The White Sheik - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: One of Fellini's Best!
Review: "The White Sheik" is about a young couple on their honeymoon. Ivan and Wanda Cavalli go to Rome, so she can meet his family, but, what Ivan doesn't know is, she secretly wants to meet "The White Sheik" (Alberto Sordi), a comic book character! Wanda (Brunella Bovo) sneaks out of their room to go find "The Sheik". And Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) is stuck trying to figure out a good excuse as to why his bride can't see his family. For a foreign movie, and for a film made by Fellini, this is actually quite funny. Their are nice performances by the characters, and good directing by Fellini. This would make a nice start in your collection of Fellini's films.

The script was done by four people, including Fellini, but, also fammed Italian director Michelango Antonioni co-wrote this script as well! And anyone familiar with him will find this to be a shock. Also Giulietta Masina (Fellini's wife) is in this movie as well. She plays a character named Cabiria. Fellini would later make a movie around this character in his masterpiece "Nights of Cabiria".

Rating:
Summary: Si! Si! Con la esposa!
Review: A most comic and human film, "The White Sheik" was apparently Fellini's first and, for sheer enjoyment, beats anything he did after the great "Nights of Cabiria." It made me laugh almost non-stop from start to finish.

Ivan and Wanda are a young newlywed couple from a small town-- checking into a hotel in Rome. Ivan, rather nervous and ambitious, has their honeymoon planned to the minuto--most to be spent with his relatives, including Uncle who has connections to the Vatican. Wanda, a dreamer, is taken by stories and pictures in a certain periodical. She learns from the porter the location of the publisher is only 10 minutes away. She can't resist! When Ivan takes a nap she is off for a visit. Arriving, she soon finds the characters of her dream stories in the flesh and in costume, for they are preparing to make a film. Felga! Oscar! The Cruel Bedouin! Most of all Wanda wants to meet the White Sheik for she has made a drawing of him and wants him to have it.

In the meantime Ivan, thinking Wanda was in the bath, awakens to find her gone. The relatives (all of them) soon arrive. Ivan, so anxious to show off his new wife, is perplexed at her absence and doesn't know what to say to the family. One comic event after another follows.

In a memorable scene, Ivan meets Cabiria (yes, the one we know) although he does not initiate or even consummate an affair with her as another reviewer claims. To do so would be totally out of character.

Speaking of characters, there is a great supporting cast--from the hotel clerk ("Postcard?"); the respectable Uncle ("Man to man...tell me what's happening"); the film director (shouting: "Take out the concubines! Bring on the camel!"); and, of course, the White Sheik, a sort of 1950s Flavio with his square jawed good looks and rich mane of hair. This is a great film and is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Bad transfer...
Review: I rented this movie at the video store, and although the directing betrays Fellini's youth and inexperience, the buds of future ideas and themes were all present, including Fellini's beloved grasp of absurdity.

Most notable and mature is the ending. A happy ending-- the couple arrives at St. Peter's just in time, the bride has returned, the family name is in tact, every one is happy. But then the doubt, the realization, all come over the grooms face, the story told with no words, just expression-- a really subtle, beautiful ending. Finally, Fellinni pans to the statues lurking above, the score plays a taunting childs tune-- God is watching and likely laughing. So Fellini. So great!

Anyway, the copy I rented in the video store was dog-eared, dirty, old, and still it looked twice as good as the tape I bought from Amazon. What a disappoinment. This video is dark, out of focus and the sound is muffled.

Oh well.

Rating:
Summary: It's in the details...
Review: Like Fitzgerald and his perfect Gatsby, Fellini learned early on how to set up a deeply satisfying ending. 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita. Cabiria. Wow! What wonderful endings.

On that note, this movie is political. It seriously questions the idea of marriage. But we only realize this in the final scene. And we know it because of a few clues.

First is the word play. The Taxi driver asks to be paid, and the uncle asks Ivan, ?Are you done paying?? I?m guessing Ivan has just begun to pay for his decision ? to get married.

Then there is the classic Fellini image of procession. The couple is reunited in the end, they have gotten away with their little embarrassment, unscathed, and they run to catch up with the rest of humanity on it's insanely habitual march to who-knows-where. This is an image which comes back many times with Fellini and is certainly intentional.

And finally is the obvious alignment up of the taunting flute-trill, at the end of the score, with the image of the statue looking down on man, creating a moment of laughter, or even mockery, from above. This moment is essential to understanding this movie, and is well intact in the VHS copy, but on the DVD the music has been shifted, so the music and image of the statue no longer line up! Seem trivial? Perhaps. God knows Criterion has made the world a much, much better place, so I don't blame them. But I believe the mistake is there.

All the same this is a great movie and the extra features are nice.

Rating:
Summary: It's in the details...
Review: Like Fitzgerald and his perfect Gatsby, Fellini learned early on how to set up a deeply satisfying ending. 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita. Cabiria. Wow! What wonderful endings.

On that note, this movie is political. It seriously questions the idea of marriage. But we only realize this in the final scene. And we know it because of a few clues.

First is the word play. The Taxi driver asks to be paid, and the uncle asks Ivan, "Are you done paying?" I'm guessing Ivan has just begun to pay for his decision - to get married.

