The Clowns

G

Released Mar 10, 1971

1h 31m

Documentary

List

100%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

76%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

This lighthearted pseudo-documentary from one of the world's most serious filmmakers, Federico Fellini, is full of vivid imagery of clown routines, revealing Fellini's great admiration for clowns and circus performers. Revisiting his childhood obsession with the art form, Fellini delves into memories of performances from his past, expertly acted out by true masters of the craft of clowning. Fellini attempts to introduce the levity of the clown to the form of documentary.

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Stefan Kanfer

TIME Magazine

[Fellin] turns the world into his circus and, in a liberated, quasi-documentary style, resurrects some of history's great pagliacci with their cornucopia of practical jokes, smashed hats, pulled chairs, popping balloons and squirting flowers.

Mar 11, 2015

Full Review

David Pirie

Time Out

Fellini's documentary celebration of the dying art of the clown is his best film in years.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Vincent Canby

New York Times

It's not that The Clowns is not a good deal of fun, or that it is boring; it's just that -- to me, anyway -- this sort of coda doesn't do justice to the entire career.

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Frédéric Vitoux

Positif

From the very outset, Fellini does not falsify the world within which the clowns play their games in an attempt to make it correspond to his feelings, but instead finds among them those facets that are in tune with his own sensitivities.

May 3, 2022

Full Review

LAFP Staff

Los Angeles Free Press

It is, ultimately, one of [Federico Fellini's] most beautiful, haunting and compelling, personal, evasive, anti-intellectual and enchanted works.

Jan 10, 2020

Full Review

Brian Orndorf

Blu-ray.com

I think Fellini feels he's shortchanging his audience. While vivid and researched, "The Clowns" seems like it only scratches the surface with his red-nosed, floppy-shoed obsession.

Rated: B+

Nov 12, 2017

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Audience Member

A love letter to clowns in the form of a false documentary, full of humor and nostalgia. Something very similar was done by Woody Allen year later in Radio Days. Curious thing a song very similar to the one in The Godfather is played in one of the sequences near the end.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

andy f

Fellini's Clowns is a masterpiece about the then dying art of clowns. It is a thing of farce, beauty and comic tragedy just as clowning is. Utterly captivating, enthralling and enchanting.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fellini directs a pseudo-documentary about clowns and their rapidly vanishing place in European society. He dramatizes his first visit to the circus and his reaction to the clowns and how they reminded him of some odd people who lived in his village. He then travels around Europe interviewing famous, aging clowns. The film ends with a 20 minute clown performance. Parts of this work for me, parts really don't. The dramatizations and the clown performances are fantastic. The documentary segment really isn't. Fellini inserts himself and his "crew" (obviously fake) into the documentary segments, adding some bad comedy and taking time away from the interviews. Consequently, the interviews seem pretty light on content. I don't think you learn anything particularly interesting about clowns.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A wonderful tribute to clowns and circuses. Fellini mixes history, clown performances and poignancy to say good bye to clowns because circuses are disappearing. Audiences are too sophisticated for circus and clown acts it would appear. Fellini touches on endings, death, aging, and loss all intermingled with the humour of clown acts. A great film and all because a boy loved the circus.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Some of Fellini's movies show a zest for a circus-like frenzy so it was only appropriate that this is the culmination of that.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A strange kind of documentary that includes narrative and real life footage based on the subject of the clowns, something that inspired Fellini's cinema greatly. This feels like a personal tribute to clowns that doesn't work so well on a widespread scale, as Fellini is ultimately not so able to transfer his passion for the circus with this inconsistent piece of work; however, a more Nouvelle Vogue influence can be traced and proves the filmmaker's wish to constantly try new things and experiment. It is, however, Nino Rota with his magnificent score that takes centre stage.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

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Federico Fellini

Director

Maya Morin

Maya

Lina Alberti

Herself

Alberto Vitali

Actor

Gigi Reder

Actor

Riccardo Billi

Actor

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Synopsis

This lighthearted pseudo-documentary from one of the world's most serious filmmakers, Federico Fellini, is full of vivid imagery of clown routines, revealing Fellini's great admiration for clowns and circus performers. Revisiting his childhood obsession with the art form, Fellini delves into memories of performances from his past, expertly acted out by true masters of the craft of clowning. Fellini attempts to introduce the levity of the clown to the form of documentary.

Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Bernardino Zapponi
Production Co: Leone Film, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, Bavaria Film, Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF)
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 10, 1971, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 5, 2017
Runtime: 1h 31m