The Voice of the Moon

Federico Fellini's final film, 1990's The Voice of the Moon, was neither well-received on the festival circuit nor released in America—quite a comedown for a one-of-a-kind director whose beloved classics La Strada, La Dolce Vita, and 8 ½ helped establish a ravenous market for foreign films in U.S. theaters and on college campuses in the 1950s and ‘60s. A well-intended journey through perennial Fellini themes—including reckoning with one's past and present, the search for meaning in the face of mortality, and the absurd vanity of earthly concerns in an overwhelming cosmos—The Voice of the Moon stars Roberto Benigni as Ivo Salvini, a wide-eyed innocent who is indirectly constructing his own Romantic mythology. Ivo hears voices calling to him from a well, pines to be one with the Moon, and gazes starry-eyed at a sleeping woman he imagines is our lunar neighbor made flesh. The Voice of the Moon exists in a peculiarly Fellini-esque dimension where dreams, memory, and farce are combined, along with foggy ideas that are presented in obscure vignettes tinged with social satire that feels anachronistic (with one spectacular exception). Extras include the archival “making-of” documentary “Towards the Moon with Fellini,” a photo gallery, and a booklet. Fellini completists will certainly want to add this, but for others it is an optional purchase. (T. Keogh)