So this is the first movie Fellini directed, only he didn’t really direct it at all — he’s listed as a co-director, but (according to both directors) the other, more experienced guy basically did all the directing work. But there’s still an important sense in which it’s a Fellini movie — it’s his story and screenplay, and it shows.

So there’s a small troupe of actors and dancers who perform live variety shows (apparently a thing that used to exist). In the first show we see, there’s a woman in the audience whose eyes are bright and who clearly wants to be in show business herself, and who ultimately runs off to join them.

The movie is really about the interpersonal dynamics of this troupe — they’re reluctant to take her in at first (not least because they barely make any money as it is, and they don’t want to share; but also not least because she so clearly wants to be a big star, and they don’t want to share the spotlight). But events conspire to force their hands, and then at her first performance she does become a big star — by virtue of her hastily-fitted skirt falling off and leaving her dancing in panties, which the (mostly male) crowd loves.

(This is actually a little bizarre to me, because there are a bunch of dancers in bikinis that are more revealing than her full-coverage granny panties, but the crowd is seemingly uninterested in them. I think it’s like a ninja effect: One half-dressed woman is irresistible, a dozen half-dressed women are set decoration.)

From there, the movie is about her ambition (and her naivete, selfishness, and laziness, tbh) and the way it slowly tears this troupe apart — particularly when one of the performers, Checco, abandons his long-time girlfriend (played by Fellini’s wife and frequent lead actress, Giulietta Masina) to moon after this new girl and to try to create a new troupe around her.

The movie manages to hit a tone of being both caustic and affectionate about its characters — they’re all a bit silly and venal in their own ways, and the movie knows it; but they’re not bad people and the movie knows that too. (It’s also a fascinating picture of mid-century (mostly rural/small-town) Italy, with moldering castles and horse-drawn carriages; it seems implausible that this is (barely) within living memory, and yet.)

This isn’t top-tier, all-time-great Fellini, but it’s good — and at under 90 minutes, not in danger of overstaying any welcome at all. Recommended.