A great yet seldom-seen Fellini film from the 50s

Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953) not only still stands up as a great film after +60 years - it's probably even a better film today than on its release, as today it's a look at a culture that in some ways is long gone, as distant and peculiar to contemporary Europeans, say, the rites of an Amazon tribe - yet in some aspects we can see the same forces at work today, today in particular. Does this remind you of anyone: the film is about a group of guys who, we learn, are about 30 years old, but behave as if they're about 15, led by a large, somewhat handsome type A who shamelessly gropes women, cheats on his new wife, mocks the disadvantaged and the disabled, takes advantage of others including his father, his in-laws, his employer. The group of 5 pals are the vitelloni of the title (the word means, if my memory serves, young calves; a good American approximation of the title might be: The Boys); the film follows the group through roughly a year in the life. Though the 5 "boys" are irresponsible they are, with the exception of their gang leader, Fausto, in many ways lovable and sympathetic characters, each with his own stunted ambitions. One in particular, Leopoldo, seems close to Fellini's heart - an aspiring playwright whose hopes are smashed when he has as opportunity to show his work to a supposedly famous actor - a pompous, outmoded blowhard who leads him on and then comes on to Leopoldo. The other prominent character is Fausto's brother-in-law who is repulsed by Fausto's treatment of his sister and of his father but who is too weak to stand up to Fausto, following along w/ him meekly, even when it comes to petty theft (the scene in which they rob Fausto's employer, who runs a shop selling sacred objects, was echoed a few years later in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner); the brother-in-law has his own dark secrets: he seems to be a homosexual and perhaps even a pedophile, though Fellini leaves this intentionally ambiguous. There's a lot of humor - especially around their melodramatic attachment each of the "boys" (Fausto excepted) has for their dear mama - each dreams of leaving the small coastal town but is far too attached to the family to take any step toward doing so (one does get away at the end, as of course Fellini himself did). Among the many great scenes: the Miss Mermaid 1953 beauty pageant, the Carnival (in which the boys telling all cross-dress), the walk along the beach; the interiors of the petit-bourgeois households are a time capsule of provincial Italian taste and decor; the exteriors of the bleak public squares and alleyways show the impoverished post-war Italian social structure - not a car in sight, most of the time - so different from any Italian city today. Yes, there are a few flaws: we never quite buy into the runaway of Fausto's wife toward the end, and the scenes in which F's father supposedly beats him with a belt is not in the least credible. Quibbles aside, it's still an amazing film that has been largely eclipsed by the many other great (perhaps better - and more commercial and conventional) Fellini films of the 50s.