Intervista

An elegiac look-back by the Maestro on where his films were shot (Cinecitta), Intervista has the most meta-fictional plot devices Fellini's used yet.

--It features Fellini himself, shooting a film "recounting" a location (as in "Roma") but here he is more forefront. --The rather casual stream-of-consciousness meandering of the happenings hearkens to "Amarcord," which is similar to this, with a wistful look back on the past, with fascists, bus rides, buxom women, etc. "Intervista" truly seems like an alternate draft of "Amarcord" with Fellini personally added. --The "young Fellini" going on an interview, being shot by Fellini during an interview in present day, and the playful and insistent 3rd-wall being broken every so often.

--And of course Marcello and Anita as themselves.

For fans of Fellini, this is an absolute must-see. Its reflection on his work, himself, and making films makes it one of the most playful, subversive, and autobiographical films in Fellini's late career.

(Originally a t.v. production, it displays a smaller scale that can only be attributed to the budget (too bad) and a need to make things "play" on a smaller screen. Although very similar to "A Director's Notebook", another filmic essay (that was a rough draft for "Roma"), this one is more assured and stands on its own. )

This was the second to last film the famed director, Fellini, made and it was his most personal. Instead of being a traditional film, this is much more like having a personal visit with him as he shows you around Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Sometimes he talks to the camera (or in many cases, the fictional Japanese crew interviewing him--a plot device to represent the audience), sometimes you just watch somewhat random scenes as they are shot and other times you watch Fellini and his friends as they reminisce--such as when Marcello Mastroianni pops by the set and Fellini, impulsively, takes him on a road trip to see Anita Ekberg. While this all seems unscripted and at the spur of the moment, it was all staged for the film but it has a real home movie quality about it. At Ekberg's home, all of Fellini's guests view scenes from LA DULCE VITA (starring Mastroianni and Ekberg) and there is a very strong nostalgic air about the party.

The total effect of all these elements was a lot like climbing inside Fellini's mind and it also gave a lot of amazing insights into the film making process. Because of this it was a lot like Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT, though a bit different because DAY FOR NIGHT stuck more to a traditional script (a movie about a movie being filmed) and seemed a lot less frivolous and fun. Fellini's is more of a "warts and all" and appears to be more spontaneous and ad-libbed--though because of some of the grand sets and the visit to Ekberg's, it obviously was staged to look spontaneous. My advice is to see this film and DAY FOR NIGHT. DAY FOR NIGHT is rated higher, but because of all the sentimentality of INTERVISTA, I preferred it slightly.

While I have never been a huge fan of Fellini, I have seen most of his films and really enjoyed having some insights into his psyche. Most of it came as no surprise (such as the use of phallic imagery--Fellini's sexuality was never repressed in his films), but some was very sweet and charming. It was nice to see him as both director and actor--so why is the film rated so poorly??!!

By the way, when the film was made, Miss Ekberg was 56 years-old and Mr. Mastroianni was 63. I was rather irritated with an IMDb review that complained about her being "obese" and him being "wrinkled". This was cruel and shallow, as most women would die to look that ravishing at 56 and most men would love to be a charming old rogue at 63! What do you expect at that age? Hmm? To quote Ekberg in a recent interview, "I'm very much bigger than I was, so what? It's not really fatness, it's development." Bravo.

PS--If you like this film, try watching Vincenzo Mollica's documentary on the film that's included on the DVD for INTERVISTA. It does a nice job of explaining some of the plot elements and features clips not only from this movie but several other Fellini films. My favorite part was learning that Miss Ekberg's plunge into the Trevi fountain in LA DULCE VITA was done in February!!

I concluded my "Ginger and Fred" review saying the experience was worth all the weirdness if only for that final reunion reunion between Fellini fetish actors Giuletta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni. After watching "Intervista", I can make exactly the same statement. The film isn't without flaws, Fellini's tendency to swing from one perspective to another can be frustratingly disorienting, even for viewers used to his anarchic style and who aspires from some semblance of coherence. The film also doesn't have the same pace than "Ginger and Fred" with two characters being like narrative backbones and making any kind of intermission useless (while "Intervista" is full of them) but for all these imperfections, "Intervista" was worth my time for one particular sequence.

Near the end of the film, there's a magnificent and emotional moment when Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni are watching sequences from "La Dolce Vita" on an improvised big screen and there was no way their emotion was acted or feigned, Anita's tears were those of a once beautiful woman who realizes how time passes and her smile and childish eyes still carry that joyful spirit and innocent lust that took her to that iconic midnight bath in the Trevi fountain. And her chemistry with Marcello "Come here" Mastroianni was still there; watching that scene where he asked for a grappa, I knew their complicity was genuine, the merit of great actors is to know when they don't need to act.

