''The White Sheik'' ( it, Lo sceicco bianco) is a 1952 Italian

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed 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 i ...

and starring Alberto Sordi,

Leopoldo Trieste Leopoldo Trieste (3 May 1917 – 25 January 2003) was an Italian actor, film director and script writer. Trieste was born in Reggio Calabria. He worked with directors such as Pietro Germi, Francis Ford Coppola, Giuseppe Tornatore, Mario Bava, ...

Brunella Bovo Brunella Bovo (4 March 1932 – 21 February 2017) was an Italian film actress. Life and career Born in Padua, Italy, after having had her film debut with a minor role in ''Ho sognato il paradiso'' and after having not been admitted to the Cent ...

and

Giulietta Masina Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film F ...

. Written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

, the film is about a man who brings his new bride to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

for their honeymoon, to have an audience with the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, and to present his wife to his family. When the young woman sneaks away to find the hero of her romance novels, the man is forced to spend hour after hour making excuses to his eager family who want to meet his missing bride. ''The White Sheik'' was filmed on location in Fregene, Rome,

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

and

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

Plot

Two young newlyweds from a provincial town, Wanda (Brunella Bovo) and Ivan Cavalli (

), arrive in

for their

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...

. Wanda is obsessed with the "White Sheik" ( Alberto Sordi), the

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

-like hero of a

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

photo strip Photo comics are a form of Sequential art, sequential storytelling that uses photographs rather than illustrations for the images, along with the usual comics conventions of narrative text and word balloons containing dialogue. They are sometim ...

and sneaks off to find him, leaving her conventional,

petit bourgeois ''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a French term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological ...

husband in a quandary as he tries to hide his wife's disappearance from his strait-laced relatives who are waiting to go with them to visit the Pope.

Cast

* Alberto Sordi as Fernando Rivoli, The White Sheik *

as Ivan Cavalli *

as Wanda Giardino Cavalli *

as Cabiria, the prostitute * Lilia Landi as Felga, the photonovel's gipsy * Ernesto Almirante as Dottore Fortuna, the photonovel's director *

Fanny Marchiò Fanny Marchiò (1904–1980) was an Italian stage, film and television actress.Goble p.34 She was born in Corfu to an Italian family, her parents were both actors. She was married to Renato Navarrini. Selected filmography * '' The Lady in Whit ...

as Marilena Alba Vellardi *

Gina Mascetti Gina Mascetti (1911-1995) was an Italian film actress. A character actress, she appeared in a number of comedy films notably as Alberto Sordi's wife in the ''The White Sheik'' (1952). The same year she also featured in the neorealist drama ''Two ...

as Aida Rivoli, the wife of Fernando * Ugo Attanasio as Uncle of Ivan

Production

''The White Sheik'' was Fellini's first solo effort as a director. He had previously co-directed ''

Variety Lights ''Variety Lights'' ( it, Luci del varietà) is a 1951 Italian romantic drama film produced, directed and written by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada and starring Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, and Giulietta Masina. The film is about a ...

'' in 1950 with

Alberto Lattuada Alberto Lattuada (; 13 November 1914 – 3 July 2005) was an Italian film director. Career Lattuada was born in Vaprio d'Adda, the son of composer Felice Lattuada. He was initially interested in literature, becoming, while still a student, a mem ...

. Originally the treatment for ''The White Sheik'' was written by

Carlo Ponti Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (11 December 1912 – 9 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema ...

commissioned Fellini and Tullio Pinelli to develop the treatment. It was satirical in nature, targeting the trashy fotoromanzi comic strips that were extremely popular in Italy when the film was made. The male lead,

, a playwright who did not consider himself an actor, reluctantly auditioned for Fellini. During the audition Fellini asked him to compose a sonnet that the lead character would have written to his wife. The poem which begins "She is graceful, sweet and teeny..." was included in the film. Appearing briefly as the prostitute Cabiria,

would later return to this role in '' Nights of Cabiria''. Her short scene inspired Fellini to write the screenplay and also convinced producers that Giulietta was ready for the leading role.

Reception

Italian film critic Giulio Cesare Castello, writing for ''Cinema V'', argued that Fellini's past as a successful strip cartoonist made him a natural choice as the film's director: "Fellini was undoubtedly the best qualified and for two reasons: firstly, his experience as a strip cartoonist and consequently his familiarity with the secrets and intrigues of the world he was about to bring to the screen; secondly, his gift for sarcastic comment and delight in satirizing tradition... The result is unusual and stimulating but derives more from the failure to establish a basic mood or tone rather than from any direct intention. Fellini should find this tone in future works if he is to avoid the discontinuity we found here."Castello's review first published in ''Cinema V'' (Milan) December 15, 1952. Cited in Claudio Fava and Aldo Vigano, ''The Films of Federico Fellini'', New York: Citadel Press (1985), p. 65.

Soundtrack

Nino Rota scored the film.

References

External links

*
''The White Sheik''
an essay by

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for ''The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has ...

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Sheik, The Films directed by Federico Fellini 1950s Italian-language films Films scored by Nino Rota Italian black-and-white films 1952 films Films set in Rome Films shot in Rome Films with screenplays by Federico Fellini Films about comics 1950s romantic comedy-drama films Italian romantic comedy-drama films 1950s Italian films