Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
known for his distinctive style, which blends
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
and
baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of ''
Cahiers du Cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' and ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'', which lists his 1963 film ''
'' as the 10th-greatest film.
Fellini's best-known films include ''
La Strada
''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman ( Giulietta Masina) bought from her mothe ...
'' (1954), ''
Nights of Cabiria
''Nights of Cabiria'' ( it, Le notti di Cabiria) is a 1957 drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. It stars Giulietta Masina as Cabiria, a prostitute living in Rome. The cast also features François Périer and Amedeo Nazzari. ...
'' (1957), ''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...
'' (1960), ''
8½
' (Italian title: , ) is a 1963 surrealist comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi) by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. The metafictional narrative centers on Guido Anselmi, played by M ...
'' (1963), ''
Juliet of the Spirits
''Juliet of the Spirits'' ( it, Giulietta degli spiriti) is a 1965 fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, and Valeska Gert. The film is about the vi ...
'' (1965), the "Toby Dammit" segment of ''
Spirits of the Dead
''Spirits of the Dead'' (french: Histoires extraordinaires, lit=Extraordinary Tales, it, Tre passi nel delirio, lit=Three Steps to Delirium), also known as ''Tales of Mystery and Imagination'', is a 1968 horror anthology film comprising three ...
'' (1968), ''
Fellini Satyricon
''Fellini Satyricon'', or simply ''Satyricon'', is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini and loosely based on Petronius's work '' Satyricon'', written during the reign of Emperor Nero and set in Imperial R ...
'' (1969), ''
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
'' (1972), ''
Amarcord'' (1973), and ''
Fellini's Casanova
, image = Casanova_moviep.jpg
, caption = Italian theatrical release poster
, director = Federico Fellini
, producer = Alberto Grimaldi
, screenplay = Federico Fellini Bernardino Zapponi
, based_on =
...
'' (1976).
Fellini was nominated for 16
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
over the course of his career, winning a total of four in the category of
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
(the most for any director in the history of the award). He received an
honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the
65th Academy Awards
The 65th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1992 in the United States and took place on March 29, 1993, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beg ...
in Los Angeles. Fellini also won the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
for ''La Dolce Vita'' in 1960, two times the
Moscow International Film Festival
The Moscow International Film Festival (russian: Моско́вский междунаро́дный кинофестива́ль, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is the film festival first h ...
in 1963 and 1987, and the Career Golden Lion at the
42nd Venice International Film Festival in 1985. In ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
''s 2002 list of the greatest directors of all time, Fellini was ranked 2nd in the directors' poll and 7th in the critics' poll.
Early life and education
Rimini (1920–1938)
Fellini was born on 20 January 1920, to
middle-class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...
parents in
Rimini
Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...
, then a small town on the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
. On 25 January, at the San Nicolò church he was baptized Federico Domenico Marcello Fellini.
His father, Urbano Fellini (1894–1956), born to a family of
Romagnol peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
s and small
landholders
In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
from
Gambettola
Gambettola ( rgn, Gambetla or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna and about southeast of Forlì. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population ...
, moved to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1915 as a baker
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
d to the Pantanella pasta factory. His mother, Ida Barbiani (1896–1984), came from a
bourgeois Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
family of Roman
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
s. Despite her family's vehement disapproval, she had eloped with Urbano in 1917 to live at his parents' home in Gambettola. A civil marriage followed in 1918 with the religious ceremony held at
Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome a year later.
The couple settled in Rimini where Urbano became a
traveling salesman and
wholesale
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
vendor
In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...
. Fellini had two siblings,
Riccardo Riccardo is a male given name, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader".
It may refer to:
People A–L
*Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker
*Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985 ...
(1921–1991), a documentary director for
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
Television, and
Maria Maddalena (m. Fabbri; 1929–2002).
In 1924, Fellini started primary school in an institute run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini, attending the Carlo Tonni public school two years later. An attentive student, he spent his leisure time drawing, staging
puppet shows and reading ''Il corriere dei piccoli'', the popular children's magazine that reproduced traditional American cartoons by
Winsor McCay
Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he worke ...
,
George McManus
George McManus (January 23, 1884 – October 22, 1954) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the main characters of his syndicated comic strip, ''Bringing Up Father''.
Biography
...
and
Frederick Burr Opper. (Opper's ''
Happy Hooligan
''Happy Hooligan'' is an American comic strip, the first major strip by the already celebrated cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper. It debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first p ...
'' would provide the visual inspiration for Gelsomina in Fellini's 1954 film ''
La Strada
''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman ( Giulietta Masina) bought from her mothe ...
''; McCay's ''
Little Nemo'' would directly influence his 1980 film ''
City of Women
''City of Women'' ( it, La città delle donne) is a 1980 Italian fantasy comedy-drama film co-written (with Bernardino Zapponi and Brunello Rondi) and directed by Federico Fellini. Amid Fellini's characteristic combination of dreamlike, outrag ...
''.) In 1926, he discovered the world of
Grand Guignol
''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' (: "The Theatre of the Great Puppet")—known as the Grand Guignol–was a theatre in the Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialised in natura ...
, the circus with
Pierino the Clown and the movies.
Guido Brignone
Guido Brignone (6 December 1886 – 6 March 1959) was an Italian film director and actor. He was the father of actress Lilla Brignone and younger brother of actress Mercedes Brignone.
Brignone was born in Milan, Italy. He was the first Italian ...
's ''Maciste all'Inferno'' (1926), the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and the cinema throughout his entire career.
Enrolled at the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in 1929, he made friends with Luigi ''Titta'' Benzi, later a prominent Rimini lawyer (and the model for young Titta in ''
Amarcord'' (1973)). In
Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of the ''
Avanguardista'', the compulsory
Fascist youth group for males. He visited Rome with his parents for the first time in 1933, the year of the maiden voyage of the transatlantic ocean liner ''
SS Rex
SS ''Rex'' was an Italian ocean liner launched in 1931. She held the westbound Blue Riband between 1933 and 1935. Originally built for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) as SS ''Guglielmo Marconi'', its state-ordered merger with the Lloyd ...
'' (which is shown in ''Amarcord''). The sea creature found on the beach at the end of ''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...
'' (1960) has its basis in a giant fish marooned on a Rimini beach during a storm in 1934.
Although Fellini adapted key events from his childhood and adolescence in films such as ''
I Vitelloni
''I vitelloni'' (, literally "The bullocks" - Romagnol slang for "The slackers" or "The layabouts") is a 1953 comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini from a screenplay written by himself, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. It stars Fran ...
'' (1953), ''
'' (1963), and ''
Amarcord'' (1973), he insisted that such autobiographical memories were inventions:
In 1937, Fellini opened Febo, a portrait shop in Rimini, with the painter Demos Bonini. His first humorous article appeared in the "Postcards to Our Readers" section of Milan's ''Domenica del Corriere''. Deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
in 1938, where he published his first cartoon in the weekly ''420''. According to a biographer, Fellini found school "exasperating" and, in one year, had 67 absences. Failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in 1939.
Rome (1939)
In September 1939, he enrolled in
law school at the
University of Rome to please his parents. Biographer
Hollis Alpert
Hollis Alpert (September 24, 1916 – November 18, 2007) was an American film critic and author. Alpert was best known as the cofounder of the National Society of Film Critics, which he started in his New York City apartment.
