The `big calves' of the title are overgrown adolescent males in a provincial Italian town - - the twentysomething sons of well-off parents, hanging around, idly drinking and womanising. Deftly drawing on his own upbringing in '30s Rimini, Federico Fellini's mordant, humorous study of smalltown futility - - his third movie, released in 1953 - - set him on the road to fame, being the first of his movies to gain international distribution. Of course, winning a Silver Lion at Venice didn't hurt.
