Ginger e Fred

Fellini takes a stab at television in this wonderful satire. It's Christmas, and an Italian "Ed Sullivan" type show is having a special, by re-uniting acts that were featured years ago. There is a hilarious (for those in the know) swipe at Woody Allen, who has been parodying Fellini for years. It's a bit deliberately paced, but the chemistry between the stars makes it worthwhile.

Before I saw this movie, I had heard how it was considered one of Federico Fellini's more accessible movies. If this was meant of Fellini's films from the sixties on, I can agree with that. The film is basically two things: one big jab at television and giving Giuletta Masina the opportunity to show everyone how adorable she is (she succeeds). The TV angle, however scathing it may have been in 1986; today with the plethora of reality TV shows, the film just seems prescient. The film's very basic storyline is Masina reuniting with old dance partner Marcello Mastroianni for a TV show. Filling in the rest of the movie (and sometimes obscuring the main story) are the many oddball characters scheduled for the TV show. As anyone familiar with Fellini knows, he loves outrageous people. In this film, for example, there are transsexuals, psychics, a midget troupe and a cow with many teats. The first part of the movie, at the hotel, is a little too much because everything is thrown at the viewer at once. The characters, television, Ginger and Fred, all vie for your attention and it can be overwhelming. Once at the studio, the film kind of settles down and one is able to enjoy the film and it's characters. Not one of Fellini's best but also not only for fanatics of Fellini either.

Ginger e Fred (1986) is one of the few movies (4 in all) Fellini made in the '80s,and the ripest fruit of his late career,the acme of his narrative cinema.(In the 7th decade of the 20th century,Fellini also made relatively few films:only 4,and also 2 sketches.)Is "Ginger ..." Fellini's best movie?I don't know that;but it certainly is the one that I cherish most.Exquisite, unobjectionable, unparalleled cinema? Surely!Within the Fellini criteria,this is a rather simple movie,deprived of experiments,etc.;it is,of course,of no avail to be "told",but not because it lacks a "story",only that it is a simple,uneventful one.A sudden return to what we may call a perennial realism,of a perfect incision and a welcome sobriety of means,a huge appetite for giving an objective and transitive creation (though the resources of grotesque,tenderness,comic,Oneiric ,a detached Inebriety,satire,effects of strange,caricatures,etc.,are also used).It is also a return to a narrative form,and a very comic movie:in this film,Fellini has a content to be told,to be molded and put in an epic shape.The weird people could not miss,on the contrary;but the movie has an obvious realistic aim,in a comical,satirical and tender key.As shape,it is not an essay,but a realist narration,and each thing,though caricatured,is plausible.I would say that Fellini has,in "Ginger ...",so firm a notion on what he wants to say,that he can afford himself to be playful.He can afford it,as the main aim of his movie is so firmly handled.He had some things to say about love,life,old age,career,art,TV,contemporary life,etc.,some very straight things.For this movie,he chosen to deepen in the contemporary world;moreover,here he has not anymore that sense of tearing,of speechless pained,exasperated sensibility that gave a very special note to his '50s movies.A shivering,a feverishness.Mrs. Masina,in her room,looking outside:she sees a Martian landscape.

Throughout his 50 years career,Fellini made some TV creations (such as The Clowns and A Director's Notebook).In "Ginger ...",he expresses all his disgust for that institution,in a very acid charge.Is Fellini ever "non-judgmental", as some would like to believe?Never.

Mastroianni,with his whistles,and licentious jokes,and bad language,and courtesy.Fellini always allowed his actors to be great,to do THEIR creations,he never used them as mere puppets.Must I praise here Mastroianni's perfect mastery of his profession,his exquisite and tasty professionalism,in the noblest sense of this banal word?Fellini was a too generous, too intelligent director,not to let,and not to encourage Mastroianni be himself and give his best.Hence ,Mastroianni's "Pippo" is a whole chapter in the acting's history.(Hitchcock was not content with Clift,and I don't think he was with Newman;Antonioni was not content with Harris.Well,Fellini seemed to like the actors with strong personalities:he had in his movies Mastroianni,Anthony Quinn, Basehart, Broderick Crawford,Sordi,Terence Stamp,Anouk Aimée,François Périer, etc.,etc.!He never disliked or avoided to work with the great actors;this is a sign of his abundant and good-humored endowment,able to engross others' aptitude for creation .With Fellini,the actor's dignity is safe,and restored,the actor is allowed to display his endowment and work,his creation is sustained by the director.)In "Ginger ...",as in some other shows he did as an oldster,Mastroianni finds that exactness,that roundness,that plenitude,that sureness,that pleasantness,that made him maybe the most sure-footed actor.In his youth and maturity,Mastroianni's force came from his dexterity,intrepidity,etc.;now,there is this sheer artistic robustness.