Early life
Hollis A ...
reports that "there is no record of his ever having attended a class". Installed in a family ''pensione'', he met another lifelong friend, the painter Rinaldo Geleng. Desperately poor, they unsuccessfully joined forces to draw sketches of restaurant and café patrons. Fellini eventually found work as a cub reporter on the dailies ''Il Piccolo'' and ''Il Popolo di Roma'', but quit after a short stint, bored by the local court news assignments.
Four months after publishing his first article in ''
Marc'Aurelio
''Marc'Aurelio'' was an Italian satirical magazine, published between 1931 and 1958, and briefly resurrected in 1973.
History and profile
The weekly magazine was founded in Rome by Oberdan Catone and Vito De Bellis in 1931. It was the first satir ...
'', the highly influential biweekly humour magazine, he joined the editorial board, achieving success with a regular column titled ''But Are You Listening?''. Described as "the determining moment in Fellini's life", the magazine gave him steady employment between 1939 and 1942, when he interacted with writers, gagmen, and scriptwriters. These encounters eventually led to opportunities in show business and cinema. Among his collaborators on the magazine's editorial board were the future director
Ettore Scola,
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
theorist and scriptwriter
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, ...
, and
Bernardino Zapponi
Bernardino Zapponi (4 September 1927 – 11 February 2000) was an Italian novelist and screenwriter best known for his films written in collaboration with Federico Fellini.
Biography
Zapponi was born in Rome in 1927. He began his literary caree ...
, a future Fellini screenwriter. Conducting interviews for ''CineMagazzino'' also proved congenial: when asked to interview
Aldo Fabrizi
Aldo Fabrizi (; born Aldo Fabbrizi; 1 November 1905 – 2 April 1990) was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and comedian, best known for the role of the heroic priest in Roberto Rossellini's ''Rome, Open City'' and as partner of Totò in ...
, Italy's most popular variety performer, he established such immediate personal rapport with the man that they collaborated professionally. Specializing in humorous monologues, Fabrizi commissioned material from his young protégé.
Career and later life
Early screenplays (1940–1943)
![Federico Fellini](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Federico_Fellini.jpg)
Retained on business in Rimini, Urbano sent wife and family to Rome in 1940 to share an apartment with his son. Fellini and Ruggero Maccari, also on the staff of ''Marc'Aurelio'', began writing radio sketches and gags for films.
Not yet twenty and with Fabrizi's help, Fellini obtained his first screen credit as a comedy writer on
Mario Mattoli's ''
Il pirata sono io'' (''The Pirate's Dream''). Progressing rapidly to numerous collaborations on films at
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
, his circle of professional acquaintances widened to include novelist
Vitaliano Brancati
Vitaliano Brancati (; 24 July 1907 – 25 September 1954) was an Italian novelist, dramatist, poet and screenwriter.
Biography
Born in Pachino, Syracuse, Brancati studied in Catania, where he graduated in letters and where he spent the most pa ...
and scriptwriter Piero Tellini. In the wake of Mussolini's declaration of war against France and Britain on 10 June 1940, Fellini discovered
Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...
's ''
The Metamorphosis
''Metamorphosis'' (german: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himsel ...
'',
Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
,
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...
and
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
along with French films by
Marcel Carné,
René Clair
René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...
, and
Julien Duvivier. In 1941 he published ''Il mio amico Pasqualino'', a 74-page booklet in ten chapters describing the absurd adventures of Pasqualino, an alter ego.
Writing for radio while attempting to avoid the draft, Fellini met his future wife
Giulietta Masina
Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film F ...
in a studio office at the Italian public radio broadcaster
EIAR
Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR, "Italian Body for Radio Broadcasting") was the public service broadcaster in Fascist Italy and the only entity permitted to broadcast by the government.
History
The company was established in 1 ...
in the autumn of 1942. Well-paid as the voice of Pallina in Fellini's radio serial, ''Cico and Pallina'', Masina was also well known for her musical-comedy broadcasts which cheered an audience depressed by the war.
In November 1942, Fellini was sent to
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, occupied by Fascist Italy, to work on the screenplay of ''I cavalieri del deserto'' (''
Knights of the Desert'', 1942), directed by
Osvaldo Valenti
Osvaldo Valenti (17 February 1906 – 30 April 1945) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1928 and 1945. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey to a Sicilian carpet trader and a wealthy Lebanese woman of Greek descen ...
and Gino Talamo. Fellini welcomed the assignment as it allowed him "to secure another extension on his draft order". Responsible for emergency re-writing, he also directed the film's first scenes. When
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
fell under siege by British forces, he and his colleagues made a narrow escape by boarding a German military plane flying to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
. His African adventure, later published in ''Marc'Aurelio'' as "The First Flight", marked "the emergence of a new Fellini, no longer just a screenwriter, working and sketching at his desk, but a filmmaker out in the field".
The
apolitical
Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased po ...
Fellini was finally freed of the draft when an Allied air raid over
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
destroyed his medical records. Fellini and Giulietta hid in her aunt's apartment until Mussolini's fall on 25 July 1943. After dating for nine months, the couple were married on 30 October 1943. Several months later, Masina fell down the stairs and suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a son, Pierfederico, on 22 March 1945, but the child died of
encephalitis 11 days later on 2 April 1945.
Masina and Fellini had no other children.The tragedy had enduring emotional and artistic repercussions.
Neorealist apprenticeship (1944–1949)
After the Allied liberation of Rome on 4 June 1944, Fellini and Enrico De Seta opened the Funny Face Shop where they survived the postwar recession drawing caricatures of American soldiers. He became involved with
Italian Neorealism
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
when
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
, at work on ''Stories of Yesteryear'' (later ''
Rome, Open City
''Rome, Open City'' ( it, Roma città aperta, also released as ''Open City'') is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Sergio Amidei, Celeste Negarville and Federico Fellini. Set in Rome in ...
''), met Fellini in his shop, and proposed he contribute gags and dialogue for the script. Aware of Fellini's reputation as Aldo Fabrizi's "creative muse", Rossellini also requested that he try to convince the actor to play the role of Father
Giuseppe Morosini
Giuseppe Morosini (19 March 1913 – 13 April 1944) was an Italian priest and partisan. He was ordained to the sacred priesthood in 1937 at St. John Lateran's Basilica, becoming chaplain of the Royal Italian Army's 4th Artillery Regiment in 1941 ...
, the parish priest executed by the
SS on 4 April 1944.
In 1947, Fellini and
Sergio Amidei
Sergio Amidei (30 October 1904 – 14 April 1981) was an Italian screenwriter and an important figure in Italy's neorealist movement.
Amidei was born in Trieste. He worked with famed Italian directors such as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio ...
received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of ''Rome, Open City''.
Working as both screenwriter and assistant director on Rossellini's ''
Paisà
''Paisan'' ( it, Paisà ) is a 1946 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. In six independent episodes, it tells of the Liberation of Italy by the Allied forces during the late stage of World War II. The film premier ...
'' (''Paisan'') in 1946, Fellini was entrusted to film the Sicilian scenes in
Maiori
Maiori (Campanian: ; originally ''Rheginna Maior'') is a town and ''comune'' on the Amalfi coast in the province of Salerno (Campania, Italy). It has been a popular tourist resort since Roman times, with the longest unbroken stretch of beach on ...
