Word: fred
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...mystery emerges after the death, in 1985, of Simeon Simcox, 80, Anglican rector of Rapstone Fanner, a village some two hours' driving time west of London. The clergyman's will contains a staggering surprise. He has left nothing to his wife Dorothy or his two grown sons Henry and Fred. Instead, the ardent Socialist once known as "the Red Rector of Rapstone" has bequeathed all of his shares in the family-owned brewery, which may be worth (pounds)2 million, to one Leslie Titmuss, a local lad who - has clawed his way into national prominence as a Conservative...
...sons. Henry's first novel creates a minor ruckus and earns him a name as one of England's angry young men. He marries his younger brother's sweetheart, Agnes Salter, writes screenplays, divorces, weds an adoring younger woman and becomes a cranky old reactionary. For his part, Fred woos and loses Agnes but decides to follow her father's practice as the village doctor. His new mentor espouses a mission that frees Fred from messianic impulses: "I don't deal in right and wrong. I deal in collywobbles and housemaid's knee...
...Present, which provides a few minutes of celebrity to the unusual or notorious. On the face of it, Pippo (Marcello Mastroianni) and Amelia (Giulietta Masina), would seem to fit right in. Back in the '40s they were a minor but prosperous dance team, imitating the high romantic style of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in provincial Italian nightclubs and variety houses. Pippo and Amelia are long retired, but their one-shot TV comeback will be a treat for old fans and an astonishment to the younger set, especially if they can get through their act without suffering heart attacks...
...middle of it), we see that, modest though their talents are, Pippo and Amelia had, and still have, a gift. It is the capacity to provide something universal and necessary, the romantic gesture. That grace may or may not be a vanishing one, but at least "Ginger & Fred" are called to their work by something higher than the need to make a sensation...
...lovely performances, observant, original and infinitely appealing. When we, and Fellini, are lucky, his taste for flash and trash does not overwhelm what he really has to say; instead, it makes a useful contrast to simpler truths, and makes us grateful for them, as we are in Ginger & Fred...