I Vitelloni

Directed by FEDERICO FELLINI

Starring ALBERTO SORDI FRANCO FABRIZI FRANCO INTERLENGHI

1953

Released 28 MAY

Blu-ray

he desperate lengths that men go to keep it in their pants is an abiding (translation: The Bullocks), sees a gang of horned-up gadabouts pondering how they might escape the tedium of provincial life. There’s the artist, the performer, the dreamer, the skirtchaser (although would-be-rapist seems a more apt nomenclature) and the impressionable pretender. All discover that happiness is elusive, success is a mirage and the scales are always tipped against them ever falling out of line with their conservative Catholic upbringing. There isn’t really a story to speak of–it’s more like a spritzed-up soap opera in which the picturesque alleyways, quaint boutiques and tightly sanctioned pleasure domes conspire to make the daily torpor feel ever more intense.