Il Bidone (1955)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 109 minuten
Alternative titles: The Swindle / The Swindlers
Country:
Italy / France
Directed by: Federico Fellini
Stars: Broderick Crawford, Giulietta Masina and Richard Basehart
IMDb score:
7,5 (7.695)
Releasedate: 7 October 1955
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Il Bidone plot
"SOME PEOPLE DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTERS' WELFARE!"
The elderly con man, Augusto, works with two younger men, both of whom have quite different lifestyles. Augusto avoids meddling in their troubled lives and lives the good life. When he suddenly sees his own daughter again and it turns out that she needs money, he has a dilemma. His younger partners are gone and he decides to do a job with strangers. These turn out not to be as benign as he had hoped.
Actors and actresses
Augusto
Iris
Roberto
Picasso
Patrizia, Augusto's daughter
Luciana
Rinaldo
Le Baron Charlie Vargas
Party Guest (uncredited)
Susanna
Reviews & comments
T.O.
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- 2428 messages
- 2806 votes
The beginning has a typical Italian atmosphere for that time, with pranks and the necessary humor. This culminates in the scene at the New Year's Eve party, in which Fellini's later penchant for extravagance becomes more clearly visible. Unfortunately, the film then slows down a bit, with some poorly developed dramatic scenes. Towards the end, the film recovers a bit more, but it never becomes a really nice whole again.
Translated from Dutch · View original
starbright boy (moderator films)
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- 22474 messages
- 5143 votes
Obviously an early Fellini and that was a very long time ago for me. Stylistically most expected to I Vittelloni and La Strada. Thematically somewhere an is-this-all movie. In the party scene in the middle you almost see a preview of La Dolce Vita. What once seemed like a beautiful life becomes a bit pathetic as you walk into 50 and things don't work out so well anymore. I thought it was striking to see two American B-movie actors appear in this, but I forgot that Baseheart also starred in La Strada. The cover of the DVD suggests that Fellini was inspired by American 1940s gangster movies. I hardly saw that. I saw a film that is much more Fellini-specific and has influences from neo-realism and Italian comedies.
Fellini was one of the first world cinema directors whose films I saw quite a few. This was by far the most famous one I had yet to do. I have now seen all but the first two and the last two and perhaps the two least known in between (Directors Notebook and I Clowns)
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
It seems that under pressure from his producers, Fellini had to cut the film down severely, from 150 to 112 minutes, then to 104 minutes, and even less for the delayed American release. Among other things, a scene was lost in which Iris (Picasso's wife, Masina) confronts Augusto and accuses him of leading her weak husband astray. Too bad a longer version never surfaced, maybe Fellini would have been more at peace with the end result. (The DVD version in which I've seen this movie now, in the NRC Handelsblad Film Selection series "The Italian Magi Rays", says on the cover a length of 95 minutes, but on the disc itself the movie is 108 minutes long, so that's the most common length of the final release version.)
For those still wondering about the ending, Fellini deliberately left Augusto's motives unclear: Did he want to return the money to the crippled girl, or did he want to give it to his own daughter for her education, or did he just want it keep to themselves? "I believe it's essential for the audience to ask themselves something in the end, and not everything is answered for them. I've failed if they don't want to know what happens to the characters after the film is over, not only for Il bidone but for every film I make." Nice approach.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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