Ginger and Fred

Two dancers who once impersonated Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are reunited after thirty years for a television Christmas special. Amelia is a widow and a grandmother now; Pippo needs the money. On the way to the studio they meet one strange act after another. Federico Fellini directed. Marcello Mastroianni plays Pippo and Giulietta Masina plays Amelia. It is really a satire of television: Fellini's subject is not two old dancers but the machinery that puts them on air. The power fails during their number and they finish it anyway. The title produced a lawsuit. Ginger Rogers claimed a violation of her rights under the Lanham Act. In the case known as Rogers v. Grimaldi the Second Circuit rejected the claim, holding that suppressing an artistically relevant though ambiguous title would unduly restrict expression. The ruling became a precedent in trademark law. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 77 percent. It was nominated for best foreign film by the National Board of Review in 1986 and by the Golden Globes and BAFTA in 1987. Masina won the David di Donatello for Best Actress. Who it is for: viewers who like late Fellini and criticism of television. Who it is not for: anyone looking for his sixties grandeur. This film is smaller and wearier, and it means to be.