User Reviews

I think this is the last great Federico Fellini picture. Maybe it's not as classic as "I vitelloni", "La strada", "Le notti di Cabiria", "La dolce vita", "Otto e mezzo" and "Amarcord", but it's a return to a more comedy style and it's one of the most accessible works of the Maestro as well.

"Ginger e Fred" (1985) comes after a series of more experimental films from Fellini. In this satirical comedy about TV power, a couple of old dancers reunite for a Christmas show. They enter a world where everything is taken for making audience, the two and their art are just caricatures... But who cares? The only important thing is audience.

In this feature Fellini warns about TV dangers -in a very sarcastic way he anticipates what TV is today with all these Reality shows.

The film is a typical Fellini picture -the story has not a real plot, it's a voyage where strange people (also in a physical way!) meet, we always can find exaggerated and ambiguous situations...

At the same time there's a lot of tenderness between the two dancers, superbly played by Marcello Mastroianni (who starred in several Fellini works) and Giulietta Masina (the actual Fellini's wife). It's useless to say that the chemistry between the two main actors is rally great.

It's quite a nostalgic movie -it seems that Fellini looks back and thinks about a world in which fantasy and creativity could be expressed in a better way, whereas TV kills everything.

The two subsequent films of the Italian director ("Intervista" and "La voce della luna") are rather minor -although poetic they're not as fresh and simple as "Ginger e Fred".

We miss Federico, Giulietta and Marcello.

This wasn't a bad film, though those without previous knowledge of Fellini's films may not like it as much. Giuletta Masina and Marcello Mastroani give their usual great performances. I actually thought Marcello gave one of his better performances here, in that he displayed a great comedic timing. I am mostly familiar with Fellini's pre-1970 films so I was not sure how a film made in the 1980's would do (given how much cinema had changed from the 50's/60's to the 80's), but he still delivers an enjoyable film, thanks in large part to good acting by the two leads. I enjoyed the satirical attack on television and the modern era (advertisting, etc.), which I happen to strongly agree with. The TV show scene near the end contains your typical Fellini "magic" and aesthetics, so I enjoyed that as well. This is by no means comparable to Fellini's masterpieces, but is still a well-made and enjoyable film, and more accessible than some of his more outrageous stuff he's made in past years. 7/10.

Fellini is perhaps the only director whose movies could never be adapted into books. The Maestro has invented a purely cinematic language to speak his own heart and tell his stories no matter how disjointed and anarchic they were for the discoverer, I guess his unique style would simply suffocate inside the restrictive format of words. Sure, drawings can give glimpses on his extravagant visions but still too static to convey the sense of fun and buoyancy he injects in his material. They could make interesting comic strips though but would they work the same without Nino Rota or Nicola Piavani's music?

Fellini movies are made for either the stage or the screen, their delights are essentially visual and musical, their enjoyment works on a sensitive and emotional rather than intellectual level. This is the old magic formula that made glorious days of Hollywood and Broadway, providing the kind of entertainment books and radio couldn't, that era immortalized by Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Walt Disney cartoons and of course musicals, and one of the most emblematic moments of that long gone period is Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing "Cheek to Cheek". That heavenly scene immortalized by countless homages, notably from "The Green Mile" and Woody Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo".

Fellini's "Ginger and Fred" is impregnated with a similar dose of nostalgia although we never see the legends, we don't need their last names, we don't need the lyrics to remember "Top Hat", we don't need Giuletta Masina to look like Ginger Rogers and she doesn't even pretend to be a lookalike while Marcello Mastroianni isn't exactly the thin and slender Astaire type. Yet the two Hollywood stars bright through the sole passion of Amelia (Masina) and Pippo (Mastroianni). Listen to her describing the choreography or her days of glory during interviews or Pippo, in one of the film's most inspired scenes, explaining the origins of tap dancing. Their listeners aren't always captivated but we know they're not talking to them but to us movie lovers fascinated by these Last Mohicans of Hollywood Golden Age... Italian style.

The homage itself is pure Fellini style, any lesser director would have made this love letter to Hollywood a sort of solemn prosternation... watching "Ginger and Fred" made me realize how willing even good movies like "The Artist" or "La La Land" were to recreate the magic at the expense of their personal touch, sinning by moments of sentimental manipulation. "Ginger and Fred" is nostalgic all right, but it's exuberant and transgressive like any Fellini film. The director turns the couple into decoy protagonists in a crazy universe, an avalanche of debauchery that makes them totally outdated. Behind the nostalgia, there's a commentary on how far the art of entertainment went, becoming as decadent as his portrayal of Rome like in "Satyricon". Good directors flash the lost innocence before our eyes, Fellini focuses on the much groovier hell.

What is the place of a tap dancing couple in a world where TV and pop electronic music waters its audience with a keleidoscope of sex, games, ads and random images designed to ignite masses lowest instincts? When Amelia is approached by an unimpressed journalist and driven to the hotel before the studio representation, she is surrounded by so many characters her frailty is enhanced: has-been artists, lookalikes, impersonators, dwarves... what have they in common? They're just weird, bizarre-looking or entertaining in a non-traditional way. It's eerie how Fellini prophecized the reality shows and their exploitations of wannabe celebrities and pseudo artists treated like freaks. There's a scene where Amelia is asked whether she's married to Pippo, if she was, that would have interested the audience even more. There's no place anymore for genuine interest, people want to be shocked, dazzled, or surprised, it's a giant leap made in five decades.

