[Quick Summary: When Wanda goes to Rome to meet her new husband's relatives, she sneaks off to drop off a drawing to her film idol, the "White Sheik," and is swept up in a day of pretend on set.]
I think one of the overarching themes in Fellini's work is the contrast between reality versus dreams and fantasies.
In this script, Wanda literally escapes reality for the chance to meet her dream man, "the White Sheik. She's been seduced by the fantasy.
My favorite scene in the script (below) is when the White Sheik/Fernando rudely awakens Wanda from her fantasy ("I'm married").
Up until this point, Wanda disregards all the red flags (he's an actor, this is a production, etc.) because she desires her fantasy connection with him so much.
Prior to the scene below:
- Wanda wrote to the "White Sheik" who said to "come visit him" if she was ever in Rome.
- Wanda takes this seriously and drops by the film office with a gift.
- She's swept up into the production and meets the "White Sheik" who is really Fernando, an actor and a big flirt.
- She is given a costume and the production continues to film the Sheik.
- Wanda is living out her pretend fantasy, but it is not as glamorous as it on the big screen.
- Fernando takes her out on a boat, despite delaying the shoot.
- Fernando tries to kiss Wanda. She avoids him.
- He's annoyed, realizing what kind of woman he's now dealing with.
- To seduce her, he makes up a lie about his wife, which Wanda believes is true.
- Note how Fernando keeps the lies coming in order to keep the seduction going.
- Also note how readily Wanda believes him because she wants to stay in the fantasy.
In the boat. Day.
Wanda starts. Evidently this fact is a total and extremely distressing revelation for her. She stares at Fernando as if all her illusions were about to collapse.
WANDA (in a whisper): Married?
FERNANDO (astonished, shrugging his shoulders): Married.
WANDA: Married?
The Sheik gazes at her in silence, somewhat annoyed at Wanda's dismay. Then, interpreting her reaction in his own vain fashion, he continues with a shadow of a smile.
SHEIK: That upsets you? Come on, you mustn't be jealous...I don't love her...
Wanda's face expresses an even more severe and thunderstruck dismay. She slowly shifts her position away from him.
The Sheik finally realizes that he has taken the wrong tack, and immediately sets about repairing the damage as his instinct suggests.
SHEIK (pathetic, embittered): Don't judge me harshly...You can't know...I laugh, I try to be gay. (Seeing that this is the right tone, he continues, emphasizing even more the histrionic pathos of the lie.) That woman has ruined my life...
Wanda is now listening very intently, surprised and very much distressed and perturbed.
WANDA (in a whisper): Really?
FERNANDO:And how!
WANDA: Tell me about it, Fernando.
FERNANDO: No, you mustn't ask.
WANDA: Please...please...
FERNANDO (bitterly, with a faint smile): It's that I...(He drops his head in silence to gain time. He moves closer to Wanda, who makes no objection this time.) It's a long, unpleasant story...I was in love with someone else. Milena...She was beautiful...as beautiful as you... (Corrects himself.) You're much more beautiful. I was to marry her...but on the wedding day, with an underhanded trick, with a magic potion...
WANDA: What?
FERNANDO: A magic potion. The woman who is now my wife drugged me.
WANDA: Oh good heavens!
FERNANDO: She made me lose my memory...I swear...I didn't know what was going on, and when I regained my senses, I found that Milena had disappeared.
WANDA: Disappeared?!
FERNANDO: Maybe she's dead...
WANDA: Dead!
FERNANDO: Who can say?
WANDA (dismayed and moved): Poor Milena...A magic potion...
Wanda cups her head in her hands and slowly slips to the floor of the boat.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I was interested to notice that I was more interested in Wanda's reaction than in Fernando's lie because it changed her (while he did not very much).
More than the method (lie), perhaps what we, the audience, seeks to see in a romantic scene is this change in our heroine?
The White Sheik (1952)
by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
From an original idea by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
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