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The Clowns (1971)
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Synopsis: Filmmaker Federico Fellini continues to explore his fascination with clowns and the circus in this one-of-a-kind salute to the big top performers of yesteryear that also cleverly parodies documentary techniques. In the first part of the film, Fellini takes a nostalgic, autobiographical... Filmmaker Federico Fellini continues to explore his fascination with clowns and the circus in this one-of-a-kind salute to the big top performers of yesteryear that also cleverly parodies documentary techniques. In the first part of the film, Fellini takes a nostalgic, autobiographical look at his youthful infatuation with the circus. Fellini himself then enters the film, along with a television crew, to interview a few of the famous surviving clowns. The film finishes with a symbolic mock funeral performed by clowns. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Mayo Morin, Lima Alberti
Reviews
This is the film's ultimate message: don't think so much and just try to have some fun.
It's not that The Clowns is not a good deal of fun, or that it is boring; it's just that -- to me, anyway -- this sort of coda doesn't do justice to the entire career.
This is artful and sometimes very amusing, but it doesn't work as fiction because Fellini is tied to facts, and it doesn't work as documentary because Fellini will not (cannot?) abandon his gift of giving the raw material an artistic shape.


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