Having a foot in each world and being a true ringmaster, Fellini reconciles these two schools of entertainment, allowing within that orgy of telegenic bizarreness a few breaks to Amelia and Pippo, I didn't mind these crazy vignettes as they're part of the Fellinian experience but sometimes they can be too exhausting and so I enjoyed these brief moments of truce where Amelia and Pippo shared a few memories. I loved their complicity all through their film and one of the masterstrokes was the blackout before the act, so we could breath a little and listen to them commenting the mess surrounding them. It's interesting to see that they're lucid about their status, but they are willing to give the audience what they want, for the sake of their art. For all its anarchical structure, carried by that catchy soundtrack, Fellini can't resist the temptation of sentimentalism and that's a wise choice, as he allows his two fetish actors to have a substantial role at the dawn of their career, he even recast Franco Fabrizi as the host show, he who starred in his early neo-realist films.

In its "final show before the curtain closes" undertones, "Ginger and Fred" reminded me of Chaplin's "Limelight". The film has its slower moments but it's surprisingly grabbing and never dull or boring, Amelia and Pippo gravitate around these bizarre figures of entertainments like a Greek chorus we can relate to. At the end, they become Ginger and Fred in our hearts. And the film ends as it started, but at night in a deserted train station, with the two actors paying the kind of goodbyes that resonate like poignant farewells. But at long as they saw each other, that mess was all worth it, and since there's no Fellini film without the "film in the film" element, at least Il Dottore gratified us with a last reunion with his fetish actors: Masina and Mastroianni ... if only for that, "Ginger and Fred" deserves to be watched and appreciated.

Fellini takes a stab at television in this wonderful satire. It's Christmas, and an Italian "Ed Sullivan" type show is having a special, by re-uniting acts that were featured years ago. There is a hilarious (for those in the know) swipe at Woody Allen, who has been parodying Fellini for years. It's a bit deliberately paced, but the chemistry between the stars makes it worthwhile.

Before I saw this movie, I had heard how it was considered one of Federico Fellini's more accessible movies. If this was meant of Fellini's films from the sixties on, I can agree with that. The film is basically two things: one big jab at television and giving Giuletta Masina the opportunity to show everyone how adorable she is (she succeeds). The TV angle, however scathing it may have been in 1986; today with the plethora of reality TV shows, the film just seems prescient. The film's very basic storyline is Masina reuniting with old dance partner Marcello Mastroianni for a TV show. Filling in the rest of the movie (and sometimes obscuring the main story) are the many oddball characters scheduled for the TV show. As anyone familiar with Fellini knows, he loves outrageous people. In this film, for example, there are transsexuals, psychics, a midget troupe and a cow with many teats. The first part of the movie, at the hotel, is a little too much because everything is thrown at the viewer at once. The characters, television, Ginger and Fred, all vie for your attention and it can be overwhelming. Once at the studio, the film kind of settles down and one is able to enjoy the film and it's characters. Not one of Fellini's best but also not only for fanatics of Fellini either.

Memories are time capsules kept within every one of us, stored in the mind, but activated by the heart; the indelible images and sensations that make up an individual's life. A heartbeat away, they can be opened at any time, but let the bearer beware, for often they are bittersweet at best. `Ginger and Fred,' directed by Federico Fellini, and starring Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni, brings two people back together after nearly thirty years apart, a reunion of the professional dance team who for fifteen years prior to their retirement imitated Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire to the delight of audiences all over Europe. Now, all these years later, they are to dance together again; this time on the popular television show, `We Are Proud To Present,' a `tabloid' type show which presents a variety of acts and guests weekly for the perusal of their curious audience. And so, amid a circus atmosphere of acts comprised of a troop of midgets, an Admiral, a number of celebrity impersonators and those whose personal lives have attracted media attention, Amelia Bonetti/'Ginger' (Masina) and Pippo Botticella/'Fred' (Mastroianni), come together again for one magical night during which they hope to recapture that spark of life they had embraced those many years ago. At it's core, Fellini's film is heart-felt and poignant. On one hand, it's a satire of popular television; on the other, it's an examination of the very real ramifications of those so-called `sentimental journeys' that those of a certain age are wont to take, and during which it is often discovered that it is, indeed, impossible to go home again. What really makes this film work is the stoic attitudes of the principal characters, especially Ginger, who though she is happy to see Pippo again refuses to allow sentiment to engulf her. Obviously, her memories are fond ones, but she manages to stay in the here and now, taking life as it is and not merely basking in what it was. Pippo, though, has a bit more of the wanton dreamer in him, possibly due to the fact that his life since the split with Amelia has not been as directionally grounded as that of his former partner. But as showtime approaches, they manage to strike a balance between the past and now that keeps them on track and holds much promise for an evening of making new memories to add to the old. Besides the story itself, what makes this film a real treasure is the presence and performance of the indomitable Giulietta Masina. In her mid-sixties when this was filmed, she still had `it' in spades. All the moves, the attitude, the coquettishness that made her one of the most expressive actresses ever. Even in her advancing years she was still an absolute joy to behold. There was something so down-to-earth, yet almost mystical about her, that gave her that rare quality of being `real' in every role she played. Extremely talented and charismatic, she was quite simply an extraordinary actress. Somehow-- and it's quite puzzling-- she never achieved the international stardom nor received the acclaim she deserved. This film proved to be her theatrical swan song, and simply put, what a way to go. She bowed out as she had always lived her life and performed-- with style, grace and more than a touch of class. Her `Ginger' is a truly memorable character. Not to be outdone by his diminutive co-star, Mastroianni gives a wonderful performance as well, capturing the essence of a man whose life has apparently been in one continuous state of flux. As the story unfolds, you get the feeling that his aloofness merely masks a somewhat undisciplined determination, probably more often than not derailed by the boy still residing in the man. Most importantly, though, he makes Pippo entirely believable, and the fact that he is so good in this film reflects, I believe, not only upon his ability as an actor, but upon the fact that Masina was so giving as an actress. It is apparent in the way they play so well off of one another, and the real chemistry between them is unmistakable. The supporting cast includes Frederick Ledebur (Admiral), Friedrich von Thun (Industrieller), Francesco Casale (Mafioso) and France Fabrizi (Show Host). One of Fellini's tenderest films, `Ginger and Fred' is something of a reflection upon life and love; watching it is like reminiscing with, or about, an old friend or loved one. The film has something of a dream-like quality about it that is so in keeping with Fellini's visionary style, and by the end you will find that you have been absolutely transported. Still, of all the wondrous images brought to the screen by Fellini during the many years of his career, the greatest of all was irrefutably Giulietta Masina. I rate this one 10/10.

Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina star in "Ginger and Fred" from 1986, directed by Federico Fellini.

Amelia and Pippo once had a successful act imitating Fred and Ginger. Thirty years after their act, they are asked to dance in a special Christmas show for TV called "We Are Proud To Present."

It's a real freak show with the most bizarre acts you've ever seen, including a priest who left the priesthood and is now engaged, a man of the cloth who can levitate himself, lookalikes - some very strange acts.

Amelia and Pippo not only danced together but were involved. However Amelia married, had a daughter and is now widowed. Pippo married as well.

Amelia is worried that Pippo isn't up to the dancing, and when the power goes out in the theater, the two consider bolting.

Bittersweet film with marvelous acting and real chemistry between the two.

Masina was married to Fellini and died five months after he did.

Ginger e Fred is much more a film about the Italian psyche than a film about an old dance team that reunites after 40 years to appear on a TV variety show. It takes place at Christmastime, and having spent Christmas in Rome, the fun-insane carnival atmosphere Fellini depicts is pretty accurate, but exaggerated for film. Walking around Rome I found subconscious playing back bits of the soundtrack and it was only then that I realized how much I love this film. It's also about people who time leave behind. And about two people who are tragically unable to say how much they do love each other. It's also very very funny. Fellini go the idea for the film after seeing his older films butchered on Italian TV. A highlight is an old woman who was paid not to watch TV for a month. She's brought into the studio a mental wreck, swearing she'll never do it again and promises to watch more and more TV.

Though we had various Fellini movies from the touching sweetness in LO SCEICCO BIANCO, the touching drama in LA STRADA through purely psychoanalytical realities in GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI or CITY OF WOMEN to the autobiographical uniqueness in OTTO E MEZZO, this film appears to be a unique phenomenon. More to say, when you decide to see GINGER E FRED, you do not notice nor feel the Felliniesque nature so much but something different. What is it that one notices? (you may reflect) A sort of return to past memories...? Just a simple story...? Another movie within the four walls of a psyche...? Is it, perhaps, a sentiment brought to tears? No, since Fellini never jerked fake tears...

GINGER E FRED is a wonderful film about a moment in the fading career of a couple whose dance once proved a smashing success and who see each other again after all these years just to show their 'pearl' to the young generation. Although it is no longer a heyday of their career, Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni) and Amelia (Giulietta Masina) decide to come to Rome to perform their dance. Yet, the both soon realize that this is not the Rome they knew and loved. The problem does not lie in the changed streets, transformed centres and more vehicles but in the generation they will have to deal with this time. There are lots of noises with flashes, mayors with their doubles and cameras all around and everything surrounded by the fake glamour of commercial Christmas and loud 'Buon Natale' wishes with kisses...all for the sake of a strange monster that such crowds dedicated their lives to...TELEVISION. Here lies the core gist... Will 'TV robots' and 'sensation consumers' be able to find the couple's dance worthy noticing?

Fellini's film is truly a satire on TV generation, on the people who cannot imagine living without it and whom he really ridicules. Through many moments of wit, including VIPs' visits, interviews, chaos of TV shows, shallow effects, fake mysticism, lack of art, pseudo careers, talks of plastic surgeries and many others, he seems to draw our attention to the fact what strange social phenomenon it is and, moreover, what impact it has on society, on blinded crowds. It is important to mention that he sometimes becomes too cynical through exaggeration, particularly in case of a priest and miracles ridiculed at a show. It is true that Fellini was critical of the Church and no one should skip that aspect not to make viewers confused. In case of Church, one may reject his view thoroughly. Yet, his points about sheer chaos of TV shows appear to be particularly accurate.

