Federico Fellini
Luci Del Varietà

Liliana Antonelli is a young girl who, despite lacking talent, dreams of entering the entertainment world. Through a trivial expedient, she begins to follow a ramshackle theater company dealing with variety shows, and due to a misunderstanding, she manages to become part of it despite the objections of her new colleagues, reluctant at the thought of further splitting their already meager pay. Liliana's comeliness captivates a veteran of the company, Checco Dalmonte, who has long been engaged to Melina Amour. For the love of Liliana, Checco decides to leave Melina and the company to pursue his dreams of glory and try to set up his own company, with Liliana as the star, of course. He invests everything in the project, including the savings of a lifetime (mostly belonging to Melina), but a surprise awaits him: Liliana informs him that she has signed a more advantageous contract with another company and that she is leaving him. Checco is left with no choice but to return, tail between his legs, to his wife, who truly feels a deep love for him.

This debut work of one of the most celebrated Italian directors abroad in collaboration with the great intellectual Alberto Lattuada, "Luci del varietà" (Lights of Variety) was released in cinemas in 1950 and impresses not only for its extraordinary overall balance but also for anticipating much of Fellini. The meticulous care in character delineation is presented (albeit without the stylistic finesse of later works) even in this debut and is spread across multiple levels. First among them is the world of the Roman province, with its vast Latin countryside populated by coarse and noisy men who love to enjoy themselves with vulgar and poorly organized shows, precisely those of the protagonist theater company. A few quick takes are enough to convey to the viewer the space in which the camera moves: youngsters squinting beneath the skirts of dancers, bored elderly women, rough men waiting for the "strong" number amid whistles and banter. In contrast, there's the world of vaudeville, full of fake illusionists and poor quality soubrettes who claim artistic dignity and respect for their shabby show. Finally, glimpses of the high society world are seen with its commanders and knights ready to do anything to protect and realize their interests.

Fellini and Lattuada approach some characters successfully sketching realistic and moving portraits. Giulietta Masina is extraordinary as ever, this time playing a middle-aged soubrette with a practical and loving spirit deeply attached to her unfaithful companion. It is nearly impossible to restrain emotion in the scene where Melina stops to help the fallen leader and seeks Checco's assistance through tears, as he walks arm in arm with Liliana. At ease in the role of the chronic liar, Peppino De Filippo-Checco with his grand expressiveness guides the scenic action and even sustains the parts where his protégé Liliana-Carla Del Poggio does not measure up, being unable to fully emphasize the girl's opportunism and only superficially portraying her as an ambitious but naïve young woman. Numerous street artists and night men introduce themselves into the narrative as if they had stepped out directly from a dream, although the dreamlike power of other Fellini works is completely absent in "Luci del varietà".

It is a film aimed at debunking the myth of the entertainment world, a world that inspires sentimentality and beauty but conceals behind it the desire of those who set it in motion to fulfill base interests. The variety setting as a place of the ephemeral is a concept overtly emphasized at the end, in the figure of the old soubrette beside Liliana, no longer charming, accompanied only by envy towards all those who will come after her who still retain the freshness of youth, like Liliana. But "Luci del varietà" doesn't stop at this interpretation. It is also more generally a merciless photograph of post-war Little Italy, scarred by war horrors and laden with ignorance and prejudice, led by a corrupt ruling class. There is no irony but only pure realism that the directors aim to describe objectively. In fact, after the bad experience with Liliana, Checco doesn't go back on his steps but is simply a failed actor unable to recognize himself as such, as demonstrated in the end when, pretending to be a company leader, he flirts with a cute girl he meets on the train while Melina, his eternal conscience, has gone to get him a coffee.

The audience is not placed in a position to sympathize with any character, because everyone, more or less, is part of the aforementioned Little Italy, which loses its hair but not its habit.