A somewhat failed experience, but still worth the watch. ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL has been considered a lesser Fellini and it shows -- the story is pared down to its essential, any dream sequence or sequences filmed out of context from the original story are nowhere to be seen, and the action takes place and resolves itself in what seems to be real time, which is the movie's 72 minute duration.
It can be a political allegory or simply what it is at face value: people gathering together in locked quarters, coming from different walks of life, being introduced to each others, telling bits and pieces of their life stories through the instruments they play, with the occasional commentaries indicating a self-importance that these people have of their position in the "orchestra".
That it takes place in a burial ground for popes enhances its symbolic value and Fellini's attitudes towards religion and religious figures and their relationship to the common people and vice versa. Interesting to see that the conductor is the only person in authority and happens to be German -- it made me wonder what Fellini might be trying to say here, but it seems to express an aversion to tyranny as the conductor is not what I would call an easy person to get along with. Even when he yammers in soft tones there is a harshness about him that is telling. He wants the musicians to perform beauty, art in music, and berates them horribly for not doing so. It then becomes not a "will they revolt" as to a countdown to their revolt -- people in general will not tolerate micro-management of any kind for more than they have to, and that in fact could be another of the film's many interpretations if applied to an office setting of a company considered a "sacred rock" of industry. It's an even more visually punch when Fellini bulldozes the auditorium at the very climax -- it's as if the movie would have folded itself outwards into the realms of Fellini the director to Fellini as God striking this place dead in its tracks to have order being restored; it's an arresting sequence, powerful in meaning, and one that elevates this short movie from what would have been an unremarkable experience.
It can be a political allegory or simply what it is at face value: people gathering together in locked quarters, coming from different walks of life, being introduced to each others, telling bits and pieces of their life stories through the instruments they play, with the occasional commentaries indicating a self-importance that these people have of their position in the "orchestra".
That it takes place in a burial ground for popes enhances its symbolic value and Fellini's attitudes towards religion and religious figures and their relationship to the common people and vice versa. Interesting to see that the conductor is the only person in authority and happens to be German -- it made me wonder what Fellini might be trying to say here, but it seems to express an aversion to tyranny as the conductor is not what I would call an easy person to get along with. Even when he yammers in soft tones there is a harshness about him that is telling. He wants the musicians to perform beauty, art in music, and berates them horribly for not doing so. It then becomes not a "will they revolt" as to a countdown to their revolt -- people in general will not tolerate micro-management of any kind for more than they have to, and that in fact could be another of the film's many interpretations if applied to an office setting of a company considered a "sacred rock" of industry. It's an even more visually punch when Fellini bulldozes the auditorium at the very climax -- it's as if the movie would have folded itself outwards into the realms of Fellini the director to Fellini as God striking this place dead in its tracks to have order being restored; it's an arresting sequence, powerful in meaning, and one that elevates this short movie from what would have been an unremarkable experience.