The loafers

Another recent watch off my DVR was the early Federico movie I Vitelloni.

It's the end of summer in a small Italian seaside city (presumably based on Fellini's home town of Rimini), where they're celebrating by selecting "Miss Mermaid". That winner is Sandra (Leonora Ruffo), sister of Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi) and reluctant entrant. She faints after winning, and the doctor determines that the reason for it is... she's pregnant!

Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) is the one who knocked him up, and he doesn't have the maturity to be a father, so he plans on skipping town until his father basically threatens to beat the crap out of him. It's time for a shotgun wedding. But even with that, Fausto insists on cavorting with other women, which is going to cause Sandra no end of heartbreak.

Also in the circle of friends of Fausto and Moraldo are the playwright Leopoldo, who is at least trying to do something with his life even if it's a pipe dream, and the layabouts Alberto and Riccardo. Fausto, with a baby on the way, is given a job with an antiques dealer, but eventually loses it. So he steals a statue that supposedly has been discarded by his boss, and tries to sell it off....

It goes on like this for an hour and 45 minutes, and frankly, I had nowhere near the love for it that most other reviewers seem to do. The on-screen guide's synopsis referred to the men as "adolescents", so I was expecting a coming-of-age story instead of a bunch of adult loafers (the Italian word "vitelloni" has "loafers" as one of its meanings). As such, I found myself not caring for these men-children and just wanted all of them to grow up already.

But since everybody else rates this one so highly, it's definitely one you should watch and judge for yourself. It's on DVD, although it's courtesy of the Criterion Collection, which means it pricey. And thankfully, tomorrow's movie is the coming-of-age film I thought I was going to get in I Vitelloni.