MOVIE REVIEW : ‘I Vitelloni’ Is Fellini at His Ironic Best

“I Vitelloni,” the title of Federico Fellini’s third film, loosely translates into “The Overgrown Teen-Agers” or “The Big Loafers.” Taken from the Italian word for veal, it’s a gentle idiomatic put-down of men in perpetual adolescence, hanging out on the corner, stalking girls, avoiding as much responsibility as they can.

In typical Hollywood fashion, “I Vitelloni” (screening at UC Irvine tonight) was saddled with the title “The Young and the Passionate” when released in America after its 1953 European premiere. That title doesn’t work--Fellini’s movie is about youth and passion, but it’s hardly heroic or arch, as that one implies.

“I Vitelloni” is, perhaps, Fellini’s most ironic movie. Just about everything this expressionistic, humane and inventive (sometimes to the point of distraction) filmmaker has created is ironic, from the unjust human comedy of “La Strada” (1955) to the picaresque freakishness of “Fellini Satyricon” (1970). But this one is especially sardonic in its soft-edged way.

Many think it’s among his two or three best films primarily because of the strength of the ensemble acting and the personalized feel of the story. Fellini has been accused of making impersonal movies, but that’s not the case here. The five actors who compose Fellini’s vitelloni offer characterizations that seem more like living than performing.

Fellini uses a narrator to introduce them to us. We first spy them cruising through a town square, possibly Rimini, Fellini’s hometown. The director has said that much of the movie is autobiographical and captures those he knew in Rimini. The narrator tells us that Fausto (played by Franco Fabrizi) is the group’s “leader and spiritual guide”; it’s a sarcastic aside, considering that the womanizing Fausto is, at that moment, trying to pick up a young lady.

His comrades are Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), a character usually identified with Fellini himself; Alberto (Alberto Sordi); and Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) and Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini, the director’s brother). “I Vitelloni” follows them through pointless days and nights. At one point the narrator says, “In the next few months, the most important things that happened were that Riccardo grew a mustache and Alberto grew sideburns, while Fausto shaved his mustache off.”

When not shaving, Fausto gets his girlfriend (Eleonora Ruffo) pregnant and they have to marry. He still chases other women, his pals often at his side, trying to do the same. Later, Fellini gives us a drunken carnival scene--the image has become his most familiar trademark, a metaphor turning up in many of his movies, most notably “8 1/2” (1963)--that highlights these men in all their abject foolishness.

The imagery is vivid and salty. But while Fellini can’t resist making fun of them, he never becomes censorious. His customary use of camera angles to locate intimacy is obvious in this scene and throughout “I Vitelloni.” By dwelling on them just so, he involves us in their lives--you agree that they’re silly, but condemnation seems far too harsh.

Federico Fellini’s “I Vitelloni” will be shown tonight at 7 and 9 at UC Irvine’s Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium as part of the UCI Film Society’s Directors’ Personal Portraits series. Tickets: $2 to $4. (714) 856-6379.