I Vitelloni, directed by Fellini in 1953 was his first international success.Although it is largely autobiographical in nature there is no obvious mention of Rimini,an Italian coastal town where Fellini was born.There are things to be learned from this film such as erratic behavior of a generation which grew up after second world war.This was the one of the rare post war films which spoke of conflicts within family.It is true that Italian master has drawn an honest portrait of aimless youngsters who were not fit for anything but what might be intriguing to an average viewer is to ascertain as to why Fellini decided not to throw some light about why his protagonists were like that ? This is the reason why Fellini has left all important reasoning task for viewers to decide about strengths and weaknesses of his protagonists.I Vitelloni is a film in which there is no escape for anyone neither for its young heroes nor for their family members who like them are also trapped in their own dreary existence.

This movie followed several 30-something friends in a small seaside town in Italy in the 1950s. All of them, aside from being friends, have one thing in common--they all seem to be ne'er-do-wells who need to grow up and get jobs! While several of these characters were far from being likable, they do a good job of convincing you they are real. In many ways, this reminded me of a much later Fellini film, AMARCORD with all its assorted odd characters in a small town. I particularly liked the one character who is a selfish and lazy womanizer because it's so interesting to watch both the smooth way he operates AND the way his family around him enables and excuses his behaviors--that is, until near the end of the film. This need to grow up and stop making excuses is what makes the conclusion of the film so satisfying.

An excellent Italian film--one of Fellini's best, though his die-hard fans of Fellini's surrealistic films of the 60s and afterwards may be quite disappointed since this film is so "normal". This neorealistic-style film is more akin to the films of DeSica or Rosselini than his films later in his more self-indulgent phase. Me, being a HUGE fan of neorealism, found this to be among the best of Fellini's films.

An early Fellini and a wonderful one at that. While it is not my favourite Fellini(my top 5 being Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord and La Strada),it is one of his best and sadly one of his more neglected works. The film does look gorgeous, with rapid yet fluid cinematography and beautiful scenery. Nino Rota's score brings great pathos to every scene it appears in, the script is funny, tense and moving and while familiar in a way the story is engaging. The character studies are just as impressive, these are distinct characters that you do care for. You don't perhaps quite identify with them in the way you do with the titular characters of La Strada and especially Nights of Cabiria, but they are not as detached as some of Fellini's later films like Casanova or Satyricon(my least favourite Fellini but still has its interest points). Fellini's direction is restrained yet quirky and charming, the complete opposite of self-indulgent or dull like him and some of his later films have been criticised for being. The acting is very good indeed, Franco Fabrizi as Fausto especially is superb. All in all, a wonderful film and one of Fellini's better films while not quite among my absolute favourites from him. 9/10 Bethany Cox