This Week in Film . . .

Lo sceicco bianco - Fellini's debut as a solo director. Although a "logical" narrative can be culled from film overall, there is much in it that is whimsical, nonsensical, and reliant upon spectacle, making it hard to make sense of in the midst of our neorealist undertakings. One thing that I think is clear, is that Lo sceicco bianco is fraught with questions about feminine identity and agency, and although the protagonist, Wanda, takes her fair share of missteps, it is her husband, Ivan, and the object of her desire, the White Sheik, who inhabit buffoonish roles, perhaps to the ends (arguably progressive within the historical context) that Virginia Pichietti describes:

"Because it problematizes femininity, Lo sceicco bianco stands as an insightful reflection of the dilemma that women faced in the gendered performances advocated by 1950s popular culture. At the same time, it cleverly unravels this performance to expose the contradictions on which it is built. While Wanda is not a protofeminist character, her movement between roles subtly reveals the wilful interpretation of the self's position in social intercourse. Unfortunately, within the conventional, institutional universe of Fellini's film, her vision must ultimately be confined to the role that guarantees a moral euphoric ending for her to participate as a functioning member."*

The ending, considered by Pichietti to be 'confining' and 'conventional' for the main female character, is often the one that our small audience of CAS in Rome finds the most comforting, as it is the closest we'll get in our film class to a happy Hollywood ending. Hmmm . . .

*Picchietti, Virginia. "When in Rome Do as the Romans Do?: Fellini's Problematization of Femininity (The White Sheik)." In Federico Fellini: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Frank Burke and Marguerite R. Waller, 92-106. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Image of Fellini found here.