This short feature from Federico Fellini is amusing and relatively free of the artiface that characterizes most of his later work. I could take or leave the historical allegory of Europe --for me the pleasures are mostly on the surface: the music & discussion of the instruments and their personalities.

A minor film from Fellini, albeit an interesting and intriguing one. A humorous musical documentary that soon transforms into a rather sloppy allegory about the necessity of authority (?). Solid performances, cunning script, but the result feels merely like a collection of unrealized ideas. Fellini's direction is nerveless and the editing problematic -there seems to be no natural flow in the narrative. Sound and image not being synchronized is also distracting.

Score based on distant memory.