The Clowns

Plot summary

The film begins with a semi-autobiographical childhood recollection of Fellini’s youth where a young boy watches from his bedroom window, a circus arrive in his hometown. The boy is simultaneously fascinated and frightened by the clowns it brings. Driving this memory is the director’s long-standing obsession with the world of the circus. From this opening, the narrative transitions into a pseudo-documentary journey in which Fellini (as himself) and a film crew travel through Italy and Paris in search of the great clowns of Europe. Along the way, the film blends interviews with veteran clowns, staged circus routines, & archival footage while constantly blurring the line between fiction and reality. Ultimately, it culminates in a surreal, operatic “clown funeral” sequence which is a metaphoric lavish farewell to a dying art form.

Cast

Main

Riccardo Billi as himself – Italian Clown (credited as Billi)

Federico Fellini 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 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 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

Cameo/Uncredited

Maria Grazia Buccella 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

Richard Simmons – Clown

Tonino Tommasi – Audience Member

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: 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, based on 18 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10. Film Critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four.