Day 80: Variety Lights (1950)

When the orchestra begins to tune, the theatre lights go down, and the audience draws a unifying silence, it is a well known fact that something magical is about to happen. For the stage brings out the child in all of us and it’s thanks to the performers who act night after night, seeking only our applause. But, when the orchestra stops playing, the lights come back up, and the audience heads for the exits, this same troupe of talent must find a way to live their lives and pay the rent. In Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada’s ”Variety Lights” we find such a group of vaudevillian nomads, moving from place to place in hopes of a paycheck and possibly a break into the big time.

Leading this gang of talented though inept performers is Checco Dal Monte (Peppino De Filippo) a talent manager and tango dancer, who is always seeking a new angle for his career. Though his troupe, including his fiance and dance partner, Melina Amour (Giulietta Masina), has done well for themselves, their act is growing stale with the changing of the times and Checco must find a way to keep the show on the road.

Enter Lily Antonelli (Carla Del Poggio). Eager to work on the stage as a dancer, Lily is a long legged beauty that Checco can’t resist and, though the other members of the group dislike her at first, she soon becomes the star of their show when her skirt mistakenly falls off during a performance and the crowd yells out for more. Moving from bigger venue to bigger venue, Checco feels he might have finally made it to the big time and, eventually, he falls for Lily, to Melina’s dismay. But, when the spotlight of society truly focuses itself on Lily, there doesn’t seem to be enough room in it for Checco, who just might lose his new star to more successful managers. If he hopes to come out ahead, Checco will have to think quick before Lily moves on and her audience follows suit.

With “Variety Lights,” the now famous Italian director Federico Fellini joined filmmaking veteren Alberto Lattuada for his first attempt at directing. Though he had worked with Lattuada before as a screenwriter, as well as Roberto Rossellini on, most famously, ”Rome” and “Open City,“ this would be his inaugural leap into the director’s chair and, as the film plays through, it is interesting to see Fellini’s style at such an early stage and how Lattuada own directing technique helps complement Fellini’s atheistic choices. It should also be noted that the mood on set must have been inviting as Fellini was married to Giulietta Masina, who played Melina in the film and would later come to fame in “Nights of Cabiria“, while Lattuada was in a relationship with lead actress Carla Del Poggio.

Over the years, many have compared this Italian classic to another America film made the same year, “All About Eve,” which won six Academy Awards, including for best picture. While both films discuss performers on the stage and a singular female, who stands out above the rest, it is interesting to mark the differences between the two and how they may have reflected the nature of each of their countries at the time. With the Italian “Variety Lights,” we enjoy a quieter picture in both its look and performances while the American “Eve” revels in snappy dialogue and a bit of scene chewing in the name of good fun. Though both are outstanding in their own ways, there is a honesty and sadness about “Variety Lights” that “Eve” just can’t seem to touch and maybe that comes just from the maturity of Italian film at the time or possibly from the great script and direction of Fellini and Lattuada.

To learn more about “Variety Lights,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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