Sometimes charming, sometimes emotional, sometimes simply boring. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It is, at the very least, quite its own beast.

Fellini's tribute to opera doesn't have that spark of brilliance to put it alongside his masterpieces. But it does have a variety of fun characters, some unusual ideas, and a handful of really magnificent scenes. And there's nothing terribly flawed about the film, except that the fake vintage footage doesn't quite work. But artifice is part of the package, notably in some of the blatantly artificial sets and the finale, most likely meant to parallel the artifice one would see in an opera.

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What begins as an era-appropriate sepia-tinted silent slowly begins to seep color and sound, then explodes into full-force opera. A buzzing fast-motion kitchen gives way to the slow-motion elegance of fine dining. An omniscient narrator speaks directly to the audience. The artificial sets are duly noted, one character exclaiming the painterly quality of a sunset. Fellini keeps reminding us that we are watching a movie, achieving a whimsical kind of fourth-wall expressionism. It's a blast.

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# 923

I should probably rewatch this some time, but the first time I did it bored me, despite being a Fellini.

Gentle and humane, as dreamlike as anything Fellini ever made, full of haunted characters like an Edward Gorey book come to life. Next to the hypnotic opening scene, my favorite sequence has the singers vocalizing in the steam plant (which looks astonishingly like the steam plant in FLAH GORDON's city of the hawkmen . . .)

There's a wonderful charm and energy about this movie that won me over in the midst of its mediocrity. I would later learn this is a trait shared by nearly every Fellini, usually to greater effect. I still like this.

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