Who speaks on Fellini's behalf is, again, wonderful Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. He portrays Pippo who cannot find himself in this weird unjust reality, who sneers weak artists who "p**s to bed," who doubts the sudden career of mayor's daughter, who understands the codes of conversation unknown to simple "Boffoni". Although it is in no way an action movie and lots of moments may occur tedious and chaotic in the long run, you realize the feelings of Pippo whilst deeper analysis, trying to identify with him, with his thoughts and disappointment. You as a viewer are with him. Pippo is contrasted to all the rest, like Giulietta in GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI. His world is no longer popular because nobody really knows it.

The performances are brilliant but this applies to the two: Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina. Their presence adds much genuineness to the characters since they both could identify their roles with the very moments of their lives (1986). It is, in this respect, a sort of Fellini's tribute to the two but, at the same time, his determined cry in the declining art the director condemns television for. Moreover, he also seems to blame TV for depriving people of something more ambitious and entertaining, for creating a monstrous reality of noise that carries no meaning just sheer mumbling. But let me say something about the couple's performances.

You as a viewer are almost all the time with them. They constitute the 'oasis of normality' in the whole 'madness' around. They are perfect as entertainers, as dramatists; finally as dancers. Their very best moments include the rehearsal filled with the sentiments of the past, a funny scene in the bus when a recording says quietly yet powerfully 'Pippo'... and the quintessential of the movie, their dance. Here, Fellini truly identifies with Mastroianni as he did in OTTO E MEZZO giving him the lead and shows the greatest respect for his wife Giulietta Masina. Here, she is excellent in a different way than she was years earlier in LA STRADA, LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA or GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI, yet equally adorable as THE Woman of Cinema.

Remember, in order to see this film, you don't have to know Fellini, his particular style executed foremost in the 1960s and 1970s. Knowing TV shows will suffice for you to laugh, to criticize, to mock and to identify with the famous Italian director. Fellini's criticism appears to be constructive as well as he seems to say to all of us: "Turn off your TV this time and give up listening to voices of meaningless entertainment. Tonight, you will listen to my voice" Can we refuse? NO, for the sake of Marcello and, foremost, for the sake of Giulietta!!!

Federico Fellini is one of the greatest directors and screenwriters the world has ever seen...and that must be the biggest understatement of the century. He had the ability to take simple, real elements and transform them into a surreal, enchanting experience that speaks for itself without the aid of a complicated plot or a multi-million dollar production design (although that's not to say his films aren't visually breath-taking). Even though it's not one of his greatest masterpieces, "Ginger e Fred" is one such film that demonstrates his never-ending talent.

The main plot is as simple as it gets. Amelia and Pippo (Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni) are old friends who haven't seen each other for years, and in their youth, they were reasonably famous for their imitation of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, doing their classic tap dancing and glamorous choreographies. Now, they're very old, but they're being invited by a big (and sleazy) TV station to perform in their epic Christmas program reenacting their age-old act. The film is about these two old people, seeing each other after so many years, and remembering those golden years when they were celebrated, important, and had the spark of love and friendship alive for each other.

They're not the only ones invited to the show, though. A huge cast of quirky and colourful characters also make their appearance, each one trying to grab their share of the spotlight performing sometimes interesting, sometimes plain stupid, acts and/or abilities and "amazing" stories. We see an (obviously) Fellini-esquire array of supporting freaks- the priest who renounced his vows to marry his lover, the monk who levitates, the singing slovenly dwarfs, Swedish townsfolk with their fifteen-tit cow, a transsexual who services an entire prison row and is being processed for it, a medium who listens to ghosts through a tape recorder...the list is endless. They all have odious, over-familiar dialogue which makes us relate to the grotesque things we think well of in life. Our heroes, Amelia and Pippo, are thrown in with this collection of freaks, and find themselves both hating and liking the situation they've accepted.

The images the film presents are as unusual and as surreal as we have come to experience through other Fellini films. The dialogue sounds casual and witty, but is continually spiked with longing, electricity, loathing and disenchantment. Our main characters speak and travel this (seemingly) alternate world they've entered and find it horrifyingly equal to that they live in. The way they all try to hog the spotlight, their unnatural addiction to TV and celebrities, the way they're all brainwashed through the televised images...Fellini makes a point on all of these. He also continually presents TV commercials about pork and meat, each commercial bearing a scantly-clad woman with a gruesome piece of meat and proclaiming it to be utterly delicious. The people believe it. We also see various posters and written advertisements with strange and slightly disturbing images for a variety of products that don't work, and proclaiming nothing but lies. People believe them.

We see two main characters, Amelia and Pippo, being likable characters trying to relive their friendship, trying to regain their previous vitality and trying to fit in with a series of "freaks" (in every sense of the word) in a world where greed, money, fame and awful manners have been allowed to run rampant. We see our main characters trying to quit their association with this distasteful universe only to be drawn in over and over again by a faint memory of fame, by an interlude with someone famous, by the expectations their friends have of them.

We, as the audience, feel happy to relate to these old friends who have met once again, and feel their angst. We also feel a certain repugnant hate for the rest of the characters, unfeeling beasts who (to our surprise and chagrin) also seem, each in their own way, very similar to us and the people that surround us. And what is all the more interesting is the way Fellini never even delves into the personalities of these characters (with the exception of Amelia and Pippo) but indirectly spends every second of the film injecting meaning and objection into them. The images, of course, speak for themselves.

