During the course of I Vitelloni, several characters leave the small coastal village that provides its setting, some permanently and some temporarily. While their goodbyes are emotional, our attention is drawn to the oppressive silence that follows in the wake of these departures. Federico Fellini knows these places. He knows their paralyzing comfort, and he knows the intense desire to escape them.
Though he became known for grand, bold images in later masterpieces like 8½, Amarcord, and La Dolce Vita, Fellini’s greatness sprung from his ability to visualize intensely personal experiences and feelings. This quality infects every second of I Vitelloni as we follow roughly a year in the lives of a small group of friends aimlessly drifting through their twenties.
The action kicks off with the revelation that Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), the shameless womanizer of the group, has gotten a young woman pregnant. Her name is Sandra (Leonora Ruffo), and she is the sister of Fausto’s friend Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi). The reactions of both men portend much of their behavior throughout the film: Fausto’s first instinct is to leave town to avoid responsibility for his actions, while Moraldo looks on in silent disappointment yet does little to challenge his friend. It’s only after being shamed by his father that Fausto does the right thing and marries Sandra.
The two leave on their honeymoon, and we get to spend a little time with Fausto and Moraldo’s other friends. Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) is an aspiring, if unmotivated, singer and actor. Alberto (Alberto Sordi) clings desperately to the stability of his family, which is imperiled by his sister’s ongoing affair with a married man. And Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) is an amateur playwright who fancies himself the only artist in a town of philistines.
These men, it should be pointed out, are all unemployed and living at home. They are layabouts (the literal definition of the film’s title) who spend their days wandering the beach and their nights partying. Moraldo seems, at first glance, to be the most mature and responsible of the group, but his devotion to his friends tends to override his better impulses. Even during their worst behavior – which runs the gamut from harassing women on the street all the way to theft – he offers little more than token admonishments.
Which brings us back to Fausto. Having returned from his honeymoon, the lad gets a job at a local shop and attempts to be a dutiful husband. But his eye wanders almost immediately, and his repeated betrayals of Sandra are all the more cruel for how obvious they are. He does love her, as evidenced by how the sight of her tears seems to devastate him so, but like a child he continues his bad behavior before finally being taught a lesson.
While the text above more or less paints a picture of what happens in the movie, I can’t possibly put into words the sense of place Fellini injects into the film. I’ve never set foot in Italy, yet the village in I Vitelloni is as familiar to me as my own hometown. There are moments so carefully drawn that they could be anecdotes from anyone’s family, moments that made me chuckle with recognition. I particularly loved a scene where a hungover Alberto returns home from a masquerade ball to find that his sister is leaving town with her married lover. Tearfully commiserating with his mother, Alberto resolves to get a job and become the breadwinner of the family.
“Oh, do you have something lined up?” asks his mother. “No”, he replies, before falling into a chair and instantly passing out.
Fellini’s love for these characters bleeds through the screen. Their foibles and shortcomings are so touchingly rendered that you wonder if they’re not based on real people from the director’s life. Moraldo certainly seems like he could be autobiographical. I definitely identified with him, especially the way he hovers at the edge of his circle of friends, desiring their warmth yet longing to see what else is out there.
If you haven’t seen any of Fellini’s work, this is a pretty good movie with which to introduce yourself to him. It’s as accessible as any film he’s made, and its charm seems unlikely to ever fade.
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