. In February 1948, he was introduced to
Marcello Mastroianni, then a young theatre actor appearing in a play with Giulietta Masina. Establishing a close working relationship with
Alberto Lattuada, Fellini co-wrote the director's ''
Senza pietà
''Without Pity'' ( it, Senza pietà) is a 1948 Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada from a script by the director himself, Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli, from an original story by Ettore Margadonna.
Plot
As World War II ends, Africa ...
'' (''Without Pity'') and ''
Il mulino del Po
''Il mulino del Po'' (internationally released as ''The Mill on the Po'') is a 1949 Cinema of Italy, Italian drama film directed by Alberto Lattuada. It is based on the novel with the same name by Riccardo Bacchelli.
Cast
*Carla Del Poggio: Ber ...
'' (''The Mill on the Po''). Fellini also worked with Rossellini on the
anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme ...
''
L'Amore'' (1948), co-writing the screenplay and in one segment titled, "The Miracle", acting opposite
Anna Magnani
Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian actress.Obituary ''Variety'', 3 October 1973, pg. 47 She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of characters.
Born in Rome, she worked her ...
. To play the role of a vagabond rogue mistaken by Magnani for a saint, Fellini had to bleach his black hair blond.
Early films (1950–1953)
![Fellini masina delpoggio lattuada 1952](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Fellini_masina_delpoggio_lattuada_1952.jpg)
In 1950 Fellini co-produced and co-directed with Alberto Lattuada ''
Variety Lights
''Variety Lights'' ( it, Luci del varietà) is a 1951 Italian romantic drama film produced, directed and written by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada and starring Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, and Giulietta Masina. The film is about a ...
'' (''Luci del varietà''), his first feature film. A backstage comedy set among the world of small-time travelling performers, it featured Giulietta Masina and Lattuada's wife,
Carla Del Poggio
Carla Del Poggio (2 December 1925 – 14 October 2010) was an Italian cinema, theatre, and television actress.
Biography
Born Maria Luisa Attanasio in Naples, she was the wife of Italian director Alberto Lattuada for 60 years, from 2 April 194 ...
. Its release to poor reviews and limited distribution proved disastrous for all concerned. The production company went bankrupt, leaving both Fellini and Lattuada with debts to pay for over a decade. In February 1950, ''Paisà'' received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay by Rossellini,
Sergio Amidei
Sergio Amidei (30 October 1904 – 14 April 1981) was an Italian screenwriter and an important figure in Italy's neorealist movement.
Amidei was born in Trieste. He worked with famed Italian directors such as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio ...
, and Fellini.
After travelling to Paris for a script conference with Rossellini on ''
Europa '51
''Europe '51'' ( it, Europa '51), also known as ''The Greatest Love'', is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman and Alexander Knox. The film follows an industrialist's wife who, after the death ...
'', Fellini began production on ''
The White Sheik
''The White Sheik'' ( it, Lo sceicco bianco) is a 1952 Italian romantic comedy film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Trieste, Brunella Bovo and Giulietta Masina. Written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaia ...
'' in September 1951, his first solo-directed feature. Starring
Alberto Sordi
Alberto Sordi (15 June 1920 – 24 February 2003) was an Italian actor, voice actor, singer, comedian, director and screenwriter.
Early life
Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician and the last of five children, Sordi was named in hon ...
in the title role, the film is a revised version of a treatment first written by
Michelangelo Antonioni in 1949 and based on the ''fotoromanzi'', the photographed cartoon strip romances popular in Italy at the time. Producer
Carlo Ponti
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (11 December 1912 – 9 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema ...
commissioned Fellini and
Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli (24 June 1908 – 7 March 2009) was an Italian screenwriter known for his work on the Federico Fellini films ''I Vitelloni'', ''La Strada'', '' La Dolce Vita'' and '' 8½''.
Biography
Born in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, Pinelli beg ...
to write the script but Antonioni rejected the story they developed. With
Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano (5 March 1910 – 20 November 1972) was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. Best known for his work with Federico Fellini, Flaiano co-wrote ten screenplays with the Italian director, including ...
, they re-worked the material into a light-hearted satire about newlywed couple Ivan and Wanda Cavalli (
Leopoldo Trieste, Brunella Bovo) in Rome to visit the Pope. Ivan's prissy mask of respectability is soon demolished by his wife's obsession with the White Sheik. Highlighting the music of
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
, the film was selected at Cannes (among the films in competition was
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
's ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'') and then retracted. Screened at the
13th Venice International Film Festival, it was razzed by critics in "the atmosphere of a soccer match". One reviewer declared that Fellini had "not the slightest aptitude for cinema direction".
In 1953, ''
I Vitelloni
''I vitelloni'' (, literally "The bullocks" - Romagnol slang for "The slackers" or "The layabouts") is a 1953 comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini from a screenplay written by himself, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. It stars Fran ...
'' found favour with the critics and public. Winning the Silver Lion Award in Venice, it secured Fellini his first international distributor.
Beyond neorealism (1954–1960)
![Cinecittà - Teatro 5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Cinecitt%C3%A0_-_Teatro_5.jpg)
Fellini directed ''
La Strada
''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman ( Giulietta Masina) bought from her mothe ...
'' based on a script completed in 1952 with Pinelli and Flaiano. During the last three weeks of shooting, Fellini experienced the first signs of severe clinical depression. Aided by his wife, he undertook a brief period of therapy with Freudian psychoanalyst Emilio Servadio.
Fellini cast American actor
Broderick Crawford to interpret the role of an aging swindler in ''
Il Bidone
''Il bidone'' (, "The Drum .html" ;"title="ontainer/nowiki>">ontainer/nowiki>"; also known as ''The Swindle'' or ''The Swindlers'') is a 1955 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini from his own screenplay co-written with Ennio Flaiano and Tu ...
''. Based partly on stories told to him by a petty thief during production of ''La Strada'', Fellini developed the script into a con man's slow descent towards a solitary death. To incarnate the role's "intense, tragic face", Fellini's first choice had been
Humphrey Bogart, but after learning of the actor's lung cancer, chose Crawford after seeing his face on the theatrical poster of ''
All the King's Men
''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U ...
'' (1949). The film shoot was wrought with difficulties stemming from Crawford's alcoholism. Savaged by critics at the
16th Venice International Film Festival, the film did miserably at the box office and did not receive international distribution until 1964.
During the autumn, Fellini researched and developed a treatment based on a film adaptation of
Mario Tobino
Mario Tobino (16 January 1910, Viareggio, Province of Lucca, Tuscany – 11 December 1991, Agrigento) was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist.
A prolific writer, he began as a poet but later wrote mostly novels. His works are characteriz ...
's novel, ''The Free Women of Magliano''. Set in a mental institution for women, the project was abandoned when financial backers considered the subject had no potential.
While preparing ''
Nights of Cabiria
''Nights of Cabiria'' ( it, Le notti di Cabiria) is a 1957 drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. It stars Giulietta Masina as Cabiria, a prostitute living in Rome. The cast also features François Périer and Amedeo Nazzari. ...
'' in spring 1956, Fellini learned of his father's death by cardiac arrest at the age of sixty-two. Produced by
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...
and starring Giulietta Masina, the film took its inspiration from news reports of a woman's severed head retrieved in a lake and stories by Wanda, a shantytown prostitute Fellini met on the set of ''
Il Bidone
''Il bidone'' (, "The Drum .html" ;"title="ontainer/nowiki>">ontainer/nowiki>"; also known as ''The Swindle'' or ''The Swindlers'') is a 1955 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini from his own screenplay co-written with Ennio Flaiano and Tu ...