Masina and Mastroianni are perfect in their roles, the music is both catchy and nostalgic, the costumes are...well, out of this world and the screenplay is both earthbound and ethereal. I couldn't understand the emotional implications of the ending, but I suppose that must be Fellini's point, to leave the audience thinking. And, believe me, this movie does get you thinking! And though it's definitely not one of Fellini's greatest, it still is entertaining and amusing to analyze.

Rating: 3 stars and a half out of 4!

This is a very enjoyable film for fans of Italian cinema, as two great actors who made reputations for themselves in earlier Fellini films return late in their careers for a very nostalgic romp. Giulietta Masina (wife of Federico Fellini) and Marcello Mastroianni play Ginger and Fred--a dance team that made a name for themselves imitating the dancing style of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The act had broken up more than three decades earlier, but they both agreed to be reunited for a TV program. Now, much older and not having seen each other for many years, they meet and renew old acquaintances.

All the dialog and scenes between the two leads were very sweet and charming. Despite her age, Ms. Masina in particular looked great and was amazingly light on her feet, while her partner was obviously too old and rusty but he felt compelled to be there. Unfortunately, while their scenes together were great, it took until almost the middle of the film until they were reunited. In the meantime, tons of Felliniesque touches were dumped onto the screen and served to either delight Fellini's die-hard fans who want this or alienate people like me who felt they totally obscured the story. For example, on this variety show are a troop of dancing midgets (VERY Fellini-like), a transsexual, a kidnap victim with missing digits, an againg admiral, countless bad celebrity impersonators and lots of garish little touches that made it obvious that Fellini was NOT a fan of television--like a film made by kids who have severe ADHD since it has practically EVERYTHING. Additionally, throughout the film, lots of bizarre touches were inserted such as an irrelevant biker scene and a short clip at the beginning of the film of a billboard on which a sausage is penetrating a woman (look quickly--it's there).

I guess I am just much more of a romantic. I really wanted to see more Masina and Mastroianni. Their interplay was excellent and charming and the dance routine was amazingly sweet and touching. I guess never having been a huge fan of Fellini's more surreal and indulgent films, the excesses and distractions of this film made it tough to rate it any higher.

This movie is largely social satire, but not particularly good. There are plenty of examples of the sort of grotesque that seems to have fascinated Fellini, but it's not as imaginative as in some of his earlier films. Sometimes, as with the endlessly repeated scenes of uncollected garbage bags, I wanted to say "Alright already, enough! We get what you're trying to say. Don't keep hitting us over the head with it."

The last part, once "Ginger" and "Fred" get to the television station and the variety show starts, I found the most interesting. And yes, Masina is wonderful in this movie.

But would I recommend it? No, not really.

Ginger e Fred (1986) is one of the few movies (4 in all) Fellini made in the '80s,and the ripest fruit of his late career,the acme of his narrative cinema.(In the 7th decade of the 20th century,Fellini also made relatively few films:only 4,and also 2 sketches.)Is "Ginger ..." Fellini's best movie?I don't know that;but it certainly is the one that I cherish most.Exquisite, unobjectionable, unparalleled cinema? Surely!Within the Fellini criteria,this is a rather simple movie,deprived of experiments,etc.;it is,of course,of no avail to be "told",but not because it lacks a "story",only that it is a simple,uneventful one.A sudden return to what we may call a perennial realism,of a perfect incision and a welcome sobriety of means,a huge appetite for giving an objective and transitive creation (though the resources of grotesque,tenderness,comic,Oneiric ,a detached Inebriety,satire,effects of strange,caricatures,etc.,are also used).It is also a return to a narrative form,and a very comic movie:in this film,Fellini has a content to be told,to be molded and put in an epic shape.The weird people could not miss,on the contrary;but the movie has an obvious realistic aim,in a comical,satirical and tender key.As shape,it is not an essay,but a realist narration,and each thing,though caricatured,is plausible.I would say that Fellini has,in "Ginger ...",so firm a notion on what he wants to say,that he can afford himself to be playful.He can afford it,as the main aim of his movie is so firmly handled.He had some things to say about love,life,old age,career,art,TV,contemporary life,etc.,some very straight things.For this movie,he chosen to deepen in the contemporary world;moreover,here he has not anymore that sense of tearing,of speechless pained,exasperated sensibility that gave a very special note to his '50s movies.A shivering,a feverishness.Mrs. Masina,in her room,looking outside:she sees a Martian landscape.

Throughout his 50 years career,Fellini made some TV creations (such as The Clowns and A Director's Notebook).In "Ginger ...",he expresses all his disgust for that institution,in a very acid charge.Is Fellini ever "non-judgmental", as some would like to believe?Never.

