Prova D'Orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal)

One of Fellini's late works (1978), this shortish piece was in fact mafe for television. It is a fun little piece, light but interesting and indeed gripping.
One can tell that Fellini has become less cinematic; the shots are not the baroque portraits, rather quite simple either wide shots or shots of the individuals in questions framed quite unpretentiously by the mock camera crew. the effects and so on are given quite simply, a bit of a shake to the camera and so on. The set, the bare walls that have their various art, is atmospheric and a smart use of light (the candles at the end give a nice sense of Fellini's more typical hell-fire striking reds).
The piece is, in part, a fascinating study of music. It genuinely makes on ethink about an orchestra, it draws one in to, more than usual, listen to the tonalities and consider the sounds of each instrument. Introducing the performers is fun. Fellini finds fine actors who do not over egg their parts, or overburden the conflicts. It is rather a question of small pettiness and little interruptions (which the camera does as well with cut-aways and so on- partly to deflate pretension, partly as a deliberate act of rudeness to emphasise the atmosphere).
The ending is rather worrying politically; sources indicate that Fellini had a certain authoritarian, conservative aspect to him, especially in his latter years. It is certainly an interesting counter document to the young revolutionaries Fellini had encountered across Europe in his time.
So this is a fun little spurt of Fellini, well paced if a little mournful in the penultimate scenes (though the final one could have been longer). Worth watching.