multitude he fails, and she scorns him and he is left in disgrace distraught again, and goes off again with his friend when he encounters a former friend who leads him to the garden of delights where at one point he is gently whipped by gentle women rhythmically but this fails, but he is revised after meeting an interesting female who has spurned a magician who retaliates by dowsing the village fires and then these can only be reignited from the loins of the woman. They then go off on further sea voyages, his friend dies but we do not know how. The film ends abruptly leaving his portrait in stone.

The film shocked and still shocks because of some of its excesses, but I remained bemused, wondering if I had nodded off and missed bits.

I looked for enlightenment in the reviews of others. The film is based on the segments of a work written at the time of Nero and Fellini intentionally made the film that way with disjointed inexplicable changes of scene which suggest the actual reality of history chaos theory coupled with Jung theories of the collective unconscious.

My memory was of a piece of self indulgent nonsense, adding nothing to any contemporary experience. I remain to be convinced that I am wrong. I also remembered Roma which I am yet to view.

So as with my one time reactions to contemporary art judgement had to be based on more experience with Amarcord, La Strada and others. And then I discovered Giulietta Masina, who he married, and something of why Fellini achieved four best foreign film Oscars.