AND THE SHIP SAILS ON

After a three year hiatus AND THE SHIP SAILS ON is Federico Fellini's 18th film and the fantastic voyage he invites you to experience is well worth the anticipation. The film opens like an old newsreel, in sepia tone and silent, dockside of the luxury liner Gloria N. as opera celebrities, the media, dockworkers and ship's crew assemble in July 1914. As pallbearers embark with a late diva's ashes, the boat whistle sounds, sepia goes to color and everyone in sight bursts into operatic song. Sailing across a plastic sea, passengers are thriller by the sunset that “looks painted” (which it is), setting the tone for Fellini's outrageously inventive view of “the elite, utmost people in the arts” and the rest of humanity. Love, lust, intrigue and a battle at sea lie ahead. Orlando, the journalist (Freddie Jones), narrates into the camera, introducing those unique “Fellini faces” – flamboyant opera people and entourages making the funeral trip, shipwrecked Serbs on the eve of World War I, an Austrian Grand Duke and even a hypnotized chicken and lovesick rhino. From hilarious dueling divas in the boiler room to images of allegorical symbolism, Fellini delights, provokes and, as usual, mesmerizes with cinematic splendor. “A joyful act of cinematic prestidigitation. . .dazzling. . .you cannot afford to pass up this rare, funny, surprising display.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times