''.
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
was hired to translate Flaiano and Pinelli's dialogue into Roman dialect and to supervise researches in the vice-afflicted suburbs of Rome. The movie won the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the
30th Academy Awards and brought Masina the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance.
With Pinelli, he developed ''Journey with Anita'' for
Sophia Loren and
Gregory Peck. An "invention born out of intimate truth", the script was based on Fellini's return to Rimini with a mistress to attend his father's funeral. Due to Loren's unavailability, the project was shelved and resurrected twenty-five years later as ''
Lovers and Liars
''Lovers and Liars'' (''Viaggio con Anita'') is a 1979 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. It is Hawn's only foreign film. It was released in the United States in February 1981.
Plot
...
'' (1981), a comedy directed by
Mario Monicelli
Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli (; 16 May 1915 – 29 November 2010) was an Italian film director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the ''Commedia all'Italiana'' (Comedy Italian style). He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and was awa ...
with
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...
and
Giancarlo Giannini
Giancarlo Giannini (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for '' Seven Beauties ...
. For
Eduardo De Filippo
Eduardo De Filippo (; 24 May 1900 – 31 October 1984), also known simply as ''Eduardo'', was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works ''Filumena Marturano'' and '' Napoli Milionaria''. Consid ...
, he co-wrote the script of ''
Fortunella''.
The
Hollywood on the Tiber
Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used to describe the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Italian capital of Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking attracting many foreign productions to the Cinecittà studios. By contr ...
phenomenon of 1958 in which American studios profited from the cheap studio labour available in Rome provided the backdrop for photojournalists to steal shots of celebrities on the via Veneto. The scandal provoked by Turkish dancer Haish Nana's improvised striptease at a nightclub captured Fellini's imagination: he decided to end his latest script-in-progress, ''Moraldo in the City'', with an all-night "orgy" at a seaside villa.
Pierluigi Praturlon's photos of
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (; 29 September 193111 January 2015) was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and stunning figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini ...
after an evening spent with the actress in a Rome night club provided further inspiration for Fellini and his screenwriters.
Changing the title of the screenplay to ''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...
'', Fellini soon clashed with his producer on casting: The director insisted on the relatively unknown Mastroianni while De Laurentiis wanted
Paul Newman as a hedge on his investment. Reaching an impasse, De Laurentiis sold the rights to publishing mogul
Angelo Rizzoli
Angelo Rizzoli, OML (; 31 October 1889 – 24 September 1970) was an Italian publisher and film producer.
Early life
Rizzoli was born in Milan on 31 October 1889. Orphaned at a young age and raised in poverty, he rose to prosperity. He appren ...
. Shooting began on 16 March 1959 with Anita Ekberg climbing the stairs to the cupola of Saint Peter's in a mammoth décor constructed at
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
. The statue of Christ flown by helicopter over Rome to
St. Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood ( rione) of Borgo. B ...
was inspired by an actual media event on 1 May 1956, which Fellini had witnessed.
''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...
'' broke all box office records. Despite scalpers selling tickets at 1000 lire, crowds queued in line for hours to see an "immoral movie" before the censors banned it. At an exclusive
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
screening on 5 February 1960, one outraged patron spat on Fellini while others hurled insults. Denounced in parliament by right-wing conservatives, undersecretary Domenico Magrì of the Christian Democrats demanded tolerance for the film's controversial themes. The
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
's official press organ, ''
l'Osservatore Romano
''L'Osservatore Romano'' (, 'The Roman Observer') is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not ...
'', lobbied for censorship while the Board of Roman Parish Priests and the Genealogical Board of Italian Nobility attacked the film. In one documented instance involving favourable reviews written by the Jesuits of San Fedele, defending ''
La Dolce Vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...
'' had severe consequences. In competition at Cannes alongside Antonioni's ''
L'Avventura
''L'Avventura'' ( en, "The Adventure") is a 1960 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Developed from a story by Antonioni with co-writers Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra, the film is about the disappearance of a young woman ...
'', the film won the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
awarded by presiding juror
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Early life and education ...
. The Belgian writer was promptly "hissed at" by the disapproving festival crowd.
Art films and dreams (1961–1969)
![Federico Fellini in the Seventies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Federico_Fellini_in_the_Seventies.jpg)
A major discovery for Fellini after his
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
period (1950–1959) was the work of
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
. After meeting Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Ernst Bernhard in early 1960, he read Jung's autobiography, ''
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
''Memories, Dreams, Reflections'' (german: Erinnerungen, Träume, Gedanken) is a partially autobiographical book by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and an associate, Aniela Jaffé. First published in German in 1962, an English translation appeared ...
'' (1963) and experimented with
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
. Bernhard also recommended that Fellini consult the ''
I Ching'' and keep a record of his dreams. What Fellini formerly accepted as "his extrasensory perceptions" were now interpreted as psychic manifestations of the unconscious. Bernhard's focus on Jungian depth psychology proved to be the single greatest influence on Fellini's mature style and marked the turning point in his work from neorealism to filmmaking that was "primarily oneiric". As a consequence, Jung's seminal ideas on the ''anima'' and the ''animus'', the role of archetypes and the collective unconscious directly influenced such films as ''
'' (1963), ''
Juliet of the Spirits
''Juliet of the Spirits'' ( it, Giulietta degli spiriti) is a 1965 fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, and Valeska Gert. The film is about the vi ...
'' (1965), ''
Fellini Satyricon
''Fellini Satyricon'', or simply ''Satyricon'', is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini and loosely based on Petronius's work '' Satyricon'', written during the reign of Emperor Nero and set in Imperial R ...
'' (1969), ''
Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...
'' (1976), and ''
City of Women
''City of Women'' ( it, La città delle donne) is a 1980 Italian fantasy comedy-drama film co-written (with Bernardino Zapponi and Brunello Rondi) and directed by Federico Fellini. Amid Fellini's characteristic combination of dreamlike, outrag ...
'' (1980). Other key influences on his work include
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
,
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
,
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...
,
Buster Keaton,
Laurel and Hardy, the
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
, and
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
.
Exploiting ''La Dolce Vita''s success, financier Angelo Rizzoli set up Federiz in 1960, an independent film company, for Fellini and production manager Clemente Fracassi to discover and produce new talent. Despite the best intentions, their overcautious editorial and business skills forced the company to close down soon after cancelling Pasolini's project, ''
Accattone
''Accattone'' is a 1961 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Despite an original screenplay, the film is often perceived as a cinematic rendition of Pasolini's earlier novels, particularly '' Ragazzi di vita'' (''The R ...
'' (1961).
Condemned as a "public sinner", for ''La Dolce Vita'', Fellini responded with ''The Temptations of Doctor Antonio'', a segment in the omnibus ''
Boccaccio '70
''Boccaccio '70'' is a 1962 comedy anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli and Luchino Visconti from an idea by Cesare Zavattini. It consists of four episodes, each by one of the directors, all about a di ...
''. His second colour film, it was the sole project green-lighted at Federiz. Infused with the
surrealistic
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
satire that characterized the young Fellini's work at ''Marc'Aurelio'', the film ridiculed a crusader against vice, interpreted by
Peppino De Filippo
Peppino De Filippo (born Giuseppe De Filippo; 24 August 1903 – 27 January 1980) was an Italian actor.
