Fellini's I Vitelloni...

Saw Fellini's I Vitelloni yesterday at the Harvard Film Archive...here is a plot summary I found at IMDB:

A sensitive character study of five young men trapped in a small town on the Adriatic. Their discontentment and restlessness lead them into a variety of activities, not all of them admirable.
In a small seaside town in Italy, Moraldo Rubini (Franco Interlenghi), Alberto (Alberto Sordi), Fausto Moretti (Franco Fabrizi), Leopoldo Vannucci (Leopoldo Trieste) and Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) form a group of idle friends that spend their time together doing nothing but drinking, flirting and going to parties. When Fausto's girlfriend Sandra Rubini (Eleonora Ruffo) gets pregnant, he is pressed by his own father to marry her. However, the irresponsible Fausto remains unfaithful to Sandra, cheating her with many women and almost leading his family to a tragedy.

There is something about these Italian movies especially the older ones with their gusto, their earthiness, their portrayal of solid virtues -- and on occassion the display of that famed Italian familial bond. Which gels with many of us for who a dad removing his belt to whip his errant son, a full grown adult, is no cause for alarm or a call to a social service agency for prevention of abuse...there is something very touching about a father being a father, punishing his son when the need arises to not spare the rod...and there is something equally touching when grown up Italian men swear their undying affection to their mammas...

A movie about common things, about hope and ardent love and rousing friendship and bonhomie...with the Fellini touch that does not allow it to descent into melodrama...