Narshty wrote:http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/films/13078
I thought it might interest some here that the BFI's upcoming DVD of Fellini's
Il Bidone runs a generous 108 minutes (confirmed by
the BBFC) - taking into account PAL speedup, that means around 112 minutes, around 20 minutes longer than Image's DVD. The film had around an hour hacked out of it by the distributor before it was released, so the recovery of this footage at least is cause for celebration.
I've seen "Il Bidone" in its truncated 90 minute version released in R1 by Image Entertainment (now out of print) three times, and even in this state (where it's very obvious that there are many scenes missing) I think it's without a doubt one of the Fellini's masterpieces and also one of my favorite tragedies.
I wrote an appreciative thread here on this board about "Il Bidone" sometime last year (or it could've been two years ago, whenever it was it isn't here anymore), wherein I spoke of the different versions, some research I did about what was deleted, and how this is the only Fellini film that he didn't have complete control over. I've heard a shower of varying opinions on this film, mostly very positive, but not all of them.
Those who responded to my thread a year or two ago liked the film. I also showed it to my father, not a fan of but a casual viewer of foreign films who has seen and loved many Fellini's over the years, and somewhere in the middle of the film he said that this is one of Fellini's best works. A friend of mine online saw it sometime last year and liked it, saying that the real downer ending sort of reminded him of "Los Olvidados."
I instantly loved it from the first viewing and have always hailed it as one of his best. The characters are all very beautifully portraid with a lot of sentiment and feeling, I really believed them and felt their emotions, greedy fulfillment, and moral confusion over the tragic swindling they were doing to numerous poor farm families. Beautiful nightclub scenes and crazy party scenes are absolutely outstanding with Nino Rota's brilliant jazz/dance music. The film also comes at a time where Fellini was experimenting with neo-realism (before he latched off into pure surrealism) and was attempting to artistically craft his ideas around stories that could really happen, and in this case, with characters that anybody could know. In that, it remains one of his most realistic films. Broderick Crawford is wonderfully broody and gruff while (like Zampano in La Stada) he remains sympathetic because of Fellini's incredible ability to show us the humanity behind somebody as unrulingly cruel as Crawford, who utterly falls into inescapable guilt and regret by the end. It's been a year and a half since I last saw this because I've been waiting very patiently for the restored version (which has played at Fellini retrospecives for the last two or three years) to become accessible, and it's a blessing that it is.
The only shortcomings of this film in its 90 minute version is that it's far too short, and after the first two acts, the characters played by Basehart, Fabrizi, and especially Masina just sort of disappear from the narrative, but this will no longer be a shortcoming when all is revealed on the BFI (and even the short length of the 90 minute version is forgiveable because of the magnificent ending we're given, but the additional scenes I've forever read about will be absolute revelations, like where Crawford's character visits Masina after finally getting out of jail, as well as numerous scenes dealing with the personal lives of the other characters, which would make the build up to the ending so much more powerful because we gradually focus on Crawford rather than, as in the 90 minute version, instantly closing in on him).
Unfortunately, because of my lack of funds lately, I haven't been able to buy the BFI R2 of the restored "Il Bidone," but I absolutely can't wait to see this film properly for the first time (and with restored picture quality on top of that, the Image release looks pretty muddy). When I do, I'll post my thoughts here. But it's a great film, far from sub-par, and I imagine the extended version on the BFI DVD is wonderful. I can't recommend it enough.
Dylan
