I Vitelloni [re-release] 2003

As summer begins to fade, a torrential downpour disrupts a beauty pageant along the picturesque Adriatic coast. The newly crowned “Miss Mermaid 1953,” Sandra Rubini, becomes distressed and collapses amidst swirling rumors about her possible pregnancy with the notorious womanizer Fausto Moretti. His respectable father, Francesco, pressures him into a hasty marriage. After a sparsely populated mid-class wedding, the couple departs for their honeymoon.

Meanwhile, Fausto’s aimless twenty-something friends flounder about, drifting between empty cafés, dingy pool halls, and bleak strolls on a windswept beach, resorting to juvenile antics. They mock diligent road workers, sheltered in a fancy car they haven’t rightly earned, only to face a formidable beating when the vehicle breaks down.

At the heart of the chaos is Moraldo, Sandra’s brother and the youngest among the five ‘vitelloni.’ He grapples with the discomfort of witnessing Fausto’s infidelities while dreaming of a better life beyond their provincial town. Riccardo, with aspirations to sing and act, and Alberto, a daydreamer reliant on his family, each face their own battles. Alberto feels the weight of his mother’s support while struggling with his sister Olga’s clandestine relationship with a married man. Meanwhile, Leopoldo yearns to be a playwright, seeking feedback from the quirky actor Sergio Natali.

Returning from his honeymoon, Fausto takes a job as a stockroom assistant in a shop run by Michele Curti. However, undeterred by his new responsibilities, Fausto continues his reckless pursuits. At the annual masquerade ball, he’s enchanted by the alluring beauty of Giulia Curti, his boss’s wife. In a comedic twist, Alberto, intoxicated and dressed in drag, performs a bizarre dance at the event, only to return home to discover that Olga has eloped with her married lover.

Fausto’s naive attempts to charm Giulia lead to embarrassment and dismissal by her husband, which provokes him to act irrationally. In retaliation, he pilfers a gilded angel statue from Michele, manipulating Moraldo into his misguided schemes to sell it. Nevertheless, their attempts to offload it are thwarted when both the convent and a monk reject their offers. Eventually, Fausto leaves the statue with a simple-minded villager, who places it on a mound outside his hut.

One fateful night, after a variety show, Leopoldo agrees to take a seaside stroll with Sergio, only to flee in terror when the actor makes an inappropriate advance. In a devastating blow, Sandra flees with their child after learning of Fausto’s infidelity with a variety artist. Joined by Riccardo, Alberto, Leopoldo, and Moraldo, Fausto frantically searches for them, culminating in a confrontation at Francesco’s home where his father punishes him.

Reconciled for the moment, Fausto and Sandra walk home hand in hand, hopeful for their future together. With aspirations of escaping the dreary cycle of their provincial existence, Moraldo departs on a train toward an uncertain future in Rome, contemplating the slumbering lives of his friends who remain trapped in their small-town dream.