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

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!!!

They were a good pair of tap performance some 40 years ago. Though they slept together many times, eventually they parted without loving each other. One day, the man and the woman of the pair meet decades later. If you are either side of the pair, would you accept the offer for the TV show? They might have something to hurt themselves when they parted. If they meet in their forties, when they are still professional performers, the reunion could only remind them the bitter memory. But it seems they have already passed such age and situation.Rome is full of garbage. The TV studio is full of showy and mockery things. But this variety show becomes unforgettable time for them.Many times they are about to go away from the show, but eventually, when the TV studio is in turmoil of black out, they talk honestly, and they know they really wanted to see each other and dance again. When they dance, the face of Giulietta Masina is wonderful and impressive. And Marcello Mastroianni desperately dances not to fall again.While watching the movie, I recalled my own past and thought if I could someday see the woman who left me many years ago.

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.