De Filippo was born in Naples, brother of actor and dramatist Eduardo De Filippo and of Titina De Filippo. He made his stage debut at th ...
, who goes insane trying to censor a billboard of
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (; 29 September 193111 January 2015) was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and stunning figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini ...
espousing the virtues of milk.
In an October 1960 letter to his colleague Brunello Rondi, Fellini first outlined his film ideas about a man suffering creative block: "Well then – a guy (a writer? any kind of professional man? a theatrical producer?) has to interrupt the usual rhythm of his life for two weeks because of a not-too-serious disease. It's a warning bell: something is blocking up his system." Unclear about the script, its title, and his protagonist's profession, he scouted locations throughout Italy "looking for the film", in the hope of resolving his confusion. Flaiano suggested ''La bella confusione'' (literally ''The Beautiful Confusion'') as the movie's title. Under pressure from his producers, Fellini finally settled on ', a
self-referential
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...
title referring principally (but not exclusively) to the number of films he had directed up to that time.
Giving the order to start production in spring 1962, Fellini signed deals with his producer Rizzoli, fixed dates, had sets constructed, cast Mastroianni,
Anouk Aimée
Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus (born 27 April 1932), known professionally as Anouk Aimée () or Anouk, is a French film actress, who has appeared in 70 films since 1947, having begun her film career at age 14. In her early years, she studi ...
, and
Sandra Milo
Sandra Milo (born Salvatrice Elena Greco; 11 March 1933 in Tunis) is an Italian actress, television personality, author, and musician. She won a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each of her roles in Federico Fellini's '' 8½'' an ...
in lead roles, and did screen tests at the Scalera Studios in Rome. He hired
cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo
Gianni Di Venanzo (18 December 1920, Teramo, Abruzzo – 3 February 1966, Rome), was an Italian cinematographer.
Di Venanzo was one of the leading Italian post-war cinematographers with the unique distinction to be part of the neo-realist, po ...
, among key personnel. But apart from naming his hero Guido Anselmi, he still couldn't decide what his character did for a living. The crisis came to a head in April when, sitting in his Cinecittà office, he began a letter to Rizzoli confessing he had "lost his film" and had to abandon the project. Interrupted by the chief machinist requesting he celebrate the launch of ', Fellini put aside the letter and went on the set. Raising a toast to the crew, he "felt overwhelmed by shame… I was in a no exit situation. I was a director who wanted to make a film he no longer remembers. And lo and behold, at that very moment everything fell into place. I got straight to the heart of the film. I would narrate everything that had been happening to me. I would make a film telling the story of a director who no longer knows what film he wanted to make". The self-mirroring structure makes the entire film inseparable from its reflecting construction.
Shooting began on 9 May 1962. Perplexed by the seemingly chaotic, incessant improvisation on the set, Deena Boyer, the director's American press officer at the time, asked for a rationale. Fellini told her that he hoped to convey the three levels "on which our minds live: the past, the present, and the conditional — the realm of fantasy". After shooting wrapped on 14 October,
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
composed various circus marches and fanfares that would later become signature tunes of the maestro's cinema. Nominated for four Oscars, ' won awards for best foreign language film and best costume design in black-and-white. In California for the ceremony, Fellini toured
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
with
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
the day after.
Increasingly attracted to
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
, Fellini met the
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
antiquarian
Gustavo Rol
Gustavo Adolfo Rol (Turin June 1903 – 22 September 1994) was an Italian parapsychologist, philosopher and painter. His devotees consider him to have been a great spiritual master and have testified to miraculous feats he supposedly accompli ...
in 1963. Rol, a former banker, introduced him to the world of
Spiritism
Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Riv ...
and
séances. In 1964, Fellini took
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
under the supervision of Emilio Servadio, his psychoanalyst during the 1954 production of ''La Strada''. For years reserved about what actually occurred that Sunday afternoon, he admitted in 1992 that
... objects and their functions no longer had any significance. All I perceived was perception itself, the hell of forms and figures devoid of human emotion and detached from the reality of my unreal environment. I was an instrument in a virtual world that constantly renewed its own meaningless image in a living world that was itself perceived outside of nature. And since the appearance of things was no longer definitive but limitless, this paradisiacal awareness freed me from the reality external to my self. The fire and the rose, as it were, became one.
Fellini's hallucinatory insights were given full flower in his first colour feature ''
Juliet of the Spirits
''Juliet of the Spirits'' ( it, Giulietta degli spiriti) is a 1965 fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, and Valeska Gert. The film is about the vi ...
'' (1965), depicting
Giulietta Masina
Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film F ...
as Juliet, a housewife who rightly suspects her husband's infidelity and succumbs to the voices of spirits summoned during a séance at her home. Her sexually voracious next door neighbor Suzy (
Sandra Milo
Sandra Milo (born Salvatrice Elena Greco; 11 March 1933 in Tunis) is an Italian actress, television personality, author, and musician. She won a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each of her roles in Federico Fellini's '' 8½'' an ...
) introduces Juliet to a world of uninhibited sensuality, but Juliet is haunted by childhood memories of her
Catholic guilt and a teenaged friend who committed suicide. Complex and filled with psychological symbolism, the film is set to a jaunty score by
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
.
Nostalgia, sexuality, and politics (1970–1980)
![Bruno Zanin &Fellini](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Bruno_Zanin_%26Fellini.JPG)
To help promote ''
Satyricon
The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petr ...
'' in the United States, Fellini flew to Los Angeles in January 1970 for interviews with
Dick Cavett and
David Frost. He also met with film director
Paul Mazursky
Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards: three t ...
who wanted to star him alongside
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...
in his new film, ''
Alex in Wonderland
''Alex in Wonderland'' is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky, written with his partner Larry Tucker, starring Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. Sutherland plays Alex Morrison, a director agonizing over the choice of ...
''. In February, Fellini scouted locations in Paris for ''
The Clowns'', a
docufiction
Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or cinéma vérité) a ...
both for cinema and television, based on his childhood memories of the circus and a "coherent theory of clowning." As he saw it, the clown "was always the caricature of a well-established, ordered, peaceful society. But today all is temporary, disordered, grotesque. Who can still laugh at clowns?... All the world plays a clown now."
In March 1971, Fellini began production on ''
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
'', a seemingly random collection of episodes informed by the director's memories and impressions of Rome. The "diverse sequences," writes Fellini scholar
Peter Bondanella, "are held together only by the fact that they all ultimately originate from the director's fertile imagination." The film's opening scene anticipates ''Amarcord'' while its most surreal sequence involves an ecclesiastical fashion show in which nuns and priests roller skate past shipwrecks of cobwebbed skeletons.
Over a period of six months between January and June 1973, Fellini shot the
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
-winning ''
Amarcord''. Loosely based on the director's 1968 autobiographical essay ''My Rimini'', the film depicts the adolescent Titta and his friends working out their sexual frustrations against the religious and Fascist backdrop of a provincial town in Italy during the 1930s. Produced by
Franco Cristaldi
Franco Cristaldi (3 October 1924 – 1 July 1992) was an Italian film producer, credited with producing (or co-producing) feature films from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Career
In 1946 Cristaldi founded ''Vides Cinematografica'' in Turin. This product ...
