I Clowns

Film Review by Ross McIndoe | 27 Oct 2014
Film title: I Clowns
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Federico Fellini, Riccardo Billi, Gigi Reder, Tino Scotti
Release date: 27 Oct
Certificate: U

A minor project made in a breather between films that would elevate him to the highest level of the cinematic pantheon, Fellini's I Clowns is often noted as the original mockumentary, with the director appearing as himself at the head of a small film crew documenting the history of the Italian clown. At one moment, an interviewer begins to ask Fellini whether this film will serve as an analogy for his own career – a ringleader of clowns, taking the silliest things seriously and finding poignancy behind painted smiles – before an errant custard pie cuts off his question.

If this is the prototype for the mockumentary, it's definitely an early model: Fellini never commits to the form, filming the action from his own invisible lens rather than the POV of the movie-makers within the movie. Apparently it just wasn't in him to make something less than beautiful. An interesting footnote to the Fellini legend, but not the legend itself. [Ross McIndoe]