Ginger & Fred

When Federico Fellini made Ginger & Fred in 1985, he had an axe to grind against television, and the movie suffers as a result. All of the things we think of as "Felliniesque" are featured here—the cast full of odd-looking characters, a circus-like atmosphere, and a lush, romantic soundtrack—but there's something vaguely detached about the melancholy reunion of Amelia (Giulietta Masina) and Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni), two mediocre dancer/entertainers from the 1940s who've been teamed up for the first time in decades to appear on We Are Proud to Present, a garish TV variety show representing everything Fellini hated about the medium. Long past his prime, Fellini here satirizes TV without mercy, while also embracing nostalgia as if it were some kind of cure-all. Under their stage names of "Ginger & Fred" (the titular characters once dreamed of being stars like Astaire and Rogers), Masina (Fellini's real-life wife) and Mastroianni are always a pleasure to watch, but in skewering a medium he doesn't fully understand, Fellini serves up a mixed bag of eccentric entertainers more reflective of his own films than anything found on television. While the film was nominated for a Golden Globe award, critical reviews were mostly mixed, and this is still considered to be one of the great director's lesser efforts. Optional. (J. Shannon)