Ensayo de orquesta

This movie is one of my all-time favourites: through the "metaphor" of music, a universal picture of a power struggle is shown. Although this may appear 'thin', many layers of this struggle are peeled off. The German (looking) conductor appears to portray an easy comparison to Adolf Hitler, but another could be to Herbert von Karajan, the dictatorial conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker. And then there is the great music score, that still lingers in my head, although I have not been able to find a recording of it (CD/LP?)(after almost 30 years!). I saw this movie again some years ago and it does not look dated. While I am not a Fellini adept and this movie was seen as one of his minor ones, this is a real classic to me.

This miniature movie's tempo builds, stops and starts in that comical, jerky way characteristic of Fellini. It's one of the things I like.

The interviews are a riot!

It appears to be a parable of the last few hundred years of European history.

I read some people saying that this film made no sense, and that it's just a orchestra rehearsal; it hurst how wrong they are. As any other Fellini, you have to scratch the surface, and you will find a great meaning. That's what I love about his films, they make you think! If you think nothing happened in this movie, go watch a Transformers film, you'll probably thing that there's a lot going on while there's nothing at all. While it may lack Fellini's characteristic powerful visuals, it has a very powerful meaning about politics, society and life. Awesome movie, and great for it's lenght

Perhaps not your usual Fellini film, if there is such a thing, but, made between his Casanova (1976) and City of Women (1980), this is an intriguing if rather short and enigmatic piece. Ostensibly a documentary but almost as soon as the musicians begin turning up, all does not seem to be quite as expected. Has the director really found an orchestra with so many oddball characters? Is the German conductor a fascist dictator in disguise? Are the proceedings really to be monitored by a trade union shop steward? Is this more a comment upon Italian politics of the time than a showcase for music? All may be revealed to each upon his or her own viewing and interpretation but for me it is a brave and amusing piece that perhaps loses a fair bit without awareness of the considerable turmoil within Italy at the time. One of the most interesting elements happens to be that Nino Rota wrote the music that is rehearsed and then performed within the film and that it was one of the last things he did before dying the following year, having scored around 150 films including almost every single one for Federico Fellini.

Fellini's "Prova d'orchestra" was originally made for television, and there it should have stayed. As a cinematic event, it does not deliver. Yes, it's well directed and nicely acted, it has an interesting idea in it, but it's not enough for me to enjoy it. Eventually it looks like an exercise by some cinema student and not like a piece by Fellini, one of a few cinema genius of our time. I was disappointed, even though I enjoyed parts of it. My Grade: *** (out of *****)