But the setting is July 1914, after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination, with war on the horizon, and the tension is ratcheted up when a group of Serbian refugees are accepted on to the ship.
Another surreal gem from Fellini: a movie whose love of its own artificiality is obvious. It’s a hothouse flower of a film, created in the studio, not the streets – about as far from neorealism as you can get. A group of musical notables are on a cruise-ship journey to scatter the ashes of a famous opera singer – and Fellini serves up a chocolate box of bizarre and hilarious moments and scenes as these various conductors, soloists and sopranos bicker, intrigue and fall out. But the setting is July 1914, after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination, with war on the horizon, and the tension is ratcheted up when a group of Serbian refugees are accepted on to the ship.