The White Sheik

The White Sheik (Lo sceicco bianco, 1952) is Federico Fellini's first solo feature — watch it online on iFILM. This Italian romantic comedy follows a newlywed couple arriving in Rome for their honeymoon, only to immediately fall apart: the bride vanishes to chase a celebrity, and the groom is left scrambling to save face.

Wanda has been obsessively fan-writing to the star of a photo-strip serial — a pulpy illustrated magazine — and seizes her chance to sneak onto the location shoot outside the city. The man she finds there, played by Alberto Sordi with magnificent self-importance, is a fraud in a turban shooting scenes in a field. Meanwhile, her husband Ivan keeps their relatives believing everything is fine, inventing excuses for his missing wife by the hour. Giulietta Masina appears in a small but memorable supporting role.

The film flopped in Italian cinemas in 1952, but it planted the seeds of everything Fellini would later build: the gap between fantasy and disappointment, the provincial imagination bumping against reality. A quiet, funny, slightly melancholy early gem. Stream The White Sheik (1952) online on iFILM.