I Vitelloni Reviews

This semiautobiographical work by Federico Fellini was the first film to bring him a measure of world attention. As in AMARCORD (his film of nearly two decades later), the setting is the seaside town of Rimini, Fellini's birthplace. The plot follows the adventures of five youths who refuse to grow up and accept responsibility. Only one of the gang, Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi, the young boy from SHOESHINE) comes to understand that life in the small town is a relatively empty existence, while his friends are content to play meaningless games that lend momentary security but ultimately make them puppets to forces beyond their control. VITELLONI is filled with the cinematic excesses that were to clutter Fellini's later films, though here they seem much more insightful in describing the tribulations of adolescent rites of passage.