Disc Reviews

I Clowns Review

• 29th Oct 2014

Clowns are like marmite – you either love them or hate ’em. I suspect more people don’t like them than do. Is it because I am an adult (of sorts) and do remember going to the circus as a child and loving clowns that they creep me out? Fellini recalls his childhood experience at the start of I Clowns, the latest release from the Eureka! Masters of Cinema series, he seems to have a good deal of nostalgia for his subject matter. Fellini seems to have no conflicts here as he pursues the art of the clown. Neither a full documentary nor a dramatic performed film but instead an early example of the mockumentary – part documentary, part fake documentary. The film opens with a child restless in his bed in some nameless Italian town (but I would suspect that it’s the director’s birthplace of Rimini). Outside a circus tent is being erected. A short while later, following a few performances Fellini enters as the documentary filmmaker in search for some now forgotten clowns and well known characters and artistes, bumping into the glamorous Anita Ekberg along the way (star of one of his best loved films, La Dolce Vita, 1959 – she was the one dancing in the Trevi Fountain).

For many of his films in the 1970s Fellini was recalling his childhood memories and I Clowns was the first of these films. He arguably did this better in Fellini’s Roma (1972) and Amacord (1974) as the by now ageing artist and filmmaker explores his childhood and memories of being a boy in fascist Italy. But the crux of the film is the artistry of the clown including exploring the oft sought after death of the clown as an art form. This reviewer personally can’t get emotional about this outdated art from, to the point of even suffering from a slight case of coulrophobia de wit the scary nightmare scene of a clown appearing suddenly from under a toilet cubicle door in Zombieland; not to emotion the phobia taking flight in the dreadful but mildly amusing Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), recently released by Arrow. The clown as subject matter had previously been a central character in Fellini’s own La Strada (1954), a study of poor street performers with Giulietta Masina as the vulnerable Gelsomina. But the greatest and most tragic of all stories of clowns and circus folk has to be Ingmar Bergman’s Sawdust and Tinsel (1953). Of course cinema has had a close relationship with clowns and created some of its own including white faced Harry Langdon, the Italian Toto, Jacques Tati and most famously of all Charlie Chaplin. Indeed Tati who had created his character Monsieur Hulot made a similar film to I Clowns as his last film. This was called Parade (1974) and was Tati’s own celebration of clowns and it has to be said is worse and much less of an artistic achievement than Fellini’s film. Like Parade, I Clowns was a film made directly for TV with a limited theatrical run and both are rarely seen (Tati’s film was recently released as part of a Tati box set). Clowns seemed to have appealed to many artists with such painters as Picasso and Chagall returning to this subject on many occasions. This highlights that there is some kind of relationship, understanding and identification between the artist and the clown.

I Clowns does have the usual set of groteseques that one would expect in a Fellini film but given that this film is about clowns this is hardly surprising. This film is not going to fire anyone up who is already not interested in clowns and for the most part will be fairly dull. The only standout non hackneyed performances occurred fairly near the beginning with a performance by a pair of clowns called Amleto and Ginetto who spit water at each other. The pace of the film stays fairly flat throughout with the finale clown funeral scene being overlong and frankly dull. Fellini was the consummate artist, exploring ideas of self and the human condition. Even in films such as the brilliant 8 1/2 (1963) in which the main character played by Marcello Mastroianni represents Fellini’s own neurosis about artistic flaccidity is at the forefront with the director’s ego and identity being central to all his films. Ultimately though I Clowns is for completests only. The film has the usual dirty grain one would expect from a film from 1970 but the colours are rich throughout. The only extra on the disc include a good and thorough Italian documentary studying the film at some length as well as the usual high quality 40 page booklet you would expect from Eureka!

Chris Hick