Useless: Filming the film was a nuisance to Federico Fellini, but he ended up dedicating it as a director.

This was his second film as a solo director – and his third with a “File First” collaboration – but it was, without a doubt, his first major success. Return again and again to Federico Fellini It is to smile in memory of a unique creator. He also enters a world in which everything has been said and nothing reaches him either. With the imaginary new birthday of the great Italian creator (January 20, 1920, Rimini), the opportunity to see the redesigned version of Useless (1953) is also the possibility of recognition A transitional film between a look at the working class of neo-realism for which the director has offered fruitful work as a screenwriter, as well as finding the first and undoubted signs of cinema that will create together with an understandable dream and special style.

Vitelloni — “Big Calves,” which in provincial parlance defines these unemployed children who have no horizon or aspirations but whose past has allowed them to escape poverty without embracing any slight hint of prosperity — was a film that had many problems to film, many others to be released And, to make matters worse, the legacy of time will be obliterated immediately after a year The Road. Unusually, the script for this movie was done and finished before Fellini could even think of it. Useless, but Luigi Roveri rejected it outright and so did Lorenzo Pegoraro, who sent him the script, although he requested that he write another story closer to a comedy. Thus, Fellini with Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano – screenwriters The Road– He quickly developed a plot that blended personal memories and created stories about these aimless youths in a rural town.

“Think of Rimini. Rimini: A word made from the horns of little soldiers in a row. I can’t be objective. Rimini is a confused, terrifying, and gentle mixture, with that wonderful breath that is the open void of the sea. Nostalgia is more evident there, especially the sea in winter, white peaks and strong winds as I saw it for the first timeThe director wrote in the book Corky for Corky’s sake. Some of the most famous scenes Useless They will come from a strong storm and the open sea in beautiful ruins.

Fellini accepted the argument and with unidentified characters, he devoted himself to selecting a cast that seemed like a proposition limiting the absurd due to its unusual mixture: Franco Fabrizi, an actor with minor roles in Italian cinema and known primarily as a photonovella; Leonora Ruffo, who came from the role of the Queen in the adventure film Queen of Sheba; Alberto Sordi, certainly the only one recognized even though he is hated by the producer; Franco Interlini, an actor from the south known within the Italian cinema factory but not by the general public; and two “characters” of a different order: Leopoldo Trieste, who was the protagonist white sheikh, a resounding box-office failure, and Czech actress Leda Barova, best known for her tumultuous affair with Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and who lived in extreme poverty in Argentina for years prior to this film. This was not all: Riccardo Fellini, the brother of the director, was one of the “Vittelloni”.

For Pegoraro, the combination of an incomprehensible title and an unknown team was too much and he claimed at least “one star”. Fellini tempts her by seducing Vittorio De Sica for the role of a well-known veteran actor who arrives in town and is fascinated by the scenario in which Leopoldo Vanucci, one of those losers, believes famous actor Sergio Natale wants to play. According to Tulio Kezich, De Sica turned down the role “worried about being labeled as truly homosexual” and the character ended up being played by Achille Majeroni. The cards were laid, and, with a resignation over enthusiasm, Pegoraro accepted Fellini’s terms. But there is still more.

Surdi agreed to take a photo Useless, but with the setting of doing so at the spare time he was offered the tour he was developing around Italy. a) yes, Perception as an evocation of Rimini in the province of Filini, Vitelloni It was a production that toured almost all over the country.: With a great starting point at the Goldoni Theater in Florence, the masquerade ball is taking place, it was filmed in December 1952; Filming resumed on January 15, 1953 at Ostia Pier, followed by the city of Fiumicino and also filming in Viterbo and Rome. Strictly speaking, the title evokes a language from Pescara where Flaiano first thought about the development of the story, whose filming lasted six months and involved a diverse technical team.

But the title was a problem again when distributors were tempted to release it, as the director mentioned in an interview with Torino Einaudi about his book Federico Fellini is making a movie1980: “A Useless Nobody wants to distribute it. We were begging and looking for someone like despair. I remember some amazing projections. At the end of the film, the assistants looked at me hard and squeezed producer Pegoraro’s hand, in pain, as if we were witnessing a flood or tragedy. I remember their names, but if I remember them, it is better not to reveal them.”

“I remember a show organized at two in the afternoon in the summer for the head of a large community. It came at a good pace, it was dark, very tan, had a gold bracelet on his wrist, he was the typical car salesman that women like so much. […] Follow Fellini, about the course. Went to another distributor who does not want the address to be Useless. They recommended another title: the homeless !, with an exclamation point. I told them it was fine, but advised them to boost creativity with the voice of a big ogre saying on the soundtrack “The Tramp!” They only accepted the original title when Pegoraro gave them two other films that were quite commercial for them. But on the first posters and in the first copies they did not want to put the name Alberto Sordi; They said: “People will run away,” “This is unpleasant, the public cannot stand it.”The first private show on Italian soil was at the Porta de San Paolo in Rome, where it was quietly received.

Useless This was Fellini’s first film to be distributed internationally, and its premiere a year later in Argentina was a resounding success. By that time, it was already preceded by excellent reviews and its moment of glory by the Silver Lion, which won the film at the Venice Film Festival, in a year when the Golden Lion was left vacant by the decision of the jury headed by the Nobel laureate. Eugenio Montale. At only 32 years old, Federico Fellini outperformed world famous film names such as Alexandr Ford, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Yves Allegret, Vincente Minelli, Ingmar Bergman, William Wyler and Josef von Sternberg in the official competition. On that occasion, Argentina competed for the first time for the Cup against Fellini with naked passion by Luis Cesar Amadore, starring Maria Felix and Carlos Thompson; This feat would be repeated more than two decades later, when Sergio Renan received his first Oscar nomination for Our Country. truce And Fellini took that cup to be unforgettable Amarcord. However, thanks Useless Fellini first came close to cherishing his own Academy Award in Hollywood, receiving a nomination for Best Screenplay in 1958.

Fellini recommended watching the film surrounded by a famous audience and not the chosen world of authors’ cinema, to certainly enjoy the thunderous laughter of “cutting the manga” when Alberto Sordi mockingly yells “La Voratore” on a highway.

However, in addition to its success, the film inspired a notable number of directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, who beggar – His directorial debut – inspired by the movie. In fact, Fellini refused to produce it after seeing the first footage. Pasolini was not the only one: from Juan Antonio Bardem to George Lucas, via Stanley Kubrick, they recognized his powerful influence.

But all that glory was away when Fellini had to suspend filming because he didn’t have the funds to continue shooting or because he had to go after one of his heroes. ten times Useless He was on a tightrope, powerfully blending a biographical stretch of memories of the county with a reality that seemed like a far-fetched dream despite – as in the movie – a journey that brought the apparent success of the big city lights closer.

Useless (Vitelloni), by Federico Fellini, available at xiclos.com