Then there is the classic Fellini image of procession. The couple is reunited in the end, they have gotten away with their little embarrassment, unscathed, and they run to catch up with the rest of humanity on it's insanely habitual march to who-knows-where. This is an image which comes back many times with Fellini and is certainly intentional.

And finally is the obvious alignment up of the taunting flute-trill, at the end of the score, with the image of the statue looking down on man, creating a moment of laughter, or even mockery, from above. This moment is essential to understanding this movie, and is well intact in the VHS copy, but on the DVD the music has been shifted, so the music and image of the statue no longer line up! Seem trivial? Perhaps. God knows Criterion has made the world a much, much better place, so I don't blame them. But I believe the mistake is there.

All the same this is a great movie and the extra features are nice.

Rating:
Summary: FELLINI'S FINE FIRST FEATURE
Review: THE WHITE SHEIK is Federico Fellini's 1951 solo directorial debut. When I think of a Fellini movie, the first things that come to mind are: the image of someone in diaphanous material floating across the screen, people in antiquated circus-like costumes and a main character who escapes into a fantasy that turns out to have a poignant impact in his or her real life. All these elements are part of the texture of The White Sheik.

A provincial couple come to Rome on their honeymoon. Ivan the groom has made an unromantic schedule of appointments for them. Wanda the young bride, an avid fan of the widely read soap opera photo-comic strips called fumetti, sneaks out of the hotel for a few hours to meet her comic book idol, The White Sheik, and give him a drawing she made. It's all innocent but one thing leads to another and she inadvertently gets taken to a distant photo shoot where the sleazy actor playing the sheik comes on to the bride, now dressed as a harem girl. Meanwhile in Rome, her distraught husband seeks to keep his bride's disappearance a secret from visiting relatives and a scheduled visit with the pope. Look for Fellini's wife, actress Giulietta Masina in a small role as the prostitute Cabiria. A few years later, Masina starred in Fellini's masterpiece, the heartbreaking NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (Criterion). Nino Rota, who became a long term Fellini collaborator, composed the evocative score.

The White Shiek has suffered little over time. I think Fellini saw life as a bittersweet fantasy full of slapstick and hope. A pretty good definition.

Additional material includes a recent interview with the two stars who reminisce about their magical time with Fellini in Rome half a century ago. Recommended

Rating:
Summary: Early Fellini
Review: This is a glorious trasfer of one of Fellini's earliest films. This film is much more simple and light than many of Fellini's subsequent films, but it has a charm all of its own. The fairly straightforward story holds very few surprises or twists, but it also a nice exploration of fantasy vs. reality. The introduction of the White Sheik sitting in his swing, high in the air is a wonderful moment. As the film goes on, the dashing sheik just becomes to us an overweight and vain man and our illusions, like the young wife's, are dashed. Variations of this story have been done many times, but this is one of the most pure and enjoyable.

The film is also notable for the introduction of Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) who would have her own Fellini film a few years after. It's not a very long scene, and it is included in its entirety on the "Nights of Cabiria" DVD by Criterion. Despite that, this is still a DVD worth owning to watch a master filmmaker get used to his craft.

Rating:
Summary: Early Fellini
Review: This is a glorious trasfer of one of Fellini's earliest films. This film is much more simple and light than many of Fellini's subsequent films, but it has a charm all of its own. The fairly straightforward story holds very few surprises or twists, but it also a nice exploration of fantasy vs. reality. The introduction of the White Sheik sitting in his swing, high in the air is a wonderful moment. As the film goes on, the dashing sheik just becomes to us an overweight and vain man and our illusions, like the young wife's, are dashed. Variations of this story have been done many times, but this is one of the most pure and enjoyable.

The film is also notable for the introduction of Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) who would have her own Fellini film a few years after. It's not a very long scene, and it is included in its entirety on the "Nights of Cabiria" DVD by Criterion. Despite that, this is still a DVD worth owning to watch a master filmmaker get used to his craft.

Rating:
Summary: A nice beginning work by Fellini
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"The White Shiek" known in Italian as "Lo Sceicco Bianco" is Federico Fellini's solo directorial debut, and his second overall film.

I found the film somewhat melodramatic but it has some humor in it. In the film a recently married couple go on a homeymoon in Rome. They have a tight schedule and the wife wants to meet "The White Sheik" the performer in a photo strip cartoon. When they meet, marital infidelity is suspected.

The only special feature on the DVD is a set of interviews with two actors and a Fellini biographer.

While it is a nice film, it would likely be appreciated more by those especially interested in Fellini's work.

Rating:
Summary: Fellini makes his directorial debut, and with a bang!
Review: While honeymooning in Rome, a young bride (Wanda),dazzled by glamour and illusion, escapes the security of her future by running off with a photo-novel actor who portrays a seductive "White Sheik", to whom she writes often signing herself as "the pasionate doll". Soon, she finds reality sneaking into her romantic fantasy. Disappointed by the average quality of her idol, she goes back to her husband (Trieste) who, meanwhile, has initiated an affair with a prostitute (Cabiria) and her friend. This is the first film for which Fellini has completely responsibility as a director: Through the vicissitude of little provincial persons who discover factory-dreams, Fellini inaugurates that autobiographic element and that fancy inclination which will be constant of his cinemas. Sordi (the "White Sheik") is an irresistible seductor to excess while at the same time enslaved by his wife.