Reference Film: XI - E LA NAVE VA by Federico Fellini

This film is a Master Piece and the first time I saw it was in 1983. About 10 years later I saw 8½ and I realise that a genius (read: creator) always do the same work, forever.
Each individual scene ranks among the best ever put to film - the wine glass concert, the scene where sunlight brightens one half of the ship and moonlight the other, the boiler room scene where the great opera singers compete vocally in order to impress the sailors below, the interview with the duke, and the opera singer's funeral. Each scene is so exquisitely created by Fellini and every other artist involved that it is entirely forgivable if the audience remembers those individual images rather than an overall effect.

E la nave va (1983)
Directed byFederico Fellini
Writing credits Federico Fellini andTonino Guerra (story)
Also Known As:
And the Ship Sails On (USA)
Et vogue le navire (France)
Runtime: 128 min Country: Italy / France
Language: Italian / German / Serbo-Croatian
Colour: Black and White / Colour (Eastmancolor)
Sound Mix: Stereo

Cast overview:
Freddie Jones as Orlando
Barbara Jefford as Ildebranda Cuffari
Victor Poletti as Aureliano Fuciletto
Peter Cellier as Sir Reginald J. Dongby
Elisa Mainardi as Teresa Valegnani
Norma West as Lady Violet Dongby Albertini
Paolo Paoloni as Il Maestro Albertini
Sarah-Jane Varley as Dorotea
Fiorenzo Serra as Il Granduca
Pina Bausch as La Principessa Lherimia
Pasquale Zito as Il Conte di Bassano
Linda Polan as Ines Ruffo Saltini
Philip Locke as Il Primo Ministro
Jonathan Cecil as Ricotin
Maurice Barrier as Ziloev

Summary
In July 1914 a luxury liner leaves Italy with the ashes of the famous opera singer Tetua. The boat is filled with her friends, opera singers, actors and all kinds of exotic people. Life is sweet the first days, but on the third day the captain has to save a large number of Serbian refugees from the sea, refugees who had escaped the first tremors of WWI.