Ginger & Fred

Before I saw this movie, I had heard how it was considered one of Federico Fellini's more accessible movies. If this was meant of Fellini's films from the sixties on, I can agree with that. The film is basically two things: one big jab at television and giving Giuletta Masina the opportunity to show everyone how adorable she is (she succeeds). The TV angle, however scathing it may have been in 1986; today with the plethora of reality TV shows, the film just seems prescient. The film's very basic storyline is Masina reuniting with old dance partner Marcello Mastroianni for a TV show. Filling in the rest of the movie (and sometimes obscuring the main story) are the many oddball characters scheduled for the TV show. As anyone familiar with Fellini knows, he loves outrageous people. In this film, for example, there are transsexuals, psychics, a midget troupe and a cow with many teats. The first part of the movie, at the hotel, is a little too much because everything is thrown at the viewer at once. The characters, television, Ginger and Fred, all vie for your attention and it can be overwhelming. Once at the studio, the film kind of settles down and one is able to enjoy the film and it's characters. Not one of Fellini's best but also not only for fanatics of Fellini either.