When you pinch me try to pinch me where there's fat

The office beckons..

Oh, FFS. It's Monday again! How did that happen?

Never mind, eh? It's Fergie's birthday today [no, not that one - the one with the Black Eyed Peas], and, on this Tacky Music Monday, I think we deserve a boost of brilliant choreography featuring said lady to perk us up!

Fergie - Be Italian

But there's more places to go with this, bien sûr...

Be Italian [Twisted Broadway, 2015]

...and, inevitably, the classic:

French & Saunders do Fellini, part 1

Have a good week, dear reader.

Pick the flower now before the chance is past

Another option for beach-wear for our forthcoming trip to Spain - from Giulietta degli spiriti

We have a centenary to celebrate today, dear reader - that of possibly the most extravagantly camp film director of them all, Signor Federico Fellini!

As I said a decade ago on this very blog:

...Federico Fellini was indeed one of the most influential film directors in European movie history. A pioneer of the so-called "neo-realist" style, he collaborated with Ingrid Bergman's hubbie Roberto Rossellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti, Anna Magnani, Anita Ekberg and even Goldie Hawn. His film Le Notti di Cabiria was later adapted by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields as the musical Sweet Charity.

Fellini's legacy is vast and wide-ranging - everyone from Tim Burton to Terry Gilliam, David Lynch [with whom he shares a birthday] to Peter Greenaway, Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Baz Luhrmann owes him a huge debt - but there are one or two tributes that, for me, are the finest summations of a life's creativity...

French & Saunders do Fellini, part 1

French & Saunders do Fellini, part 2

...and of course, as it is Tacky Music Monday, my favourite musical tribute to the man's work:

Fergie - Be Italian [Nine]

Federico Fellini (20th January 1920 – 31st October 1993)

An interesting review of some of the great man's most stylish films

Pope hope

We can but hope that at the very least, Pope Madge Francis may take notice of the real world...

...of fashion!

Fellini's Roma - Vatican Fashion Show

[Thanks to Jason at Night is Half Gone for this fab clip from Fellini's Roma]

Tu vuo' fa' ll'americano

Born in Rimini 90 years ago yesterday, Federico Fellini was indeed one of the most influential film directors in European movie history. A pioneer of the so-called "neo-realist" style, he collaborated with Ingrid Bergman's hubbie Roberto Rossellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti, Anna Magnani, Anita Ekberg and even Goldie Hawn. His film Le Notti di Cabiria was later adapted by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields as the musical Sweet Charity.

Even today, his film 8½, having been adapted as a musical in the 80s, has become a big hit in its film version Nine. A good enough excuse, really to post this (again)... Be Italian, indeed!

Fergie - Be Italian

Similarities, anyone?

Sophia Loren - Americano

Federico Fellini on IMDB

Be Italian!

Apparently the new movie Nine - based upon Fellini's 8½ - follows the life of film director "Guido Contini" played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion, while balancing the numerous women in his life - including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Dame Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), his glamorous courtesan (Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson of the Black-Eyed Peas) and his mother (Sophia Loren).

Sounds marvellous - and what a cast!!

Nine movie trailer

The Sweet Life

Fifty years ago this month, a certain Swedish sexpot by the name of Anita Ekberg splashed around in the Trevi Fountain in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and one of the iconic female screen images of the 20th century was born.

Read Duncan Kennedy's retrospective on the film.

And of course, "The Sweet Life" has inspired numerous musical tributes over the years. Here is my selection (in the genre we call "tacky", of course). Enjoy...

The utterly camp-as-tits After Dark (from the 2004 Melodifestivalen in Sweden):

After Dark - La Dolce Vita

Spanish singer Soraya Arnelas's take on the Ryan Paris song:

Soraya - La Dolce Vita

Finnish entry for Eurovision 1989, Anneli Saaristo:

Anneli Saaristo - La Dolce Vita

And finally, Sparks!

Sparks - La Dolce Vita

Dolce, indeed.