Synopsis
And the Ship Sails On (E la nave va, 1983) is late-period Federico Fellini, a tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM. July 1914: a lavish ocean liner pulls out of Naples carrying the ashes of celebrated opera diva Edmea Tetua.
On board is all of Europe's operatic high society — singers, conductors, critics, a prince and his eccentric retinue — sailing to scatter the ashes near the island where she was born. They sniff engine-room smoke on a dare, serenade a hypnotized chicken and bask in their own fading little world. Then the ship rescues a band of Serbian refugees adrift at sea, and on the eve of world war this glittering civilization begins to crack. An Austro-Hungarian battleship demands the survivors be handed over.
Fellini built the entire film inside Cinecittà's studios — even the ocean is rippling sheets of cellophane, and rather than disguise it he closes the picture by revealing the camera and the sets. What emerges is a mocking elegy for a Europe that went down with the Belle Époque. Strange, gorgeous filmmaking for anyone willing to surrender to a master's imagination instead of hunting for realism. Stream And the Ship Sails On (1983) online on iFILM.
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