Mastroianni,with his whistles,and licentious jokes,and bad language,and courtesy.Fellini always allowed his actors to be great,to do THEIR creations,he never used them as mere puppets.Must I praise here Mastroianni's perfect mastery of his profession,his exquisite and tasty professionalism,in the noblest sense of this banal word?Fellini was a too generous, too intelligent director,not to let,and not to encourage Mastroianni be himself and give his best.Hence ,Mastroianni's "Pippo" is a whole chapter in the acting's history.(Hitchcock was not content with Clift,and I don't think he was with Newman;Antonioni was not content with Harris.Well,Fellini seemed to like the actors with strong personalities:he had in his movies Mastroianni,Anthony Quinn, Basehart, Broderick Crawford,Sordi,Terence Stamp,Anouk Aimée,François Périer, etc.,etc.!He never disliked or avoided to work with the great actors;this is a sign of his abundant and good-humored endowment,able to engross others' aptitude for creation .With Fellini,the actor's dignity is safe,and restored,the actor is allowed to display his endowment and work,his creation is sustained by the director.)In "Ginger ...",as in some other shows he did as an oldster,Mastroianni finds that exactness,that roundness,that plenitude,that sureness,that pleasantness,that made him maybe the most sure-footed actor.In his youth and maturity,Mastroianni's force came from his dexterity,intrepidity,etc.;now,there is this sheer artistic robustness.

Watch Mastroianni and Mrs. Masina,to see for yourself how far,how deep the actors' art can go.

A couple of dancers who were Italian knockoffs of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire during WWII reunite for an appearance on some low-brow variety show in the 80s.

Marcello Mastroianni and Giuletta Masini - their own brilliant careers in twilight - play the leads. Their performances are flawless. They recall their past lives and love wistfully, but honestly. And without the sickening schmaltz you'd usually see in a similar Hollywood movie.

It all takes place within the framework of the variety show, which included soothsayers, m1dgets, animal acts, and various weirdos.

Fellini's movies are full of sideshow freaks at the best of time. Often in incongruous, fantastical settings. So is he really ripping Italian television here? Or celebrating the same circus freaks he always did, but merely framing them within a television variety show?

Maybe it worked for Italian audiences at the time. I can't see it landing with American audiences.

If you want bona fide satire of television, Mankiewicz did it a decade early in Network. If you want the best affectionate satire of television, watch SCTV. Those writers drew their inspiration from real performers, real shows, real advertising. And the performers infused them with an affection that's missing in today's cynical world, where cruelty is mistaken for cleverness.

Anyway, it was great to see two fine performers late in their careers, if nothing else. One could make a very good case that Mastroianni was the greatest actor of all time. Masini didn't take second place to too many actresses, either.

I am a great admirer of Federico Fellini and his movies. While not among my favourites of his movies like Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord and La Strada are, it is a wonderful movie. The start of the movie is a little too in-your-face for my tastes, but everything else works like a dream. As with all Fellinis, it is beautifully made, gorgeous scenery, ravishing colour and dream-like photography are definite things to like when watching a film and Ginger and Fred is exactly that. The music is beautiful and bounces along, while the dancing is sweet and as light as a soufflé. Fellini's direction as ever is superb, while the story has a nostalgic tone with the satirical elements on tacky television manages to be both wounding and deliciously comic. I love both Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina, and both are just wonderful in Ginger and Fred. Both give performances among their personal best, being funny, charming and moving, proving that human emotion is more than enough to make a performance work.

All in all, wonderful movie. While not among Fellini's very finest for me, it is one of his better later movies. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Pippo 'Fred' Botticella (Marcello Mastroianni) and Amelia 'Ginger' Bonetti (Giulietta Masina) are reuniting to perform their old music hall act for a TV variety show. There is a cast of unusual characters.

This is late stage Federico Fellini. The legendary Italian filmmaker brings along a couple of his old icons. It's all about nostalgia. It's meta. It's a fond remembrance of a cinematic past. There are midgets and boobs and everything in between. It may not be peak performing Fellini, but it is still a worthwhile watch. It does run on a bit at over two hours. Like many older gentlemen, their stories tend to meander.

Retired dancers Amelia (Giulietta Masina) and Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni), who when younger danced as Astaire-Rogers imitators, are invited to reunite on a strange, vulgar TV variety-show. The film showcases Fellini's distain for television (and perhaps the times in general, considering the ample piles garbage on the streets of Rome). The characters include a number of the director's usual grotesques (the multi-udder cow is frequently seen) and the heavy-handed satire of television goes on a bit long but the film's weaknesses are more than made up for by the always delightful Masina, an 'honestly aged' Mastroianni, and their final 'reunion dance'. I prefer the auteur's early neo-realist films (such as 1954's 'La Strada') but found 'Ginger and Fred' entertaining in an offbeat romantic way.

Fellini in top form here. I don't know why this gets so much indifference. Along with "And The Ship Sails On," this might be one of Fellini's best films, up there with Juliet and 8 1/2. You should also check out Intervista. A story of two aging performers well past their peak of popularity team up after not seeing each other in decades to dance on a variety show. "Ginger," the lady, doesn't seem to even understand the nature of the show she's appearing and is baffled and disturbed by the circus freaks and transvestites. "Fred," the man, is bitter with age and a bit embarrassed that he doesn't have more to show for his life. He even threatens to derail their appearance to make a statement about what sheep the modern audience is. The stinging commentary on television and rampant commercialization is always in the background, and fortunately it's more of a cultural critique than a political one (I don't think Fellini had a political bone in his body). For me, the emotional core of the film is probably Fred's discussion with a bemused, condescending writer about the origins of tap dancing. I won't spoil it.

