Ginger and Fred

Director: Federico Fellini
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 1.0

Two vaudeville veterans - who impersonated Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire - return for a televised reunion after several years of being apart ... and that's it. When I found out that it was originally supposed to be a much shorter TV movie (unwisely) turned into a feature film by Fellini, it made sense to me - the material's too thin to warrant the length (everything we learn about the two dancers could have been exposed in about a half-hour). The shots Fellini takes at TV, advertising and 80's 'rock' are admittedly funny, however - one ad has a topless woman selling sausage - but hearing Mastroianni tell off-color jokes about his prostate, his flatulence and his impotence - and seeing Giuletta Masina cry - did not endear me to them.