I clowns
I clowns (also known as The Clowns) is a 1970 mockumentary film by Federico Fellini about the human fascination with clowns and circuses.[1]
I clowns | |
---|---|
Directed by | Federico Fellini |
Produced by | Elio Scardamaglia |
Written by | Story and Screenplay: Federico Fellini Bernardino Zapponi |
Starring | Federico Fellini |
Music by | Nino Rota |
Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
Release date | December 25, 1970 |
Running time | 92 minutes |
Language | Italian |
Production
The film was made for the Italian TV station RAI with an agreement that it would be released simultaneously as a cinema feature.[2] RAI and co-producer Leone Film compromised on its release, with RAI broadcasting it on Christmas Day, 1970, and Leone Film releasing it theatrically in Italy the following day, December 26, 1970.[3]
It is a docufiction: part reality, part fantasy. The film has sometimes been referred to as the first mockumentary in film history.[4] Being documentary and fiction in one, The Clowns distinguishes itself by being a mockumentary with unique characteristics, not the least of which is reflecting Fellini's own increasing fascination with how documentary films reflect "reality". Fellini would further explore this semi-fictional documentary genre in 1969's Fellini: A Director's Notebook and 1987's Intervista, both of which contain unreliable depictions of Fellini himself making the film within the film narrative.
Cast
Main
- Riccardo Billi as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Billi)
- Federico Fellini as Himself
- Gigi Reder as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Reder)
- Tino Scotti as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Scotti)
- Valentini as Himself – Italian Clown
- Fanfulla as Himself – Italian Clown
- Merli as Himself – Italian Clown
- Carlo Rizzo as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Rizzo)
- Colombaioni as Themselves – Italian Clowns (credited as I 4 Colombaioni)
- Pistoni as Himself – Italian Clown
- Martana as Themselves – Italian Clowns (credited as I Martana)
- Giacomo Furia as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Furia)
- Alvaro Vitali as Himself (The Troupe)
- Dante Maggio as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Maggio)
- Galliano Sbarra as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Sbarra)
- Peppino Janigro as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Janigro)
- Carini as Himself – Italian Clown
- Maunsell as Himself – Italian Clown
- Nino Terzo as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Terzo)
- Osiride Pevarello as Clown (Credited as Peverello)
- Nino Vingelli as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Vingelli)
- Alberto Sorrentino as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Sorrentino)
- Fumagalli as Himself – Italian Clown
- Valdemaro as Himself – Italian Clown
- Luigi Zerbinati as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Zerbinati)
- Ettore Bevilacqua as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Bevilacqua)
- Maya Morin as Maya (La troupe)
- Anna Lina Alberti as Herself – Alvaro's mother (La troupe) (credited as Lina Alberti)
- Gasparin as Gasparino (La troupe)
- Alex as Himself – French Clown
- Georges Loriot as Himself – French Clown (credited as Père Loriot)
- Maïs as Himself – French Clown
- Bario as Himself – French Clown
- Ludo as Himself – French Clown
- Nino as Himself – French Clown
- Charlie Rivel as Himself
- Pierre Étaix as Himself
- Annie Fratellini as Herself
- Victor Fratellini as Himself
- Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée as Himself (credited as Baptiste)
- Tristan Remy as Himself
- Liana Orfei as Herself
- Rinaldo Orfei as Himself
- Nando Orfei as Himself
- Franco Migliorini as Himself – Animal Tamer
- Anita Ekberg as Herself
Cameo/Uncredited
- Maria Grazia Buccella as Herself
- Aristide Caporale as Railwayman
- Victoria Chaplin as Herself
- Liliana Chiari as Herself
- Dante Cleri as Fascist
- Shirley Corrigan as Audience member
- Feverello as Himself – Italian Clown
- Gustavo Fratellini as Himself – Italian Clown
- Adelina Poerio as Dwarf nun
References
- I Clowns review by Philip French at The Guardian, October 26, 2014
- Baxter, J.: Fellini, page 260. St. Martins Press, 1993.
- Baxter, J.: Fellini, page 270. St. Martins Press, 1993.
- I clowns: Fellini's Mockumentary - article at The Artifice