Quick, when you think of Fellini, what's the first adjective that springs to mind? Well, if it's not "funny" then you haven't seen this one, which is instantly the Fellini I most enjoyed (although there were certainly funny bits in Amarcord), although I will admit it doesn't have the heft of 8½ or La Dolce Vita. What we have here is a whirlwind visit to Rome by a honeymooning young small-town couple with different ideas of the point of the visit.
He, Ivan, the officious and controlling (if ineffectual) bridegroom (who kept reminding me of a mixture of Harpo Marx and Gene Wilder because of the way his eyes kept bugging)
has an agenda that manages their time to the millisecond, and it's all to be spent with his relatives, in particular his uncle who works in the Vatican and has managed to score an audience with the Pope (along with 200 other couples). She, Wanda, the apparently mousy, but in reality determined and fanatical bride (Brunella Bovo, whose face is equally expressive and whose gift for comedy should've resulted in her rocketing to stardom after this film, instead of sliding into relative obscurity as she evidently did) intends instead to visit the offices of her favorite photo-comic (which apparently exploded in popularity in the 50s in Italy, and which were referred to as fumetti elsewhere), in the hopes of delivering a portrait she has drawn of her favorite character (the titular White Sheik) to the actor who portrays him (who, when we meet him, seems rather paunchy and ordinary, although she cannot see it). She manages to squeeze an opportunity to do this into her husband's regimented agenda by asking for a bath in the hotel
(it is early in the morning as they arrive in Rome by train, having apparently traveled through the night - and thus their marriage remains unconsummated) which he magnanimously allows. She slips out while he is napping, but, alas, leaves the water running, which presents him with the first of many inconveniences on what is to be a long and humiliating day for him. Thereafter we cut back and forth between Wanda's escapades - she starts out wonderfully, meeting the writer of all her favorite stories
and contributing a cliffhanging line of dialogue for the latest installment of the White Sheik, but then becomes increasingly overwhelmed, as she is whisked off on a a truck to the seaside over 20 km outside Rome where she finally meets her idol
- and Ivan's increasingly desperate attempts to convince his family that Wanda is confined to their room with a headache. Wanda gets a role as a harem girl in the production, although her inability to stop beaming with joy rather undercuts the impression that she is in peril. However, predictably, the White Sheik turns out to be a lech (putting the moves on her on a borrowed sailing boat) and a married one, at that, although Wanda buys his ridiculous story that his wife entrapped him with a potion (to his horror, when she repeats it back to the wife who shows up at the photoshoot). Eventually Wanda runs off and is left behind by the crew when they can't find her. She does make her way home (driven by another cad who had been at the beach and hung around the photoshoot all day - that's him in his undershirt)
but cannot bear to face her husband and resolves to drown herself in the river, which, alas, turns out to be ankle deep at the place she attempts it. Meanwhile Ivan wanders the streets sobbing until he is consoled by two ladies of the night (one of them is Cabiria,
played by Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, who gets a whole film to herself later). We do not know what happens to Ivan, but he is seen being led off by the non-Cabiria-prostitute and then shows up with a 5-o'clock shadow at his hotel in the morning to find his family already waiting in the lobby. Before he can collect himself, he gets a phone call telling him that his wife has been institutionalized. He faints, but recovers to find his family about to put him in the room that they think Wanda is in. He hastily sends them away, promising to meet them at 11 at the Vatican for the rescheduled audience with the Pope. This gives him time to rush to the institution, throw some clothes at Wanda
and race to the Vatican. Wanda is clearly a chastised woman as they are walking towards the Papal palace, but she insists that nothing happened and she remains pure. At this he starts somewhat but hastily assures her that he is too (hmm....). Fin. What have we learned? What have they learned? Not enough to ensure a happy and settled life, I fear, but their tribulations were certainly fodder for our amusement over a brisk 90 minutes. And now we just have 16 films of the 50 remaining...
No comments:
Post a Comment