Cinema: Pierrots and Augustes

Robert Benchley once divided the world into two kinds of people: those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who do not. Director Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, Satyricori) is firmly in the first category. In his new film, The Clowns, Fellini separates mankind into two classic species of fool: Pierrot and Auguste. Pierrot is the familiar circus clown in floppy white and conical hat, elegant and haughty. The clown Auguste is an eternal tramp, crumpled, drunken and rebellious.

No man escapes. Picasso and Einstein, says Fellini in a published...

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