★★★★★ 4
A must-have for any Fellini fan
When this was initially announced I was determined to add to my own library, however my economic situation at the time prevented me from buying it. It'd be a couple years before I finally had a little more financial freedom and ordered my copy. As noted in other reviews there was a common occurrence of discs coming loose from their little individual pocket and slide around free, potentially demanding the disc. This did happen to my order, but thankfully there was no damage. This a great collection, however there are a few exclusions that prevent me from giving it a full Five Star rating. His later films are not very good and feel like a great director falling into the pit of self parody. And the Ship Sails On is probably the worst of the entire collection. The disc devoted to a documentary on Marcello Mastroianni (which still haven't watched) seems like it's taking valuable space where an actual Fellini film should belong. I was hoping that they'd include Casanova, The Clowns, or even his last film, Voices of the Moon (which I still haven't seen). But that's the end of my minor quibble with these otherwise magnificent collection. I finally had in my possession all of his early films, a few a was seeing for the first time. I watched them in chronological order, beginning with Variety Lights, which he was actually a co-director and doesn't take much credit for. His early neorealist period was surprisingly good. I was so used to the period from Juliet of the Spirits onward that I thought I was going to be rather bored by these films. I was just happy to finally own a copy of Nights of Cabiria, which is still my favourite of his films. The collection also includes his contribution to an anthology film titled Spirits of the Dead, titled Toby Dammit. I was doubly surprised that it was not the dubbed version in which Terrance Stamp is dubbed by an anonymous Italian actor but retained his actual voice. The special features are plentiful and sound satisfy anyone who wants to appreciate the magic of Fellini. Criterion always puts out great quality releases and this is among their crowning achievements. Hopefully in the foreseeable future they'll release a box set of Luis Buñuel films.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2025