And the genius of Fellini is to know when he doesn't even need to direct, just reuse some footage from a previous classic and the magic operates. For that scene only, for these little five minutes, "Intervista" is certainly a movie I would recommend to a fan of Fellini, not a newbie for it takes a certain knowledge of his work to fully enjoy it. And I believe the Maestro knew only viewers familiar with his movies would appreciate it. Well, let's just say this is a film that cannot be watched before "La Dolce Vita", and it also feels as a continuation of Fellini's nostalgic trip started one year before with "Ginger and Fred". These are movies that couldn't come earlier in his work anyway, both carrying a mix of detachment and introspection that can't result from the mind of a young director.

And while "Ginger and Fred" was a love letter to Hollywood, "Intervista" is a back-to-the-roots journey that echoes Fellini's most puzzling masterpiece "8 ½", in a more accessible but no less eccentric way. The 1963 classic was more complex as it was dealing with autobiographical material combined with an exploration in the author's psyche revealing how his youth memories were the alphabet he wrote his language with. But as Fellini said in an interview, he gained too much weight and couldn't escape from a car hanging on a kite, more pragmatic in "Intervista", he simply shares his passion through an interview with Japanese journalists. An interview is a trigger, hence the title "Intervista".

The film focuses on Fellini's debut as a journalist visiting Cinecitta to interview a known diva, he's played by Sergio Rubini. But we couldn't see Fellini for no reason, so he inserts his trademark film-in-the-film plot, which is an adaptation of Kafka's "Amerika", and an excuse to see his cast and crew at work. And in between, actors from the "youth part" connect with the real world filmed in documentary (sometimes mockumentary) style. And then Mastroianni makes his entrance, dressed like Mandrake, a fitting disguise as once he pops up in the screen, we get to the most magical moment of the film, the one that allows it to proudly levitates above a material which, as rich and colorful as it is, is something we get a little bit used with -if not tired of- with Fellini. The problem with "Intervista" comes from the lack of a clearly defined perspective, unlike "Ginger and Fred", it can get too distracting for its own good.

There's one recurring theme though, quoting the Maestro, the film was conceived like a long private and friendly chat about film-making, it's Fellini talking about movies with his troop, his loyal friends and guiding the conversation and its vignette-like episodes the way he feels it. It's a passionate love letter to cinema and Cine Cita in its unveiling of the sideshow as essential a part as the show.In reality it's the sideshow of his own life we're plunged into. I guess the film has the most pretentious premise but maybe Fellini can get away with it, because he's got quite an eloquence when he talks about himself and such an aesthetic approach to life, such a smart use of circus-like or melancholic music that I enjoyed it to a certain degree. I'm not sure I was as enthralled as I expected to be, maybe the film drags too long on needless parts, and wrapped up in his own artistic creation, Fellini didn't feel the need to trim in the raw material. The part with the Natives attack for instance and the ensuing chaos kind of reminded me of the chaotic ending of Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles", but I'm not sure it changed anything at all, after the Anita and Marcello part, the curtain would have found a perfect moment to close.

But I guess even the most unexpected moments speak for the way Fellini looked at his four-decade spanning career at that time, every movie could be his last and so he tried to push the envelope every time even further, not using inspiration to make movies but making movies about his inspiration. It's pretentious all right but if cinema was his life, there's no reason he couldn't regard his life as cinema, maybe his genius comes from his impossibility to dissociate cinema and reality, cinema was his reality, and to understand the reality of Fellini, the director, the artist and the man, watch his films, Fellini was also his best biographer.

Watching Fellini's "Intervista" is a mixed bag--sadness, frustration because it is not better... coupled with moments of brilliance. I'm not sure there is a more poignant moment in the movies than the scene of a wrinkled Marcello Mastroianni and obese Anita Ekberg wistfully watching their former youthful black & white selves in "La Dolce Vita" being projected on a makeshift screen. That scene alone is a richly-charged commentary on time, memory, regret, self-delusion, love, missed opportunity, life and death--unlike any other I have ever seen.

I don't know what the reviewers were thinking, but with Ebert leading the pack, it might be safe to say that they weren't thinking at all.

Intervista is an amazing film. It takes the shape of a fake documentary, in which Fellini looks at, and pokes fun at, his entire career. In the end it is an homage, not to himself, as other reviewers have suggested, but to film itself. Praise for a medium which never ceases to amaze viewers and film makers alike with it's capacity to project and create our dreams.