The Clowns

Fellini’s fascination with the circus and the surreal come to a head in one of his final masterpieces, The Clowns. The film reflects Fellini’s childhood obsession with clowns and begins with a young boy watching a circus set up from his bedroom window. Though comical and referred to as a “docu-comedy”, this film explores deeper human conditions such as authority, poverty, humility and arrogance all of which manifest themselves through the characters of the clowns who vary from the local sex-crazed hobo, a midget nun, to a mutilated Mussolini disciple. The film then diverges from its narrative and dreamy state to a more documentary like approach as Fellini searches out these jesters of his youth in Paris to see what has become of them. Ending with an operatic type funeral for one of Italy’s most celebrated clowns, one feels immersed in the Fellini-esque nature of the burlesque, and the surreal. An excellent score composed by Nino Rota enhances the film’s denouement keeping the viewer at the edge of their seat as if waiting for the jack in the box to pop. Featuring Anita Ekberg, the star of his 1960’s masterpiece, La Dolce Vita and the director himself.