, the
seriocomic
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
movie became Fellini's second biggest commercial success after ''La Dolce Vita''. Circular in form, ''Amarcord'' avoids plot and linear narrative in a way similar to ''The Clowns'' and ''Roma''. The director's overriding concern with developing a poetic form of cinema was first outlined in a 1965 interview he gave to ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' journalist
Lillian Ross: "I am trying to free my work from certain constrictions – a story with a beginning, a development, an ending. It should be more like a poem with metre and cadence."
Late films and projects (1981–1990)
![Sandro Pertini David Donatello](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Sandro_Pertini_David_Donatello.jpg)
Organized by his publisher
Diogenes Verlag
The Diogenes Verlag (short: Diogenes) is a Swiss publisher in Zurich, founded in 1952 by , with a focus on literature, plays and cartoons. It has been managed since 2012 by the founder's son, Philipp Keel.
History
Daniel Keel, who founded the ...
in 1982, the first major exhibition of 63 drawings by Fellini was held in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, and the
Pierre Matisse
Pierre Matisse (June 13, 1900 – August 10, 1989) was a French-American art dealer active in New York City. He was the youngest child of French painter Henri Matisse.
Background and early years
Pierre Matisse was born in Bohain-en-Vermandois on ...
Gallery in
New York. A gifted caricaturist, he found much of the inspiration for his sketches from his own dreams while the films-in-progress both originated from and stimulated drawings for characters, decor, costumes and set designs. Under the title, ''I disegni di Fellini'' (Fellini's Designs), he published 350 drawings executed in pencil, watercolours, and felt pens.
On 6 September 1985 Fellini was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 42nd Venice Film Festival. That same year, he became the first non-American to receive the
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...
's annual award for cinematic achievement.
![Fellini Mastroianni 1990 Venice Film Festival 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Fellini_Mastroianni_1990_Venice_Film_Festival_02.jpg)
Long fascinated by
Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castañeda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was an American writer. Starting with ''The Teachings of Don Juan'' in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that purport to describe training in shamanism that he received under the tu ...
's ''
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge'', Fellini accompanied the Peruvian author on a journey to the
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...
to assess the feasibility of a film. After first meeting Castaneda in Rome in October 1984, Fellini drafted a treatment with Pinelli titled ''Viaggio a Tulun''. Producer
Alberto Grimaldi, prepared to buy film rights to all of Castaneda's work, then paid for pre-production research taking Fellini and his entourage from Rome to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and the jungles of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
in October 1985. When Castaneda inexplicably disappeared and the project fell through, Fellini's mystico-shamanic adventures were scripted with Pinelli and serialized in ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
'' in May 1986. A barely veiled satirical interpretation of Castaneda's work, ''Viaggio a Tulun'' was published in 1989 as a
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
with artwork by
Milo Manara
Maurilio Manara (; born 12 September 1945), known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist.
Career
After architecture and painting studies, he made his comics debut in 1969 drawing for ''Genius'', a Fumetti neri ...
and as ''Trip to Tulum'' in America in 1990.
For ''
Intervista
''Intervista'' (English: ''Interview'') is a 1987 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini.
Plot
Interviewed by a Japanese TV crew for a news report on his latest film, Fellini takes the viewer behind the scenes at Cinecittà. A nighttime set ...
'', produced by Ibrahim Moussa and RAI Television, Fellini intercut memories of the first time he visited
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
in 1939 with present-day footage of himself at work on a screen adaptation of
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
's ''
Amerika''. A meditation on the nature of memory and film production, it won the special 40th Anniversary Prize at Cannes and the
15th Moscow International Film Festival Golden Prize. In Brussels later that year, a panel of thirty professionals from eighteen European countries named Fellini the world's best director and ' the best European film of all time.
In early 1989 Fellini began production on ''
The Voice of the Moon'', based on Ermanno Cavazzoni's novel, ''Il poema dei lunatici'' (''The Lunatics' Poem''). A small town was built at Empire Studios on the via Pontina outside Rome. Starring
Roberto Benigni
Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...
as Ivo Salvini, a madcap poetic figure newly released from a mental institution, the character is a combination of ''La Strada''s Gelsomina,
Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
, and Italian poet
Giacomo Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
. Fellini improvised as he filmed, using as a guide a rough treatment written with Pinelli. Despite its modest critical and commercial success in Italy, and its warm reception by French critics, it failed to interest North American distributors.
Fellini won the ''
Praemium Imperiale
Prince Takamatsu
The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugur ...
'', an international prize in the visual arts given by the Japan Art Association in 1990.
Final years (1991–1993)
In July 1991 and April 1992, Fellini worked in close collaboration with Canadian filmmaker
Damian Pettigrew
Damian (also Damien) Pettigrew (March 10, 1963) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus, Federico Fellini, and Jean Giraud.
Released theatrically in fif ...
to establish "the longest and most detailed conversations ever recorded on film". Described as the "Maestro's spiritual testament" by his biographer
Tullio Kezich
Tullio Kezich (17 September 1928 in Trieste – 17 August 2009 in Rome) was an Italian screenwriter and playwright, best known as the film critic for ''Corriere della Sera'' and for his award-winning biography of Italian director Federico Fell ...
, excerpts culled from the conversations later served as the basis of their feature documentary, ''
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar'' (2002) and the book, ''
I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon''.
In April 1993 Fellini received his fifth
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
, for lifetime achievement, "in recognition of his cinematic accomplishments that have thrilled and entertained audiences worldwide". On 16 June, he entered the Cantonal Hospital in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
for an
angioplasty
Angioplasty, is also known as balloon angioplasty and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), is a minimally invasive endovascular procedure used to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins, typically to treat arterial atheroscle ...
on his
femoral artery
The femoral artery is a large artery in the thigh and the main arterial supply to the thigh and leg. The femoral artery gives off the deep femoral artery or profunda femoris artery and descends along the anteromedial part of the thigh in the f ...
but suffered a
stroke at the Grand Hotel in Rimini two months later. Partially paralyzed, he was first transferred to
Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
for rehabilitation and then to the
Policlinico Umberto I
Located in the Quartiere San Lorenzo, the Policlinico Umberto I of Rome is the polyclinic of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Sapienza Università di Roma. The second largest public hospital in Italy (after the Policlinico Sant'Orsola-M ...
in Rome to be near his wife, also hospitalized. He suffered a second stroke and fell into an irreversible
coma.
Death
Fellini died in Rome on 31 October 1993 at the age of 73 after a heart attack he suffered a few weeks earlier, a day after his 50th wedding anniversary. The memorial service, in Studio 5 at Cinecittà, was attended by an estimated 70,000 people. At
Giulietta Masina
Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film F ...
's request, trumpeter
Mauro Maur played
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
's "Improvviso dell'Angelo" during the ceremony.
Five months later, on 23 March 1994, Masina died of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
. Fellini, Masina and their son, Pierfederico, are buried in a bronze sepulchre sculpted by
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor.
Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix fo ...
. Designed as a ship's prow, the tomb is at the main entrance to the cemetery of Rimini. The
Federico Fellini Airport
Federico Fellini International Airport ( it, Aeroporto Internazionale di Rimini e San Marino 'Federico Fellini'; ), formerly ''Rimini Miramare Airport'', is an international airport located at Miramare, southeast of Rimini, Italy. It also is th ...
in Rimini is named in his honour.
