Ginger and Fred

PG-13

Released Mar 28, 1986

2h 6m

Comedy

List

77%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

81%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In Italy, dancers Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni) and Amelia (Giulietta Masina) -- once famous for their impersonations of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers -- reunite to perform one last ballroom routine on the TV show "We Are Proud to Present." Now both show biz has-beens, Pippo and Amelia are billed alongside a veritable circus sideshow of dwarfs and celebrities. Soon the aging dancers take to the stage and transform the vulgar spectacle into a magical re-imagining of 1930s Hollywood.

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s r

Didn't do much for me, lots of symbolism, but like a dead horse.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

What seems at first like a harmless condemnation of television as an insane, ridiculous circus (and as such it comes off as a silly, dated and mostly unfunny film) soon turns out to be a truly melancholy and touching experience, with Masina and Mastroianni shining together.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

one of my favourite fellini pics

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A terrific performance by Masina and Mastroianni and a beautiful story by Fellini.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

Fellini is very good when he looks at the small characters, lost in society. But he is quite boring when talks about the mediocrity of fame and spectacle. Maybe because of that, only Giuletta Masina, and the couple she does with Mastroianni, gets saved in this movie. The original idea is good, but the execution...

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Hilarious satire of Italian television.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

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Federico Fellini

Director

Giulietta Masina

Amelia Bonetti (Ginger)

Marcello Mastroianni

Pippo Botticella (Fred)

Franco Fabrizi

Show host

Friedrich von Ledebur

Admiral Aulenti

Martin Blau

Assistant director

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Gilbert Adair

Sight & Sound

The scenes in and around the television studio, as the two forlorn old troupers come to terms with the punkish fauna of the 1980s, are -- for this director -- strangely verveless and unfocused.

Aug 1, 2015

Full Review

Vincent Canby

New York Times

When, as happens on several occasions, Amelia and Pippo become an integral part of the impressionistic film that surrounds them, instead of just being witnesses to it, Ginger and Fred ranks with the best work Mr. Fellini has ever done.

Rated: 5/5

May 20, 2003

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

The film isn't a particularly pleasurable experience (the satire of television is broad and wayward, and the attempts to wring pathos from Ginger and Fred's geriatric infirmities fall far short of the mark), but it does have a cranky, old-man's integrity.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Jack Morris

Washington Blade

Fellini’s target is clearly the vacuousness of TV (there is even. a humiliating game show), yet while he mocks its banality and slickness, his mode of entertaining seems virtually the same; he only magnifies its idiocy. This isn’t really fair.

May 23, 2022

Full Review

Octavi Marti

El Pais (Spain)

Ginger e Fred is simultaneously an entertaining movie and a spectacle that produces an infinite sadness because of its pessimism and disillusionment. [Full Review in Spanish]

Mar 11, 2020

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

It's one of Fellini's more accessible and warmer films.

Rated: B

Sep 19, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

In Italy, dancers Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni) and Amelia (Giulietta Masina) -- once famous for their impersonations of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers -- reunite to perform one last ballroom routine on the TV show "We Are Proud to Present." Now both show biz has-beens, Pippo and Amelia are billed alongside a veritable circus sideshow of dwarfs and celebrities. Soon the aging dancers take to the stage and transform the vulgar spectacle into a magical re-imagining of 1930s Hollywood.

Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, Tullio Pinelli
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Stella Film, Produzioni Europee Associate, France 3 Cinéma, Les Films Ariane
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 28, 1986, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 9, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $577.5K
Runtime: 2h 6m
Sound Mix: Mono

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