Another underrated Fellini film...
This is really a charming, sweet, intelligent chapter in the Fellini saga. Made in 1983, when great film artists like Fellini were having difficulty getting projects financed, it stands as another underrated gem from Federico. Many critics have said that Fellini never made a good film after Amarcord, but that simply isn't true. This film is as wonderful as that film. It's not as surreal as 8 1/2, but it still stands on its own. The opening scene is shot on an old hand crank camera, and it's a beautiful set up for what's about to come. The whole film is shot in a studio, complete with a fake skyline and a fake ocean, but Fellini never attempts to make it look real, which is why the film works so well. I remember watching this with an ex of mine, and it turned out to be her first (and probably only) exposure to a foreign film. Shortly after watching this with me, she dumped me for a piece of white trash (who shortly dumped her). Hopefully, Fellini wasn't responsible, but then I'd rather watch a Fellini film over a bad relationship anyday. Another great filmmaker, Catherine Breillat, worked on this film as well. It's probably the happiest film she ever did. Freddie Jones, a British actor (Firefox, The Elephant Man, Pennies from Heaven), fits right into Fellini's scheme of things, even though he's dubbed in Italian. All the actors have the "Fellini face" here, and it's a wonderful film. Most of all, I love the rhinoceros. Remember, they give excellent milk.

A charmer.
I love the poetic, dreamlike quality of this film, and the absolute sweetness of the whole concept. Doesn't always make linear sense, but it always makes emotional sense, and I suspect that was what Fellini intended. And Freddie Jones is simply perfect as Orlando, a gently clownish figure who is never allowed to become just a buffoon. Admittedly, I've had a crush on Mr. Jones, ever since seeing him in "The Bliss of Mrs Blossom" as a teenager, lo these many years ago. Can't help it, I'm a sucker for men who make me laugh...

And be sure to make especial note of the opening sequence, which is mesmerizing. Fellini knew how to use film in ways too few directors of the modern era do.

A brilliant film
You will sit stunned watching this movie. It's an effortless masterpiece by a genius, a legend. It's also playful and funny as hell. Definitely worth acquiring. I love a good movie, and this is about as good as they get. A well-told story is a true joy.

Did you know that camels give excellent milk..?

Poetic Masterpiece
A beautiful film, taken in a studio, unforgetable scenes, Fellini at his best.

Baroque modernity (for mature audiences only)
If Walter Benjamin were a filmmaker, he would have been the late Federico Fellini. I can see how or why younger audiences wouldn't enjoy this film, just as I can understand how unabashedly smitten I am with it. Here, Fellini does away with the gimmicks, the psychologism, and the will to novelty, which characterize his earlier films. "E il navo va" superimposes and juxtaposes a series of histories in counterpoint -- Italy before the war, art in the age of mechanical reproduction, and Fellini's own career as a creator of illusions that are capable of conveying the simple mysteries of life and death (or even, the life drive and the death drive). In the globalization of disenchantment, this is no small task. This gem of a movie shows that Fellini is up to it.

If the last scene doesn't make you at least sigh, put the movie away for about ten or fifteen years before you pick it up again. Some dreams can't be read or understood until the time of dreams is itself drawing to an end.