Federico Fellini's 1986 opus reunites him w/his famous collaborators, Marcello Mastroianni & Giulietta Masina (his wife in real life), for this not too veiled attack on television & the inherent circus like atmosphere (something of a running theme Fellini explored throughout his career) surrounding a huge television special. As the participants flock for a big Christmas time show, we focus on Masina, the Ginger of a Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire tribute duo (they aped the famous couple's dance routine back in the day) as she's shuffled from a train station to a shabby hotel as the players await this huge event. Making friends here & there she's actually on the lookout for her Fred, Mastroianni, which is up in the air as a day goes by & he appears to be a no show. Once he arrives, we see time hasn't been kind to the aging duo w/Mastroianni going bald & after a brief rehearsal, getting completely winded. Masina doesn't fare much better when the night of the show, while sitting in the make-up chair, she briefly gets cold feet but as the couple accept their fate, the show goes on. Delighting on the fringe aspects of celebrity as the cornucopia of performers strut their stuff in various forms of gauche & outlandish costumes (designed by Fellini regular Danilo Donati), the film doesn't necessarily lampoon their status but in a strange way celebrates it even though aspects like outrageous TV ads which play in the background are almost stomach churning in their presentation. Seeing Fellini gather his troupes for one last fling is a thing to behold & even though a better presentation would've been more appreciated (there is so much dialogue floating around & not all of it gets translated), the master strutting his stuff is heartwarming.

Federico Fellini's two most frequent actors, his wife Giulietta Masina and the star Marcello Mastroianni, come together for the first time in a Fellini picture, and the result is a rather wonderful little gem of a film late in Fellini's career. It's about getting old and reflecting back on the past that's gone, told through two characters that made their livelihoods dancing like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers around the start of the Second World War. Touching on the kind of off-kilter forms of entertainment that appeared in Fellini's earliest films, Ginger and Fred also balances the later deeply satirical streak with his earlier humanist touches to create a very charming and touching film.

Long out of show business altogether, Amelia is invited to Rome to appear on a Christmas variety show with her long-separated partner, Pippo, as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers lookalike dancers. Not sure what she's agreed to, the carnival of acts and personalities that end up swarming around her in the hotel the television studio has booked her into begin to make her question her decision. When she finally sees Pippo, she commits yet again.

Now, one of the fun things about this movie is how it treats Marcello Mastroianni as Pippo. In his first scene, he's disheveled and barely awake, coming out of his hotel room to Amelia's knocking because he was snoring too loudly. He's a far cry from the suave movie star making role in La Dolce Vita, and that playing against type ends up working really well. Masina is the collected professional grandmother, concerned about how things look, but she also gives a wonderful physical performance, especially as the movie goes into its later stages and things get a bit kookier.

Fellini ends up doing two major things in this film. The first and foremost is the story of Amelia and Pippo reconnecting after decades apart have sent them in inexorably opposite directions, only to cross paths one last time in this one extraordinary circumstance. There was love then, but she broke it off and neither seems to really remember why. It just ended, but in the decades since, both married other people. She had a daughter, became a widow, and started running her own little shop. He got married, his wife left him, and he's been scrounging around Europe doing little bits of entertainment here and there wherever he could get it (a more refined version of the late Zampano in La Strada). What the two end up finding by donning their old costumes and dancing together yet again for a large audience is that there was something special there, and it is something to be cherished. However, that something is still in the past and needs to stay there.

The other thing Fellini's doing is a satire of contemporary television. There's a television on in almost every scene, often (rather oddly and obviously) rotoscoped and composited into frame to the point that the television looks brighter and more in focus than the other action in the frame. Whether that's intentional or not, I could never say for sure. However, it's always there, grabbing out attention away from the more human elements playing out on screen at the same time. The acts that appear before Amelia and Pippo go out are vacuous and quickly forgotten. There's the woman who records the voice of spirits, a flying monk (who does not fly in public, mind you), a group of little people who dance, and an admiral who did a brave and famous thing decades before. Nothing is meant to stick in the people's minds, and yet it's addictive. The last thing before Amelia and Pippo's dance is the host interviewing a woman the studio had paid to not watch television for a month, and she tearfully confesses that the month was one of the worst in her life and that it was a form of torture while the host smiles to the side and tells the audience that they should listen to the woman and never turn off the television.

Fellini had obviously held a fascination with television at some point, having had a hand in several television projects including I Clowns and A Director's Notebook, but it seems as though popular television confounded him to a certain extent. He embraces the carnivalesque aspect of it, but there is an obvious implication that television is effervescent and temporary in a way that cinema didn't share. Amelia and Pippo do get their moment to reconnect fully with their dance, but their moment to recover and revel in that is cut short because they're in the way of the next act. They've had the greatest moment of their professional lives, and they already being pushes aside for something else.

Like many men as they grow old, Fellini seemed to become more circumspect about age as he grew older. Amelia bemoans her wrinkles in a mirror. Pippo has cramps in his foot that end up making him fall on live television. There's an implication that the two will never see each other again when they part ways at Termini Station on different trains, and it's a touching moment brought on by two likeable and flawed characters reconnecting after a lifetime apart. It's a light, touching film, often quite funny, and impeccably made by a master of the craft.