Watch Mastroianni and Mrs. Masina,to see for yourself how far,how deep the actors' art can go.

Ginger e Fred is much more a film about the Italian psyche than a film about an old dance team that reunites after 40 years to appear on a TV variety show. It takes place at Christmastime, and having spent Christmas in Rome, the fun-insane carnival atmosphere Fellini depicts is pretty accurate, but exaggerated for film. Walking around Rome I found subconscious playing back bits of the soundtrack and it was only then that I realized how much I love this film. It's also about people who time leave behind. And about two people who are tragically unable to say how much they do love each other. It's also very very funny. Fellini go the idea for the film after seeing his older films butchered on Italian TV. A highlight is an old woman who was paid not to watch TV for a month. She's brought into the studio a mental wreck, swearing she'll never do it again and promises to watch more and more TV.

Federico Fellini is one of the greatest directors and screenwriters the world has ever seen...and that must be the biggest understatement of the century. He had the ability to take simple, real elements and transform them into a surreal, enchanting experience that speaks for itself without the aid of a complicated plot or a multi-million dollar production design (although that's not to say his films aren't visually breath-taking). Even though it's not one of his greatest masterpieces, "Ginger e Fred" is one such film that demonstrates his never-ending talent.

The main plot is as simple as it gets. Amelia and Pippo (Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni) are old friends who haven't seen each other for years, and in their youth, they were reasonably famous for their imitation of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, doing their classic tap dancing and glamorous choreographies. Now, they're very old, but they're being invited by a big (and sleazy) TV station to perform in their epic Christmas program reenacting their age-old act. The film is about these two old people, seeing each other after so many years, and remembering those golden years when they were celebrated, important, and had the spark of love and friendship alive for each other.

They're not the only ones invited to the show, though. A huge cast of quirky and colourful characters also make their appearance, each one trying to grab their share of the spotlight performing sometimes interesting, sometimes plain stupid, acts and/or abilities and "amazing" stories. We see an (obviously) Fellini-esquire array of supporting freaks- the priest who renounced his vows to marry his lover, the monk who levitates, the singing slovenly dwarfs, Swedish townsfolk with their fifteen-tit cow, a transsexual who services an entire prison row and is being processed for it, a medium who listens to ghosts through a tape recorder...the list is endless. They all have odious, over-familiar dialogue which makes us relate to the grotesque things we think well of in life. Our heroes, Amelia and Pippo, are thrown in with this collection of freaks, and find themselves both hating and liking the situation they've accepted.

The images the film presents are as unusual and as surreal as we have come to experience through other Fellini films. The dialogue sounds casual and witty, but is continually spiked with longing, electricity, loathing and disenchantment. Our main characters speak and travel this (seemingly) alternate world they've entered and find it horrifyingly equal to that they live in. The way they all try to hog the spotlight, their unnatural addiction to TV and celebrities, the way they're all brainwashed through the televised images...Fellini makes a point on all of these. He also continually presents TV commercials about pork and meat, each commercial bearing a scantly-clad woman with a gruesome piece of meat and proclaiming it to be utterly delicious. The people believe it. We also see various posters and written advertisements with strange and slightly disturbing images for a variety of products that don't work, and proclaiming nothing but lies. People believe them.

We see two main characters, Amelia and Pippo, being likable characters trying to relive their friendship, trying to regain their previous vitality and trying to fit in with a series of "freaks" (in every sense of the word) in a world where greed, money, fame and awful manners have been allowed to run rampant. We see our main characters trying to quit their association with this distasteful universe only to be drawn in over and over again by a faint memory of fame, by an interlude with someone famous, by the expectations their friends have of them.

We, as the audience, feel happy to relate to these old friends who have met once again, and feel their angst. We also feel a certain repugnant hate for the rest of the characters, unfeeling beasts who (to our surprise and chagrin) also seem, each in their own way, very similar to us and the people that surround us. And what is all the more interesting is the way Fellini never even delves into the personalities of these characters (with the exception of Amelia and Pippo) but indirectly spends every second of the film injecting meaning and objection into them. The images, of course, speak for themselves.

Masina and Mastroianni are perfect in their roles, the music is both catchy and nostalgic, the costumes are...well, out of this world and the screenplay is both earthbound and ethereal. I couldn't understand the emotional implications of the ending, but I suppose that must be Fellini's point, to leave the audience thinking. And, believe me, this movie does get you thinking! And though it's definitely not one of Fellini's greatest, it still is entertaining and amusing to analyze.

Rating: 3 stars and a half out of 4!