Fellini is esteemed at the top of the tree of classic film directors, only for the UK market he hasn’t been served anywhere near as well as his fellow masters of cinema. There have been bits and pieces released on limited runs here and there, but it’s still lacking. Enter Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label who are continuing their dedication to releasing the best of European and Global cinema with something off the beaten track from Federico Fellini’s filmography. Instead of going in more obvious directions, be it your La Strada, 8 ½ or Le Dolce Vita’s, they are giving Il Bidone (The Swindle) the Blu-ray treatment.
Il Bidone follows on from the directors’ breakout film La Strada, in which Fellini looks into the characters that used the malaise of post-second world Italy to line their own pockets. The gang of con-artists made up of the ageing Augusto (Broderick Crawford), Picasso (Richard Basehart) and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) head out from the comfort of the affluent city lifestyle into the country where they fabricate schemes to deprive those lowest in the pecking order from what little they have. All three, Augusto, in particular, are unscrupulous kinds who would steal off the back of their own Mother’s. We see people in poverty barely scraping by; people who paid the biggest cost in the War and these men arrive posing as either government officials or religious figures to steal meagre amounts of money. To those people in poverty, these are saviours, people who could help them through their hardships.
In the final 15 minutes Augusto, the film evolves from an examination into cynical social cannibalism into something with an emotional resonance more profound than simply hating these people for what they do
IL BIDONE
In the first half of the film, Fellini stages some simple set pieces that show how easy it is to work a con with people who are so trusting. In adopting a dual perspective, there are also hectic scenes that play out in the inner city bourgeoisie. These scenes are full of life and social chaos as if to point out how diametrically opposed his day-to-day is from that of the people whom he scams. Whether it’s the solemn silence of the country or the festive hubbub of Italy’s financial élite, Otello Martelli frames everything perfectly.
Speaking of parties, it’s only when the three attend a New Year’s Eve party put on by one of Augusto’s old friends that the house of cards starts to fall. At this party, Picasso’s wife catches on that his husband isn’t quite as honest as he lets on and later Augusto meets his daughter, Patrizia (Lorella De Luca), for the first time in years. Over the coming days, the two men grow a sense of morality and it’s in this realisation that the film achieves the greatness the director is capable of.
Before that point, Il Bidone feels a beat away from something truly special. In the final 15 minutes Augusto has his awakening, in a beautifully staged and acted centrepiece the film evolves from an examination into cynical social cannibalism into something with an emotional resonance more profound than simply hating these people for what they do. It may take a long time getting there, but this is a lost masterwork from one of Europe’s most influential auteurs. It’s not often you get to discover films from directors who made cinema into the art form we all love today, and in that Il Bidone is a rare treat.
IL BIDONE IS OUT FROM MASTERS OF CINEMA
IL BIDONE IS OUT OF PRINT, CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO GO TO LISTING
