Federico Fellini: Lo sceicco bianco / The White Sheik

As a fair amount of people know, the term "Felliniesque" conjures up weird, strange, grandiose types of characters, often mixed together in the same scene. And so it should come as no great surprise that Lo sceicco bianco / The White Sheik (1952), Federico Fellini's first feature film as solo director, includes a fair number of weird, strange, grandiose types of characters. It's fairly absurd and the stakes are not particularly high, but it's got mucho gusto. 

Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) brings Wanda (Brunella Bovo) to Rome for their honeymoon. He has everything tightly scheduled to the point that says control freak, to the point that she even has to "ask permission" to take a bath. But in fact, Wanda (having assumed the ludicrous pen name "Passionate Dolly") has a huge celebrity crush on "The White Sheik," (Alberto Sordi) a pop culture star in picture books (fotoromanzi / fumetti), and she wants to see him (the actor portraying The White Sheik) in person. So, while she's supposed to be taking a long bath, one wacky thing leads to another, and there's your basic set-up.

And so . . . Will the newlyweds manage to remain married for more than a few days in the early 1950s? Will the neophyte husband "fail" his constantly propinquitous relatives? Will they all get to meet the pope, as planned? And for God's sake, what the hell is going to happen next? 

And so again, nothing earth-shattering outside of the arc of a marriage or two. But: Fellini fans will delight in all the little flourishes, shot in black and white. Even an open-minded "general" audience might enjoy it. Who knows? Crazier things have been known to happen.

You can see the influence of The White Sheik on just about any surrealist-tinged director ever since, including American directors ranging from Woody Allen (see To Rome with Love, 2012, for instance) to David Lynch. And there's a clear connection to another Italian director I've written a fair amount about, too -- Michelangelo Antonioni. That's because he came up with the original story idea and first draft for The White Sheik.

Today's Rune: Journey.