PodBill Just what I expected

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

TheLittleSongbird While not one of my favourite Federico Fellini films, this is one of his best early films, almost as good with Il Bidone and on par on I Vitelloni. As ever with Fellini it is beautifully filmed with a touch of quaintness, and his direction is restrained compared to his later films and with a mischievous touch of comedy and fantasy. Nino Rota's score is rousing and cheerful, almost like being at a carnival, while the writing is funny and moving- one of the most beautiful lines of any of Fellini's movies is "Our real lives are in our dreams, but sometimes dreams are a fatal abyss"- and the story is comically precise and sympathetic. The characters are engaging, again while not as identifiable as La Strada and Nights of Cabiria they are not detached as Casanova and Satyricon. Alberto Sordi's performance is top drawer as the dissolute titular character, while Leopoldo Trieste is arresting in his comic timing and Brunella Bovo is wonderfully innocent and entrancing. Giulietta Masina would go on to do even better performances like in Nights of Cabiria but she is still terrific. Overall, a great Fellini film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

bobsgrock The name Fellini brings to mind some of the great films of the 20th century; La Dolce Vita, La Strada, and 8 1/2 come to mind. However, every legend has a beginning, and Fellini's was here. Here, we see the neo-realist influence that affected most of his early work, and it works perfectly to capture the hustle and bustle of the city of Rome as well as tell the story of a newlywed couple on a perfect honeymoon with a not-so perfect relationship.Fellini does remarkable work in cutting back and forth between the travels of the bride as she seeks out her favorite soap opera star, The White Sheik, and that of the groom desperately trying to impress his family. It gives a sense that even if dreams seem more fun and desirable than the real world we live in, it is not always perhaps the most beneficial path. This is a theory that seemed to change with time as Fellini's films became more dream-like, but here it is apparent that realism reigns, at least for this awe-struck couple.

sol- Quite an interesting comedy with ideas about fantasy versus reality, a wonderful Nino Rota score, and great work by Bovo, an actress who can capture some great expressions on her face: realistically big-eyed, naïve and innocent, as is required for her character. The film does however suffer from unevenness, trying to balance two styles of comedy - light-hearted semi fantasy and silly slapstick. By themselves either style works fine, but when joined together, it becomes a little messy. The film is not really helped by excessively silly supporting characters, and Trieste feels very over-the-top at times. Still, the aforementioned virtues, and interesting camera-work with an extensive range of different angles, are enough to keep this film afloat. Definitely recommended, even if not perfect.

MisterWhiplash ...that Federico Fellini, one of the most gifted and visually wild Italian directors of the 20th century, blossomed out until with his masterpiece 8 1/2 (which, by the time he got to, as Martin Scorsese once said, "he was on Mars"). With his first solo effort, parting ways with Rossellini but not entirely from neo-realism, he went back to one of his passions- comic-book writing. Los Sciecco Bianco (The White Shiek) is likely one of Fellini's funniest works, and it shows him gearing up his visual sense of space, and with his trademark characters (set, which is his usual, in Rome).The story is quite simple and, for the novice to Fellini's daring feats of the 60's, entertaining and accessible. A man with a level of pride in his family's connections in bureaucracy and religion in Rome (played by Leopoldo Triste, with perfect usage of wide eyes), is married to a young woman, Wanda (Brunella Bovo). She loves him, but finds him perhaps a little un-easy to be around for a day. So, she sneaks off for what she thinks is just a momentary call for fandom- she's a big fan of 'the white sheik', the star of the kinds of comics being printed in Italy (mostly for women, as said on the DVD, they were still photos as opposed to drawings, with pulp/love stories). But, in a Fellinian twist, Wanda gets whisked away by the shooting crew of the series, and Ivan (Triste) is stuck in one of those text-book comic situations, where everything is "under control". The results are rather funny, if also intriguing.The little characters are also what makes the film fun, aside from our lead couple, and with this film we get the white sheik himself, Fernando Rivoli (Alberto Sordi, who finds that line between a stealthily romantic type and hopelessly dim), and the crew, filled with their little comments. Plus, there is a late-night visit to Ivan in a despairing state, from Cabiria (later to appear in one of Masina/Fellini's best combinations, Nights of Cabiria), involving a flame shooter. And as the film unravels, it becomes key to the fun- we know things will turn out right somehow, but how is what makes the film work (unlike Fellini, some might think, as many of his other films are the opposite, with flights of fantastical comedy in hopeless tragedies). It's not a great film, there are some inconsistencies, and at a couple of points the pace loses its strength. But if this was a place to evolve from for the director, it's not a bad place in the slightest. That there are wonderful turns for Trieste, Bovo, Marchio, and legendary composer Nina Rota, is another reason to watch it.