Religious views
Fellini was raised in a Roman Catholic family and considered himself a Catholic, but avoided formal activity in the Catholic Church. Fellini's films include Catholic themes; some celebrate Catholic teachings, while others criticize or ridicule church dogma.
In 1965 Fellini said:
Political views
While Fellini was for the most part indifferent to politics, he had a general dislike of
authoritarian institutions, and is interpreted by Bondanella as believing in "the dignity and even the
nobility of the individual human being". In a 1966 interview, he said, "I make it a point to see if certain ideologies or political attitudes threaten the private freedom of the individual. But for the rest, I am not prepared nor do I plan to become interested in politics."
Despite various famous Italian actors favouring the
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, Fellini was opposed to communism. He preferred to move within the world of the moderate
left, and voted for the
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party ( it, Partito Repubblicano Italiano, PRI) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy.
The PRI has old roots and a long hist ...
of his friend
Ugo La Malfa
Ugo La Malfa (16 May 1903 – 26 March 1979) was an Italian politician and an important leader of the Italian Republican Party (''Partito Repubblicano Italiano''; PRI).
Early years and anti-fascist resistance
La Malfa was born in Palermo, Sic ...
as well as the reformist socialists of
Pietro Nenni
Pietro Sandro Nenni (; 9 February 1891 – 1 January 1980) was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and senator for life since 1970. He was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1951. He ...
, another friend of his, and voted only once for the Christian Democrats in 1976 to keep the Communists out of power. Bondanella writes that DC "was far too aligned with an extremely conservative and even reactionary pre-Vatican II church to suit Fellini's tastes."
Apart from satirizing
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
and mainstream television in ''
Ginger and Fred
''Ginger and Fred'' ( it, Ginger e Fred) is a 1986 comedy/drama film directed and written by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina.
The title is a reference to the American dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginge ...
'', Fellini rarely expressed political views in public and never directed an overtly political film. He directed two electoral television spots during the 1990s: one for DC and another for the
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party ( it, Partito Repubblicano Italiano, PRI) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy.
The PRI has old roots and a long hist ...
(PRI). His slogan "Non si interrompe un'emozione" (''Don't interrupt an emotion'') was directed against the excessive use of TV advertisements. The
Democratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left ( it, Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, t ...
also used the slogan in the
referendums of 1995.
Influence and legacy
![Fellini plaque, Via Veneto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Fellini_plaque%2C_Via_Veneto.jpg)
Personal and highly
idiosyncratic
An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be "quirk".
Etymology
The term "idiosyncr ...
visions of society, Fellini's films are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. The adjectives "Fellinian" and "Felliniesque" are "synonymous with any kind of extravagant, fanciful, even baroque image in the cinema and in art in general". ''La Dolce Vita'' contributed the term ''
paparazzi
Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...
'' to the English language, derived from Paparazzo, the photographer friend of journalist Marcello Rubini (
Marcello Mastroianni).
Contemporary filmmakers such as
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
,
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...
,
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...
, and
David Lynch have cited Fellini's influence on their work.
Polish director
Wojciech Has
Wojciech Jerzy Has (1 April 1925, Kraków – 3 October 2000, Łódź) was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Early life and studies
Wojciech Jerzy Has was born in Kraków. Has himself was agnostic. However, his family ...
, whose two best-received films, ''
The Saragossa Manuscript
''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'' (; also known in English as ''The Saragossa Manuscript'') is a frame-tale novel written in French at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries by the Polish author Count Jan Potocki (1761–1815). It is narrated ...
'' (1965) and ''
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium
''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' ( pl, Sanatorium pod klepsydrą) is a 1973 Polish surrealist film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Mieczysław Voit, Halina Kowalska and Gustaw Holoubek. It is also known as ''The ...
'' (1973), are examples of
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
fantasies, has been compared to Fellini for the sheer "luxuriance of his images".
''I Vitelloni'' inspired European directors
Juan Antonio Bardem,
Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of ...
, and
Lina Wertmüller
Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich (14 August 1928 – 9 December 2021), known as Lina Wertmüller (), was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films '' Seven Beauti ...
and influenced
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
's ''
Mean Streets
''Mean Streets'' is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973. De Niro won the National ...
'' (1973),
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...
's ''
American Graffiti
''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronny ...
'' (1974),
Joel Schumacher
Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...
's ''
St. Elmo's Fire
St. Elmo's fire — also called Witchfire or Witch's Fire — is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a corona discharge from a rod-like object such as a mast, spire, chimney, or animal hornHeidorn, K., Weather Element ...
'' (1985), and
Barry Levinson
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...
's ''
Diner'' (1982), among many others. When the American magazine ''Cinema'' asked
Stanley Kubrick in 1963 to name his ten favorite films, he ranked ''
I Vitelloni
''I vitelloni'' (, literally "The bullocks" - Romagnol slang for "The slackers" or "The layabouts") is a 1953 comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini from a screenplay written by himself, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. It stars Fran ...
'' number one.
''Nights of Cabiria'' was adapted as the Broadway musical ''
Sweet Charity'' and the movie ''
Sweet Charity'' (1969) by
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
starring
Shirley MacLaine. ''City of Women'' was adapted for the Berlin stage by
Frank Castorf
Frank Castorf (born 17 July 1951 in East Berlin) is a German theater director and was the artistic director of the ''Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz'' from 1992 to 2015. His work is often associated with postdramatic theatre.
Biography
E ...
in 1992.
' inspired, among others, ''
Mickey One
''Mickey One'' is a 1965 American neo noir crime film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal.
Plot
After incurring the wrath of the Mafia, a stand-up comic (Warren Beatty) flees Detroit for Chicago, taki ...
'' (
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010)
was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 19 ...
, 1965), ''
Alex in Wonderland
''Alex in Wonderland'' is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky, written with his partner Larry Tucker, starring Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. Sutherland plays Alex Morrison, a director agonizing over the choice of ...
'' (
Paul Mazursky
Irwin Lawrence "Paul" Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he was nominated for five Academy Awards: three t ...
, 1970), ''
Beware of a Holy Whore
''Beware of a Holy Whore'' (german: Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte) is a 1971 West German drama film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder that features Lou Castel, Eddie Constantine, Hanna Schygulla and Fassbinder himself. Fassbinder ...
'' (
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement.
Fassbinder's main ...
, 1971), ''
Day for Night
Day for night is a set of cinematic techniques used to simulate a night scene while filming in daylight. It is often employed when it is too difficult or expensive to actually shoot during nighttime. Because both film stocks and digital image s ...
'' (
François Truffaut, 1973), ''
All That Jazz'' (
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
, 1979), ''
Stardust Memories
''Stardust Memories'' is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper and Marie-Christine Barrault. Sharon Stone has a brief role, in her film debut. The film is ab ...
'' (
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, 1980), ''
Sogni d'oro
''Sweet Dreams'' ( it, Sogni d'oro, also known as ''Golden Dreams'') is a 1981 Italian comedy-drama film directed, written and starring Nanni Moretti.
It entered the 38th Venice International Film Festival, in which won the Special Jury Prize.
...
'' (
Nanni Moretti
Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti (; born 19 August 1953) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.
His films have won accolades including a Palme d'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Son's Room'', a Silver Bear at the ...
