The last precious pearl in Fellini’s necklace of show business films, Ginger and Fred is at once a fond tribute to vaudeville and a withering assault on the meaningless opulence of commercial television. Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni play a dance duo whose act of forty years ago imitated Astaire and Rogers. These were modest artistes who, if not brilliant, at least shared an honest living contact with their audiences. They are brought out of retirement to perform on a Christmas television special called “This Is for You.” The show is a glitzy monstrosity, an eerie Italian counterpart of the worst aspects of the Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Oprah Winfrey shows. As Fred puts it, the television giant has feet of clay. The notion of “variety,” so meaningful in the popular theater of Fellini’s youth, has been transformed by television into an insane mishmash so sleazy that Masina and Mastroianni, however clumsy their dancing, look dignified, even charming, by comparison.