The Clowns VHS

Well i gotta say that i was 13 years old when La Dolce Vita was released in the US and nobody would release it in the backwards cowtown i lived in. Iread about it in adult magazines & was led to believe that the film was the sex crazed & as risque as things could be. So, long story short i finally saw the film at a drive-in theatre in Milwaukee Wi. some 7 or 8 years later i was actually disapointed how clean & tame the film was: & it took me another 15 years to really start to dig the film for what it really was,From then on I was a certified a Fellini junkie. at THAT point 7 or 8 years later I found Il Clowns on a dusty library shelf in VHS mode & immedeatly hooked 2 machines & had been boot legging every Fellini film i could get my hands on & the rest is history. NOW all my vcrs have passed away since the beginning of the 21st century. I have a dvd player & a flatscreen TV. For an Italian Cat, Signor Fedrico had a English style dry since of humour. Tha said I'm buy EVERY Fellini movie I can get my hands on. Thanks to Amazon I'm on my way to achieve THAT goal. When Federico Fellini passed the world lost a GREAT director From what i've seen; the the american film industry has been swirling in a great toilet bowl since 2008. Except for cats like Clint Eastwood & M. Scorsese & De Palma & a precious few others, directors don't have the BALLS to make GREAT Cinema anymore & the brush fires growing hotter & Hollywood is about to be burnt down. there's not much hope left except in the legacy of St. Federico. AMEN.

The documentary starts with the narrator talking about how when he grew up, clowns used to scare him. He traces his memories and even compares them to other people in society, which is funny and keen. But what this movie does is make me feel sad that clowns don't live in the same era as they once did. It's as if we don't need clowns but this movie made me want to revert to more simplistic forms of entertainment. There are few universal languages and music gets most of the attention. Clowns, but namely mimes, communicate in a way that doesn't require sophisticated intrigue. Slapstick may appear violent but it is not esoteric. Some of the clowns would tour hospitals, veterans, and even convents, reminding me of Patch Adams who follows in their footsteps. Clowns can appeal to anyone but the hard thing to understand about happiness and loneliness is that it shows up in the most unexpected places, and when you think you need to do something sophisticated to find happiness it's usually the opposite that you find.

Is there such a thing as too weird for Fellini? I don't think so...I guess it was just a little too much about clowns. Still worth a watch if you're interested in Fellini's work.

An all time classic, this essential Fellini documents the European history of circus clowns as a voyage into the director's past, and his unconditional love for clowns. Archival footage of iconic clowns, as well as reenactment of some of the best clown skits in circus lore, combined with Nino Rota's music, make this film one of the best in Fellini's oeuvre.

I really wanted to watch this film. I really did. However, the quality of this video makes reading the subtitles near impossible. This particular copy of the film looks like it was videotaped off a television, in the late 1970s. I thought by paying for Prime we were afforded some sort of quality control. Shame on Amazon.

The version seen was poor.

This is one of my favorite of Fellini's films -- a perfect blend of fantasy and reality in a world populated by aging master clowns who are the subjects of a documentary by Fellini within this fantastical film by Fellini -- illuminating beautifully poignant truths of our sadly humorous predicament.

This copy is a terrible transfer from the original video master without any enhancement/improvement. Images are fuzzy and very low quality. Most of the film can't be seen well because it's too dark.

Dieser Kinofilm ist ein absolutes Meisterwerk von Federico Fellini und war in deutscher Synchronisation leider nur als Videocassette und nicht als DVD aufzutreiben.

Parfait

Comme Roma les nostalgies de Felinni, un chef d'oeuvre par l'ambiance restituéeFellini a son monde a lui et ceux qui l'aiment s'y retrouvent