Roberta Jarrett Iervolino Reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro's work, here we see a balance drawn between innocence and what is sinister in Fellini's favorite item: love. Let me start with the movie's end which wraps around the movie, bringing it full circle. This element, to me, is one of the true hallmarks of great story telling. Reality is overcome by fantasy; a vehicle and accessory to projecting the fantastic onto life, which thus transformed, is good! To one almost completely unfamiliar with Fellini's work, this film is both a good introduction and is it's own creature, holding up it's own unique lens. The film makers did a good deed here. Here, the profane is transformed. The female protagonist's fixation on the fantastic is celebrated, a unique event in cinema these days, where truth is more often than not, seen as a brute. An authentic female heroically hunts down her own idea of what true love is. Her greatest endowment is not that her mother sheltered her from the world, but that her world is free from what is essentially abuse. We, of course, see this as a weakness initially, however, this concern is thrust aside as a whimsy never to be considered except as the enemy of what is by far more powerful, the dream of finding a love that can exude even more love from within to without. Projected in the spirit of Fellini, where his medium was so often also the message, the wonder and light of the cinema overcomes the darkness and bitterness of the concrete world.

Gre da Vid The beginning a little strange. Then it moved to bizarre. Then to potentially possible. At times had to ask the question, "what is the purpose of this story?" The naive goes to Rome to meet someone she doesn't know and who does not really want to meet her. The flashbacks to Fellini's films don't make much sense and don't seem to contribute to the story. I guess I just don't understand "art."

homefan I don't recall exactly how I found this film just a short while ago, but it looked like a light, pleasant tale that included some beautiful Italian settings and an interesting arty plot. I was right with the settings, but this film delivered quite the punch just as it very likely planned to align with the beauty, but also the dramatic content of Fellini's films. I'm far from an expert on Fellini and I've only glimpsed a few scenes over the years, but I think I understand the stature of his work. So if the emotions conjured up by this little modern gem is similar to that of the maestro, I should try have a deeper look at Fellini's work.So, I was rather surprised and taken aback a few times with the seriousness, fear and emotional weight of some of the scenes in this film. Many other scenes were almost pure art form and created quite the ball of confusion. What was she really experiencing and seeing? And how could the opening message of "Inspired by a almost true story" be true? In IMDB, it says that the film was inspired by a real adventure taken by co-writer Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. I'm going to rate this is solid 7 or possibly an 8 for the simple reason I think I want to watch it again.It was beautiful, sad, sexy, scary, joyful, hopeful. It was a real rollercoaster of a ride. But it's not for everyone, maybe not an enjoyable ride for many people. But I liked it, a lot. 7/10.

Thomas_SC "In Search of Fellini" is not a film without flaws but due to a well-crafted sense of wonder, an obvious reverence of Fellini's work, and especially a terrific lead performance, it is able to overcome them and in the end deliver a satisfying drama.Young Lucy has been sheltered from the world by her loving, though over-protective, mom and after her 1st job interview goes awry, she stumbles upon a Fellini film festival and falls in love with the enigmatic films. So enamored is Lucy that she travels to Italy in the hopes of meeting the legendary filmmaker, in the process getting introduced to the real world, both the bad and the good of it. The film's writing is generally well done, though a couple aspects of the story require some suspension of disbelief. I didn't find that any of these moments too damaging however, though occasionally just a little distracting. The visuals were excellent; From beautiful wide shots of Italy too party scenes where vivid color usage livens things up, the film was nice looking and more importantly did a great job of placing how Lucy was viewing these scenes and events onto the screen. Her sense of excitement and wonder at the beauty of the Colosseum, for instance, along with her feelings of confusion during a hectic dance scene. Very well done indeed by the first-time director Taron Lexton and his cinematographer. I admit to not being a connoisseur of Frederico Fellini, though I have found what I have watched of his films enjoyable. The people behind "In Search of Fellini" obviously have great admiration of the late filmmaker, as their movie is chock full of references and parallels to his films. From the obvious (such as the appearance of the 'man in chains') to the subtler (Lucy's striped shirt) the love of Fellini is everywhere, and just seeing how much these filmmakers admired him adds even more charm to an already charming film.My favorite part of the movie however was Ksenia Solo's performance as Lucy. Already a big fan of Miss Solo's previous work, I think this may be her finest performance yet. Her Lucy is naïve and shy, though occasionally rash, but also curious and the primary source of the aforementioned charm. Miss Solo delivers all of this and a wide range of emotion throughout the film, in my opinion just top-notch work. The other actors do their part too though, Maria Bello as Lucy's mother Claire and Mary Lynn Rajskub as Claire's sister both deliver good performances as well.My main criticisms of the film are the previously mentioned parts of the story that require 'suspension of disbelief', but also the fact the film is occasionally melodramatic. There are more than a few times where some more subtlety would have been welcome. All in all, In Search of Fellini is probably not a brilliant film, but it is certainly a good one. Wonder-filled with some dramatic punch to boot, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. 8/10.