An autumn storm disrupts the sweet slumber of a coastal town—and a premature pregnancy, the life of Fellini’s five protagonists, in this autobiographical tragicomedy. The father, Fausto, is forced into marriage that seems to bear no effect, on his Don Juan like escapades. All five boys, or rather wastrels or “unweaned calves”—as explicitly stated by the film’s title, are floundering on the threshold of adulthood. They perceive the male identity as an endless spiral of pranks, billiard games and womanising—desiring that, which they will never conquer: Sergio the theatre, Riccardo the Opera. Eventually, only Moraldo, a fictionalised young Fellini, will escape to Rome. Although filmed by a “travelling” crew, following the public appearances of Alberto Sordi, the film was Fellini’s first directorial triumph and bore a great influence, on the Italian-American directors—and not only—of Scorsese’s generation.