The White Sheik (Lo sceicco bianco)
Directed by Federico Fellini
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Ennio Flaino
1952/Italy
OFI/P.D.C.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Marilena Alba Vellardi: Real life is the life of dreams.
Wanda Giardino Cavalli: I’m always dreaming. [/box]
Fellini’s first solo directorial effort is pure farce.
Newlyweds Wanda (Brunella Bova) and Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) Cavalli have just arrived for their honeymoon in Rome from their village in the countryside. The thoroughly middle-class Ivan has every minute of their stay in Rome planned out. Most of it is to be spent with his uncle, who is an employee of the Vatican, and his family. The highlight will be an audience with the Pope.
Wanda heads upstairs while Ivan is on the phone and gets a dreamy look in her eyes when she looks over the city. Before we know it, she asks to take a hot bath then sneaks out of the hotel. She is headed to the studio where her idol Fernando Rivoli (Alberto Sordi), better known as the “white sheik”, works. She has written Rivoli several fan letters signed “Passionate Dolly” and he wrote back asking her to visit if she ever happened to be in Rome.
The company is leaving for a location shoot by the sea and Wanda tags along. Amazingly enough, Rivoli remembers these letters well and is taken by the starstruck Wanda. The ego maniac pulls out the all stops in his efforts to seduce the honeymooner. Meanwhile, Ivan has the unenviable task of covering up Wanda’s defection from his family during their elaborate sightseeing schedule. Everything that conceivably go wrong for any of our characters does and in outrageous fashion. With Giulietta Masina in a small part as the prostitute Cabiria who attempts to cheer up Ivan during his night of woe.
I like this film a lot. A little bit of Trieste’s mugging goes a long way but Sordo and Bova are hilarious. Fellini has no message to deliver here. The entire thing is played for laughs. This was the first pairing of Fellini and Nino Rota and the score, as always, is a high point.
TV trailer – montage of clips