I Vitelloni

The story concerns a group of five young men, 20-30 years of age, who lay about in the small provincial town of Rimini, drinking, carousing, trolling for women, or talking about the women that they dream about. The film's title, "Vitelloni," means literally "overgrown calves" and fits these men to a tee. They're all single, unemployed, and still live with their mammas. They don't so much have dreams or ambitions as excuses and fantasies of bright futures that might materialize miraculously. In the meantime, they grasp at any pleasure that's available. Their parents dutifully struggle at supporting extended families, but derive precious little satisfaction from life.


Overview
Racked with the boredom that defines their small-town life, five young men resort to a number of unconventional means to keep themselves occupied in director Federico Fellini's second feature film -- arriving on DVD courtesy of The Criterion Collection. Presented in 1.33:1 full-frame and featuring audio rendered in Italian Dolby Digital Mono, this release also offers optional English subtitles and a variety of extra features that are sure to appeal to Fellini fans. The exclusive documentary "Vitellonismo" offers a wealth of revealing interviews with such Fellini contemporaries as the late Leopoldo Trieste and Vincenzo Mollica among many others, and viewers can also access photo galleries, an original theatrical trailer, and a new essay by My Cold War author Tom Piazza.


All Movie Guide
This early masterpiece from Federico Fellini won the Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and inaugurated a decade-long stretch that cemented his status as a cinematic giant. A thinly veiled memoir by this most autobiographical of filmmakers, I Vitelloni follows the meanderings of a group of five friends -- the titular vitelloni, or layabouts -- who linger in an adolescent limbo in their parochial seaside town. Fellini employs an episodic narrative and slow tracking shots to capture beautifully the ebb and flow of his characters' aimless lives. For a movie about arrested development and paralysis, it's irrepressibly giddy. I Vitelloni evinces Fellini's career-long obsession with the carnival and performance. An impromptu street mambo is the kind of delirious throwaway moment that Fellini practically invented, while the movie's set piece, a grand masquerade ball, prefigures the parties in future Fellini films. Considering it was only his third directorial outing, the movie is remarkable for how fully formed it seems. From the cozily recognizable strains of Nino Rota's score to the festive mise-en-scene, I Vitelloni is unmistakably Fellini-esque. Amplifying the movie's familiarity is its far-reaching influence: essentially the template for all young-men-stuck-in-adolescence movies, I Vitelloni has inspired filmmakers as disparate as Martin Scorsese and Giuseppe Tornatore. Generous and ultimately heart-breaking, I Vitelloni may well be the most big-hearted of the Italian master's movies.