The Clowns: A Quintessential Fellini Film
I Clowns (1970) was a documentary by Federico Fellini that was commissioned by RAI, an Italian television broadcast service, to discover the public’s fascination with the circus. In true Fellini fashion, however, the film is not a true documentary, it blends elements of fantasy, memory and reality together in such a way that it makes it difficult for the audience to decipher whether they are watching a work of pure fiction or the truth of a documentary. It is for this reason that I Clowns has been credited as being one of the first mockumentaries in film history. Fellini created one of his most Felliniesque works and made his artistic style noticeable particularly in I Clowns by focusing on the circus and employing a wide variety of common motifs and stylistic technique.
Clowns and circuses have famously been a common, reoccurring subject in many of Fellini’s films. This film is Fellini’s exploration of his personal obsession and it was made in an attempt to discover the public’s changing interest in the circus. Unable or unwilling to merely stick to facts and make a true documentary, Fellini melds fact, fiction and his memories to create something unique and distinct within this movie all together and is considered one of the first mockumentaries. A young boy in Rimini in the opening sequence of the film is intended to be autobiographical of Fellini’s youth and modeled after his own memories. I Clowns could be recognized as Fellini’s love letter to the circus because despite the fact that a person asks him, “why make this film; the circus no longer has any meaning?,” Fellini chooses to show fantastical elements of the circus—all pointing to the idea that, to Fellini, the circus is not dead at all; the grandeur of the performances is juxtaposed with the interviews that state the circus is a dying art form. Throughout the film, viewers are shown interviews with former clowns, segments of Fellini with his documentary film crew, recreations of circus performances, and the narrative of a young boy interspersed with each other. The crashing of these images blur the line between the fantasy and facts and give the film a dreamlike quality that is very typical of Fellini films. Many of Fellini’s techniques and motifs such as the episodic nature of the film, his use of stock actors, and creating a dreamlike atmosphere that is broken by characters breaking the fourth wall. The film is episodic, switching between short segments of interviews with former clowns, Fellini with his documentary crew, and grand circus performances. Besides the dreamlike nature he created with the meandering, episodic filmmaking. The visuals of this film follow Fellini style of excess spectacle. During the circus acts the audiences is bombarded with color, sounds, and sight gags. The clown funeral in particular demonstrates how Fellini shifts focus from the subject at hand and the spectacle around the subject, which then becomes more important. The funeral starts off normal enough, the clowns mourn the loss of their friend but quickly everything goes wrong and craziness ensues. The mourners quickly form a parade, streamers hang from the ceiling, actors start breaking the fourth wall, looking into the camera, asking Fellini if they can take a break because they injured themselves during the fanfare. These fourth wall breaks seemingly remind the audience that they are watching a documentary. Very often characters will appear to stare straight through the camera, jolting the audience out of the dreamlike atmosphere that has been created. Fellini’s penchant for creating jarring, uncomfortable moments amid a dreamlike atmosphere arise when the characters break the fourth wall and the film becomes self-aware, a technique that became prevalent mid way through Fellini’s career.
Another technique that Fellini uses is that he has Anita Ekberg, one of his stock actors, buy a panther in the midst of the film and it creates an air of confusion about Ekberg’s motives. It is difficult to deduce whether she is acting like herself or actually being herself and the fact that she is known for appearing in Fellini’s films only further confuses the viewers. It is a ridiculous moment in the film and the actress is so over the top, it is obvious he is directing the scene but it is unclear how much. Fellini’s style is ever-present in this film and this is shown by how he retains his non-judgmental view of life. One of the on-going themes of the movie is his humanism towards subjects in his films. In I Clown, Fellini focuses on the humanization of clowns and circus folks, who are usually marginalized members of society, the outcast. Throughout the film Fellini shows this characters in a compassionate light. Through the madness that plays out in the film it is clear that Fellini has respect for his subject matter. In the narrative of young Fellini, he is terrified of the circus clowns and compares them to some of the denizens in his community. When Fellini illustrates the audience is not told how to think about these people and they are not seen in a particularly bad light, they are just presented to the audience for who they are. I Clowns was Fellini’s project after the bombastic Fellini’s Satyricon but before his critically acclaimed Amarcord. This film provided the filmmaker with a little breathing room between these two-behemoth productions, allowing Fellini to explore a fascination he carried with him since childhood. The film embodies several of the motifs, themes, and stylistic techniques that make this film a “Fellini film.” Although it is a lesser-known film by the director and is on a smaller scale production wise, Fellini makes use of his common troupes, making it the most “Fellini film” out of all the other Fellini films.