Fellini jokes - Caccia alla volpe (1966) Discussion

uh, pardon? :)

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[–] dengelke 18 years ago

Just the fact that his name is Federico Fabrizi and he is all about realism and what not...it seems like he's going for a joke on the itailan director.

Don't tease me about my hobbies, I don't you about being an a$$hole

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[–] georgesnew 18 years ago

how about this - his two characters are aldo vanuci and fedrico fabrizi and there is an actor called aldo fabrizi. look at him on this website and he looks just like the prison inpspector that sellers dresses up at, at the beginning.

http://www.archivio.raiuno.rai.it/schede/9001/900107.htm

this cant just be a coincidence.

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[–] nko_123 17 years ago

You're right!

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[–] stevem-26 16 years ago

Although I can't pull any out of my memory just now, I was left with the feeling I had seen quite a lot of in-jokes and "easter eggs" in this film. There are probably many that require a good knowledge of Fellini and other suchlikes in order to detect them.

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[–] andy_roy 14 years ago

Fellini was the one I thought of instantly when the Fox started playing Frederico Fabrizi.

His "err, you get the symbolic meaning" seemed straight out of what cinema critics, hard put to explain the bizarre sequences and shots in his movies, would say. It's been decades since I saw "La Dolce VIta", I'm still trying to find out the significance of the unending opening sequence about transporting the Jesus statue by helicopter, and have said to myself.."it's Fellini, so there's *gotta* be a symbolic meaning" that I'm unable to grasp!"

Difficult to believe De Sica could direct a zany flick like that!

...it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him

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[–] jj-patton 13 years ago

I didn't really notice many Fellini jokes specifically.

You people do know that it was neo-realism that the movie in the movie was sending up, and that Federico Fellini was NOT a neo-realist director? Matter of fact, at the time Fellini was accused of killing the neo-realism movement. This concept of moving into an obscure Italian town and using the people for a non-professional "true-life" feel was a lot closer to filmmakers like Visconti - I thought the townspeople reminded me (in a comic way) of the fishing village in "La Terra Trema" for instance. Just like Visconti, or early Da Sica.

Neo-realism was all about naturalism, Fellini was all about style. There's a joke in "La Dolce Vita" when Anita Ekberg is being interviewed and a reporter asks her in Italian if neo-realsim is alive or dead. Not understanding Italian at all she turns to the translator who just shrugs and tells her "Just say alive.". Easier that way, and this movie thought so, too.

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[–] bijou-2 13 years ago

Exactly. De Sica was making fun of his own image and pretentious cinema critics His own neo-realism era films, including the comedy "THE GOLD OF NAPLES", (not CAIRO) were viewed as realistic drama outside of Italy.

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[–] einstein (2290) 2 years ago

very good points gentlemen!

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[–] brianholder 13 years ago

Everytime I see this film I think of Antonioni more than anyone else.

Aldo Vanucci: We are ready for the next shot, only in this scene instead of doing *nothing*, we do *something*.

But DeSica is also sending up Fellini and himself, not to mention Hollywood stars, film fans and film critics.

I love this film. I've never understood why it is so underrated (except maybe because of it's jab at film critics).

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[–] Balok-2 12 years ago

While "Federico Fabrizi" is an obvious joke on Fellini, the character himself seems to me to be a lot more like Rossellini -- note the glasses and the joke about how he "only uses professional actors" (Rossellini became famous for his "neo-Realist" films in which he used non-professional actors). Also, the establishing shot of the harbor strikes me as a direct visual reference to _Stromboli_, although I suppose that that could be a coincidence.

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[–] ali-112 9 years ago

My two cents. Federico Fabrizi suggests Fellini (and there were some shots which reminded me of Il Sceicco bianco when Fellini sends up ... very much what this is sending up). The 'doing nothing' shot has to be about Antonioni. And the film at the end is definitely about neo-realism, or what neo-realism might have been if taken to teh extreme of its own logic (and by the way look at the reactions it gets from its 'actors' when they see what they 'really' looked like - it's not as straightforward a piss-take as it first appears!

And here we sit like birds in the wilderness

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