, 1981), ''
Parad Planet'' (
Vadim Abdrashitov
Vadim Yusupovich Abdrashitov (russian: Вадим Юсупович Абдрашитов, tt-Cyrl, Вадим Йосыф улы Габдерәшитов) is one of Russian cinema's most notable independent director (film), directors. He is inter ...
, 1984), ''
La Película del rey
''A King and His Movie'' ( es, La película del rey) is a 1986 Argentine comedy drama film, directed by Carlos Sorín, and written by Sorín and Jorge Goldenberg. The movie features Ulises Dumont and Julio Chávez, among others.
In a survey of th ...
'' (
Carlos Sorin
Carlos may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Carlos, Alberta, a locality
;United States
* Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County
* Carlos, Minnesota, a small city
* Carlos, West Virginia
;Elsewher ...
, 1986), ''
Living in Oblivion
''Living in Oblivion'' is a 1995 American independent black comedy film, written and directed by Tom DiCillo, and starring Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros and Peter Dinklage in his film debu ...
'' (
Tom DiCillo
Thomas A. DiCillo (born August 14, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.
Early life
He was born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina. His father was Italian and his mother was from New England. He studied creative wr ...
, 1995), ''
Women'' (
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are th ...
, 1999), ''
Falling Down
''Falling Down'' is a 1993 American action film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Ebbe Roe Smith and released by Warner Bros. in the United States on February 26, 1993. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster, a ...
'' (
Joel Schumacher
Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...
, 1993), and the
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical ''
Nine
9 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
9 or nine may also refer to:
Dates
* AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era
* 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era
* 9, numerical symbol for the month of September
Places
* Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...
'' (
Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston (born October 23, 1945) is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.
He is known as the initiator of new Broadway musicals and writing their music and lyrics, as well as a classical orchestral and ballet composer, Yale Uni ...
and
Arthur Kopit
Arthur Lee Kopit (' Koenig; May 10, 1937 – April 2, 2021) was an American playwright. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for '' Indians'' and '' Wings''. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Play for ''Indians'' (1970) a ...
, 1982). ''
Yo-Yo Boing!
''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, an ...
'' (1998), a Spanish novel by Puerto Rican writer
Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include ''Empire of Dreams'' (1988), ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and United States of Banana'' (2011).
Braschi writes cross-genr ...
, features a dream sequence with Fellini inspired by '.
Fellini's work is referenced on the albums ''
Fellini Days
''Fellini Days'' is Fish's seventh solo studio album since leaving Marillion in 1988, his first since ''Raingods with Zippos'' (1999) and the first on his own label Chocolate Frog Records.
"Having long ago cast into exile the ghosts of prog roc ...
'' (2001) by
Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
, ''
Another Side of Bob Dylan'' (1964) by ''
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
'' with ''
Motorpsycho Nitemare
"Motorpsycho Nitemare", also known as "Motorpsycho Nightmare", is a song written by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that was released in 1964 on his fourth studio album '' Another Side of Bob Dylan''.
It is a comical narrative song that is ...
'', ''
Funplex
''Funplex'' is the seventh studio album (eighth overall) by The B-52s, recorded during 2006 and 2007. The album was released on March 25, 2008, by Astralwerks Records. It was the first album of new material the group had released since ''Good ...
'' (2008) by
the B-52's
The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, ...
with the song ''Juliet of the Spirits'', and in the opening traffic jam of the music video ''Everybody Hurts'' by R.E.M. American singer
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent r ...
has cited Fellini as an influence. His work influenced the American TV shows ''
Northern Exposure'' and ''
Third Rock from the Sun
''Third Rock from the Sun'' is the fourth studio album by American country music artist Joe Diffie. Diffie's breakthrough album, the first five tracks were all released as singles, and all charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks ...
''.
Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by ...
's short film ''
Castello Cavalcanti
''Castello Cavalcanti'' is a short film written and directed by Wes Anderson, released in 2013, and starring Jason Schwartzman as an unsuccessful race car driver who crashes his car in an Italian village. The 8-minute film was filmed at Cinecittà ...
'' (2013) is in many places a direct homage to Fellini. In 1996, ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' ranked Fellini tenth on its "50 Greatest Directors" list. In 2002
MovieMaker
''MovieMaker'' is a magazine, website and podcast network focused on the art and business of filmmaking with a special emphasis on independent film. The magazine is published on a quarterly basis.
See also
* List of film periodicals
Film period ...
magazine ranked Fellini No. 9 on their list of ''The 25 Most Influential Directors of All Time''. In 2007, ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched ...
'' magazine ranked Fellini at No. 67 on its "100 Greatest Film Directors Ever" list.
Various film-related material and personal papers of Fellini are in the
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
Cinema Archives, to which scholars and media experts have full access. In October 2009, the
Jeu de Paume
''Jeu de paume'' (, ; originally spelled ; ), nowadays known as real tennis, (US) court tennis or (in France) ''courte paume'', is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, a ...
in Paris opened an exhibit devoted to Fellini that included ephemera, television interviews, behind-the-scenes photographs, ''Book of Dreams'' (based on 30 years of the director's illustrated dreams and notes), along with excerpts from ''La dolce vita'' and '.
In 2014 the weekly entertainment-
trade magazine
A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for thi ...
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' announced that French director
Sylvain Chomet
Sylvain Chomet (; born 10 November 1963) is a French comic writer, animator and film director.
Early career
Born in Maisons-Laffitte, Seine-et-Oise (now Yvelines), near Paris, he studied art at high school until he graduated in 1982. Chomet ...
was moving forward with ''
The Thousand Miles'', a project based on various Fellini works, including his unpublished drawings and writings.
"Sylvain Chomet Steps Up for ''The Thousand Miles''
Variety.com; accessed 28 August 2017.
Filmography
As a director
As a screenwriter
Television commercials
* TV commercial for Campari Soda (1984)
* TV commercial for Barilla pasta (1984)
* Three TV commercials for Banca di Roma (1992)
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
Other awards
Honors
Documentaries on Fellini
* ''Ciao Federico'' (1969). Dir. Gideon Bachmann. (60')
* ''Federico Fellini – '' (2000). Dir. Paquito Del Bosco. (RAI TV
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
, 68')
* '' Fellini: I'm a Born Liar'' (2002). Dir. Damian Pettigrew
Damian (also Damien) Pettigrew (March 10, 1963) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus, Federico Fellini, and Jean Giraud.
Released theatrically in fif ...
. Feature documentary. (Arte
Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.
It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...
, Eurimages
Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages ...
, Scottish Screen
The Moving Image Archive is a collection of Scottish film and video recordings at the National Library of Scotland, held at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. There are over 46,000 items within the collection, and over 2,600 of these are publicly av ...
, 102')
* ''How Strange to Be Named Federico
''How Strange to Be Named Federico'' ( it, Che strano chiamarsi Federico) is a 2013 documentary film directed by Ettore Scola. The film documents Scola's relationship with his friend and inspiration, film director Federico Fellini. Scola has desc ...
'' (2013). Dir. Ettore Scola.
* '' Fellini degli spiriti'' (2020). Dir. .
See also
*Art film
An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
*
*
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External links
Fellini Official site
(in English)
Fellini Foundation
Official Rimini web site (in Italian)
Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma
Swiss web site (in French)
*
*
*
on Lambiek Comiclopedia
Site commemorating Fellini's 100th birthday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fellini, Federico
1920 births
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Federico