Review of The White Sheik

"The film robustly freewheels between a girl's swooning abandon in an almost surreal surrounding (roistering troupers in costumes included) and a man's piteous befuddlement and predicament, and Fellini clearly indulges in the revelry and hubbub. But Wanda's untoward jollification will eventually shade into a letdown of reality check, when her jolly, affectionate idol's charming facade starts to unravel, as a playacting actor, Fernando is reduced to a henpecked buffoon as soon as his chat-up with Wanda on a sailing boat finishes and his thickset wife appears, thus Wanda's folly becomes a parable of a fangirl's caprice, whose castle-in-the-air finality is extraordinarily foreshadowed by the White Sheik's magic "swinging aloft" entrance. "Don't meet your idol" is a fair warning to heed and a starstruck Bovo makes a meal of her transition from doe-eyed demureness to remorse-driven pietà in the aftermath of a dashed dream (even the Tiber river pulls her leg in the nadir)."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks