IN SEARCH OF FELLINI
US, 2017, 93 minutes, Colour.
Maria Bello, Ksenia Solo, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Barbara Bouchet, Nancy Cartwright, Lorenzo Balducci, Paolo Bernadini.
Directed by Taron Lexton.
In Search of Fellini is an unusual American film, small budget, focused on a sheltered young woman and her emergence into the world – via her interest in the films of Fellini.
Ksenia Solo plays Lucy, a 20-year-old, who has been brought up by her mother, a single mother who has devoted her life to her daughter, smothering her in many ways. She is Claire, played by Maria Bello. Also in the house is her unmarried sister, Carrie, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, who has to be protective of both mother and daughter.
When Lucy decides that she will move out from home and go to the city, she answers an advertisement, thinking that she will get a job in a film company – it is a film company, but making pornographic films and Lucy flees after the advances of the producer.
In the streets, she see some characters and advertisements for a Festival of Fellini films. She goes to the Festival and sees La Strada, identifying with Giulietta Massina’s Gelsomina. Going home, she has copies of Fellini films, with posters in her room, watches the films and becomes entranced. Her mother and aunt see some of the film is and are not quite sure how to interpret them, explaining them away as art.
However, Lucy takes initiatives, phones Fellini’s office, makes an arrangement to meet him, goes to Italy, landing in Verona where she loses her luggage. There she encounters a genial young man, who accompanies her around the city, and responds sexually to him, opening up her personality in ways she had not imagined. She is more worldly-wise when she goes to Venice, again finds a young man of whom she asks the way to the railway station, he inviting her to a party, rather Felliniesque with some grotesque characters. In the meantime, the secretary at Fellini’s office has become exasperated with her – and the final time she rings, Fellini has died.
At the same time, her mother is ill and also dies.Saoirse Ronan also wanting to move out into life.
1. An American story? Family, the movies, culture? The contrast with Italy, Italian culture, as seen in the films of Federico Fellini? And the setting in the town of Rimini, Ohio?
2. Audience knowledge of Fellini and his films? Seeing them, liking them? Lucy and her response? Her mother’s and her aunt’s response? Appreciation, humanity, the touch of the grotesque, relationships, sexuality?
3. The insertion of various groups, generally from earlier films, well known, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, Juliet of the Spirits, Satyricon, glimpses of later films? Scenes from Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet? Frank Capra and It’s a Wonderful Life?
4. The situation? Claire and Carrie, their bonds, growing up, memories of their mother, Claire’s pregnancy, possessing her daughter, yet Carrie having to be a double mother for Claire and Lucy, the years passing, Lucy and her name of light, being protected, in a seemingly Capra world? Love, but having to let go?
5. Claire and Carrie as characters, their interactions, Clash, love, Claire and the diagnosis, Carrie and her care, Claire’s tantrums, waiting for phone calls and Lucy, illness and death?
6. Lucy 20, the linking with Gelsomina from La Strada? Moving out, the advertisement, her reply, rehearsing her statements for the manager, going by bike, going to Cleveland, the girls for the auditions, the interview, the fact that the company was production of sex films, the director and his advances, Lucy fleeing?
7. Seeing the strongman from La Strada in the street, following him, the screenings of Fellini films? The images of Fellini himself, the interview segments? Seeing La Strada? The issue of meanings in life? Gelsomina and her innocence?
8. At home, her room, the posters of Fellini, the copies of his films on VHS, her watching them? Later Claire and Carrie watching? The shock, trying to find meaning, seeing them as art?
9. Lucy ringing Fellini’s office, the welcoming assistant, her various calls, the welcome, the reactions? Going to Europe, the later phone calls, her being put off? Fellini dead, his funeral?
10. Lucy in Europe, losing her luggage, the visit to Verona, the scenic aspects, the young man welcoming her, the artist, the arena, the memories of Romeo and Juliet, the motel, the artist and his care, the talk, the sexual encounter and the effect on Lucy?
11. Her going to Venice, the scenic aspects, the strongman? The young man attracted, her talking with him, wanting the way to the station? The art, his inviting her to the party, the invitation to a Dolce Vita orgy and rituals? The man’s attack, Lucy fleeing?
12. Going to Rome, the intercut of her mother and aunt watching the films, the puzzle? Lucy and the parallels?
13. Fellini’s comment about reality and imagination and their not being a line? This film of reality and imagination?
14. Lucy, the meaning of her life, her future?
