Variety Lights

Variety Lights (Luci del varietà, 1950) is an Italian tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM. It marks the directing debut of Federico Fellini, who co-directed with Alberto Lattuada. A threadbare troupe of vaudeville performers tours the provinces, plays to half-empty houses and barely scrapes together a meal.

Master of ceremonies Checco keeps the whole ragged show running on sheer will. Then dazzling young Lily talks her way in as a dancer. Crowds fill up, Checco loses his head over her, and his longtime partner Melina senses trouble at once. But Lily is aiming far past these dusty country stages, and she will climb over anyone to reach a real spotlight.

Watch for Giulietta Masina, soon to become Fellini's wife and screen muse. There is no surreal spectacle here yet, but the film already carries his tenderness toward the vain, hopeful little people of show business. A quiet, telling place to see where one of cinema's great directors began. Stream Variety Lights (1950) online on iFILM.