Variety Lights

Released Dec 6, 1950

1h 33m

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

71%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte (Peppino De Filippo) manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli (Carla Del Poggio), and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour (Giulietta Masina), but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.

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A.H. Weiler

New York Times

The cognoscenti will recognize touches that have turned up in eight Fellini features that followed this one.

Rated: 3.5/5

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

The iconoclast from Rimini shaped the world of post-war international cinema ...

Mar 2, 2023

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

It's a refreshingly evocative backstage showbiz pic, that tells a familiar story with much compassion for human frailty.

Rated: B

Apr 2, 2013

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

In as sordid a trade as showbiz, it pays to create theater out of life's miseries

Sep 25, 2009

Full Review

TV Guide

Even in this early effort the whimsical, odd world of Fellini comes dancing forth.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 29, 2006

Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Rated: 5/5

Nov 6, 2005

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Mikey H

My first Fellini film. I'm sure it only gets better from here.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Variety Lights is as good of a place to begin with Fellini than most any other options. Released the same year as Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve, the film also shares the plot element of the film's central starlet opportunizing her way to the top. (In this case, the engaging Carla Del Poggio). It's show-people traveling from town to town for their next gig, and all the inner drama that happens throughout. From this first film, Fellini's lovely wife Giulietta Masina is present onscreen, just as she would increasingly go on to be throughout his filmography. Variety Lights is an impressive-enough piece of work, well-constructed and naturally acted with no sloppiness.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If the movie is boring you, repeated looks at Carla Del Boggio will keep you awake. One cannot stop looking at her, she's perfect beauty that can break a man's heart just by looking at her. I appreciate the dining scene as the camera drifts past the vaudevillians desperately scarfing amidst a feeding frenzy - we get little details that individualize each character, but unite them through a common obstacle: hunger. The value of food is a recurring theme; Checco takes Liliana out to a theater restaurant and panics as she considers expensive menu options. Ultimately he cannot afford it all. This scene features a dance on a wonderfully bottom-lit dancefloor illuminating off the actors from a low angle. Great establishing shot as Checco sits alone at the front door waiting for Liliana, having just heard she's cheating on him. The houses in the back are bottom-lit. He sits in the loop of strategically placed ellipses light over stone masonry. Between all this is the dark and shadow of night, almost like a chiaroscuro. The appearance of a black trumpeter is startling, we see so few in these early films playing anything besides servants. They never interact like he does here. As Checco walks away from the street performers, a building is distinctly washed out white, forming a perfect silhouette around him as he walks off in the background. The audience's tend to be mean spirited, the sadness that simple friendly entertainment can't satisfy anymore; it's she or nothing. As Checco prepares for his next show, he and we are mesmerized by a leg/crotch shot of Liliana - that is what this show is worth and banking on. But she has no loyalty, showing up late one day only to excitedly inform she's suddenly leaving for bigger better opportunities. She hardly cares how much Checco is crushed to hear this, she plays innocent. One of the more perfect endings to a movie, coming full circle to what got him started in the first place. He is now back in the arms of his old gal Melina, who he's more than lucky to have got back in the first place after how he treated her before. But some patterns never change, which is why some broken relationships are meant to stay broken. Checco wants to believe he is settled and happy in her arms after a disappointing chance encounter with Liliana at the train station. The movie began with her getting on the same train as them, the demure devilish temptress moving in for her target. Now at the end, she is above them, and they leave the station from separate trains. But on this new train, Checco spots a new Liliana, and when he gets a moment away from his Melina, makes advances towards her. The final shot is the train moving forward. I won't read into the Hitchcock tunnel symbolism since he's not scoring, but I will point out that it moves in a patterned routine like Checco does with his women and mistakes.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A story about jealousy

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

gr8 directorial debut from fellini feels like a hollywood pic from the 40's or 50's it's good hints of greatness to come

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Apparently this was Fellini's first feature but we didn't know that going in (though it's obviously "early") - needn't have worried, all the amazing panoply of tragicomic humanity is totally present and correct right from the start of his career. Easily my favourite director in the ~80-film slice of the Criterion Collection we've watched so far (though perhaps that's not completely surprising when Fellini has helmed a full 4 of those).

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

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Federico Fellini

Director

Alberto Lattuada

Director

Giulietta Masina

Melina Amour

Peppino De Filippo

Checco Dal Monte

Carla Del Poggio

Liliana "Lily" Antonelli

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Synopsis

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte (Peppino De Filippo) manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli (Carla Del Poggio), and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour (Giulietta Masina), but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.

Director: Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 6, 1950, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): May 6, 1965
Release Date (DVD): Jun 16, 2009
Runtime: 1h 33m

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