The later, nostalgic Fellini is always worth another look. How I want to like this more, a touching last adventure, albeit too late, that revives the old glories, ties up old emotions - a last irresistible chance to live. There's genius in the choice of subject: a couple of old dancing stars (Fellini favourites Mastroianni and Masina) have been invited to recreate their old act on a manic TV show. They prepare themselves physically and emotionally for this reunion, the last chance to tread the boards and feel the glory. This is Fellini - and his stars - well into old age, poised on the edge of oblivion, having got used, presumably, to irrelevancy, and now able to reflect wistfully on it all - even able to say a kind of goodbye. The homage to Astaire and Rogers is also a homage to cinema, and the idea of showing those old values displaced in the new tacky world of television is a fine ruse.

Ginger (Masina) is immediately lost in this mad new world exactly as if she has stepped out of an old film. Outrageous advertising, rubbish piled in the streets, gangs of youths on motorbikes, the uncertainty of where they are being taken and what will happen to them - all nicely encapsulate the disorientation. The unstoppable madness of real life, it seems, is more Felliniesque than Fellini. When Mastroianni finally appears - after some anticipation - he is a sorry wreck of his former self. This is quite touching. They go over their old routine, feel the nerves once again, meet some old friends, get that sense of achievement for the last time.

But what a hash Fellini makes of it, what a laborious rendering. It's a raucous gabble - treacle-think with yattering people who are really more irritating than cute. Yes, that's the theme: gentle nostalgia swamped by the manic, garish, loud, unstoppable modern world. But still, there had to be a subtler way of presenting an irritating world than irritating the audience. And let's be honest, this is his usual style. As usual, there are too many words in the script; there is barely a moment's rest from the breathless dialogue - most of it not as funny or quaint as it tries to be. It's never the words that raise a smile, but the silent moments that bring most out of the characters. If only Fellini had realised that.

The inventiveness is desperate, and is only sporadically funny, nostalgic, or touching. Largely it seems like an excuse to parade a variety of freakish or eccentric characters, cramming in far too many of them. Group scenes are invariably chaotic and lack the precision and clarity of the old days, when black and white forced a more precise delineation of scene and character. What it lacks in crispness it tries to makes up for in sheer sensory experience, but it feels slapdash, and that feel is compounded, as always, by that terrible Cinecitta dubbing. This is not nearly the worst example, but it does appear slapped on at times like a veneer. Quite clearly the words they are mouthing are not the ones you hear; it is maddening and sometimes difficult to see who is talking from a distance, and, more importantly, it robs the serious characters of sincerity, and makes the flippant characters into cartoons. Some might take it as an element of style, a deliberately imposed artificiality implying that the characters are always bigger than their words - that's being overly indulgent.

But it's hard to be too harsh. On the plus side, there is a fine arc to this film; it grows in meaning, matures, and finally blossoms into a delicate flower of nostalgia. There's great music, and the two stars, who are, you can tell, by nature wistful and gentle - that's enough. And I'm a big fan of railway station endings, having spent so long - whole nights often enough - enduring the loneliness of the long-distance traveller, even in Roma Termini the year this film was made. Everyone is benign - even the murderous mafia boss in handcuffs. Everyone has a beneficial role to play in society, a performance to make, no matter how freakish they are, how out of touch or out of date. Sure, the present makes a mockery of the past, but no more than the past, with more justification, makes a mockery of the present.

I'm surprised I like Fellini. He's never critical of anything, no matter how stupid or weird, whereas I'm critical of everything, especially things human. He has no interest in the natural world, only in people, whereas I see everything, especially the human world, in the context of a bigger picture- nature - in which humans are just a few billion scurrying ants. So Fellini represents all the stuff that I have lost, or never gained - the side of me that got concreted over somewhere along the way; he is the antidote to misanthropy and ill-feeling of any sort, to all the misery that society, as a necessary by-product, tips upon itself; he is the little man getting his own back without bitterness. In short, he's good for the soul. Just a pity the producer or other person of influence didn't rein in much of the extraneous garishness (including the smutty jokes) here.

People love the humanity in this film and will be prepared to overlook the directorial misjudgements. Fine. It must be nice to be so generous, but, in all honesty, from a filmcraft point of view, this could have been much better.

It's a bittersweet love story that says that life may be a circus, but television is a freak show. If you had told me forty years ago that a 66-year-old woman could be radiantly beautiful, then you haven't seen Giulietta Masina smile in this one... and Mastroianni is the perfect Fellini leading man.

Given the festering hatred of television and, indeed, modern culture that Fellini shows here, it's no wonder that his tv host is Franco Fabrizi from I VITELLONI; the one tender spot is the supporting role by Toto, who loves the two old-timers. It's another Fellini classic, wincingly funny and sad.

Fellini had at his disposal a small, sharply focused, touching story about two unexceptional people whose time has passed - a time in which they were recognized for their imitation of others' style and talents. Each is lonely and presumably much in need of what the other can offer, but we are left with the feeling that, despite her hesitant offer, they will not get together.

Unfortunately Fellini's self-indulgence turns what might- have- been into a sprawling, overdone satire of commercial television in which the story of those two is buried. There are two pictures here, and Fellini emphasizes the wrong one. Granted that his direction, in and of itself, is often brilliant, he is too inclined to make every film a tour de force. His segment of "Spirits of the Dead," which I recently saw for the first time, suffers in the same way.