None of Felini’s mid-career or late work really does anything for me, but “La Strada” is a film I think about at least once a month, years after seeing it. The characters are so archetypal and tragic, it feels like an adaptation of some lost piece of ancient theater.
If you like the archetypal, tragical, allegorical narratives which derive the inspiration from ancient or religious cultures, then I advise you to watch "Teorema" by Pier Paolo Pasolini. In fact, italian art cinema school was very rich and brave in its interpretations and usage of what is considered classical in European tradition, so there are a lot of masterpieces which you might like.
I don't know if you're okay with scrolling wikipedia entries on films you haven't seen (I usually do it before I watch anything), so I won't spare the details. But there is a substantial analysis of "Teorema" structure on wiki in case you would like to get acquainted with it.
This is quite a cryptic
piece and reading and retreading I’m quite at a loss for what, if anything, is being said about Fellini or his work.
What am I missing or is this vapid?
8 1/2 is an “ugly display”?
What does that even mean?
It’s an incredible and feverish masterpiece, isn’t it?
What is an “ugly display” even in the context of this piece of “writing”? Is that a pejorative or not? Is it intended to give me anything? Or is this some diffusion of some kind?
Yeah, I hate to be that guy, but this author seems to fundamentally misunderstand a lot of 8 1/2 or criticize Fellini because of his inherent apoliticism. The New Yorker can't seem to write any sort of cultural commentary any more without injecting the supposed bogeyman of the day.
For instance: I'm not sure how one can interpret the 'harem' scene [1] as anything other than a critical take on the [universal and common] ego fantasy that all our former lovers will come back to us, apologetic and begging to be with us again.
> What’s going on here? Is Fellini paying lip service to a new moral dispensation that he doesn’t understand, or honestly chiding himself for former sins? Either way, the film is an ugly display, and...
