''I clowns'' (also known as ''The Clowns'') is a 1970

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on ...

film by

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

about the human fascination with

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

s and

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and uni ...

es.

Plot summary

Cast

Main

* Riccardo Billi as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Billi) *

as Himself * Gigi Reder as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Reder) * Tino Scotti as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Scotti) * Valentini as Himself – Italian Clown *

Fanfulla Luigi Visconti, better known by his stage name Fanfulla, (26 February 1913 – 5 January 1971) was an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born in Rome, Visconti debuted at very young age on stage alongside his mother, the actress Merc ...

as Himself – Italian Clown * Merli as Himself – Italian Clown * Carlo Rizzo as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Rizzo) * Colombaioni as Themselves – Italian Clowns (credited as I 4 Colombaioni) * Pistoni as Himself – Italian Clown * Martana as Themselves – Italian Clowns (credited as I Martana) * Giacomo Furia as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Furia) * Alvaro Vitali as Himself (The Troupe) *

Dante Maggio Dante Maggio (2 March 1909 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 115 films between 1940 and 1975. Born in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio had a turbulent adolescence that led his father to send him in an institu ...

as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Maggio) * Galliano Sbarra as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Sbarra) * Peppino Janigro as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Janigro) * Carini as Himself – Italian Clown * Maunsell as Himself – Italian Clown * Nino Terzo as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Terzo) * Osiride Pevarello as Clown (Credited as Peverello) * Nino Vingelli as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Vingelli) * Alberto Sorrentino as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Sorrentino) * Fumagalli as Himself – Italian Clown * Valdemaro as Himself – Italian Clown * Luigi Zerbinati as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Zerbinati) * Ettore Bevilacqua as Himself – Italian Clown (credited as Bevilacqua) * Maya Morin as Maya (La troupe) * Anna Lina Alberti as Herself – Alvaro's mother (La troupe) (credited as Lina Alberti) * Gasparin as Gasparino (La troupe) * Alex as Himself – French Clown *

Georges Loriot Georges Loriot was an actor known for his role as Professeur Tournesol in the live action Tintin movie Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (French) Filmography References French male film actors 20th-century French male actors Y ...

as Himself – French Clown (credited as Père Loriot) * Maïs as Himself – French Clown * Bario as Himself – French Clown * Ludo as Himself – French Clown * Nino as Himself – French Clown * Charlie Rivel as Himself * Pierre Étaix as Himself *

Annie Fratellini Annie Violette Fratellini (14 November 1932 – 1 July 1997) was a French circus artist, singer, film actress and clown. Biography She was born Annie Violette Fratellini on 14 November 1932, in Algiers, French Algeria, where her parents, who wer ...

as Herself * Victor Fratellini as Himself * Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée as Himself (credited as Baptiste) * Tristan Remy as Himself *

Liana Orfei Liana Orfei (born 6 June 1937) is an Italian actress and circus artist. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1959 and 1971. Life and career Born in San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna, daughter and niece of famous circus artists, since her ...

as Herself * Rinaldo Orfei as Himself * Nando Orfei as Himself * Franco Migliorini as Himself – Animal Tamer *

Anita Ekberg Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (; 29 September 193111 January 2015) was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and stunning figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini ...

as Herself

Cameo/Uncredited

Maria Grazia Buccella Maria Grazia Buccella (born August 15, 1940) is an Italian glamour model and film actress, who was Miss Italy 1959. Career Buccella won the Miss Trento, Miss Venice, and Miss Italy beauty pageants, and placed third in the Miss Europe 1959 com ...

as Herself * Aristide Caporale as Railwayman * Victoria Chaplin as Herself * Liliana Chiari as Herself * Dante Cleri as Fascist * Shirley Corrigan as Audience member * Feverello as Himself – Italian Clown * Gustavo Fratellini as Himself – Italian Clown * Adelina Poerio as Dwarf nun

Production

The film was made for the Italian TV station RAI with an agreement that it would be released simultaneously as a cinema feature. RAI and co-producer Leone Film compromised on its release, with RAI broadcasting it on Christmas Day, 1970, and Leone Film releasing it theatrically in Italy the following day, December 26, 1970. It is a

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or cinéma vérité) an ...

: part reality, part fantasy. The film has sometimes been referred to as one of the first mockumentaries in film history (Woody Allen's '' Take the Money and Run'' having been released in just the previous year). Being documentary and fiction in one, ''The Clowns'' distinguishes itself by being a mockumentary with unique characteristics, not the least of which is reflecting Fellini's own increasing fascination with how documentary films reflect "reality". Fellini had already explored this semi-fictional documentary genre in 1969's '' Fellini: A Director's Notebook'' and would further do so in 1987's '' Intervista'', both of which contain unreliable depictions of Fellini himself making the film within the film narrative.

Reception

The film has a 100% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 18 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10. Film Critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film three stars out of four.

References

External links

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The Clowns
' a
Rotten Tomatoes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clowns, The Docufiction films 1970 films 1970s fantasy comedy films Films directed by Federico Fellini 1970s Italian-language films Films about clowns Films with screenplays by Federico Fellini Films scored by Nino Rota Italian fantasy comedy films 1970 comedy films 1970s Italian films