Fellini wrote and directed this masterpiece film, which is recognized as a pivotal work in the director’s artistic evolution. It has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in Italy in the 1950s.
The film tells a story of five young Italian men at the crucial turning points in their small town lives. To shoot this film, Fellini built a shooting site resembling his hometown Rimini in Ostia, Italy. Working with several cinematographers over a six-month period, Fellini developed a predominant camera style based on slow tracking shots that "match the listless, purposeless lives" of his characters. He pioneered the use of strong emotional memories to establish a narrative pattern that is both poetically absurd and carnival-like in its humanity.
Fellini’s younger brother Riccardo Fellini played a supporting role in the film. I Vitelloni garnered the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion in 1953 and received the Academy Awards nomination for Best Writing in 1958.
