Federico Fellini,
Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRIThe Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
(fedeˈriːko felˈliːni; January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993), was an
ItalianThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
film directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and
baroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century. He won five
Academy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
in a career that spanned over forty years.
Rimini (1920–1938)
Fellini was born on January 20, 1920 to middle-class parents in
RiminiRimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
, then a small town on the
Adriatic SeaThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
. His father, Urbano Fellini (1894–1956), born to a family of
RomagnolRomagnol is a Romance language mostly spoken in Romagna , Republic of San Marino and Northern Marche.-History:...
peasants and small landholders from
GambettolaGambettola is a comune in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 90 km southeast of Bologna and about 25 km southeast of Forlì...
, moved to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1915 as a baker apprenticed to the Pantanella pasta factory. His mother, Ida Barbiani (1896–1984), came from a bourgeois Catholic family of Roman merchants. Despite her family’s vehement disapproval, she 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 salesmanA vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term meaning anyone who provides goods or services to a company. A vendor often manufactures inventoriable items, and sells those items to a customer.- History :...
and
wholesaleWholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
vendor. Fellini had two siblings: Riccardo (1921–1991), a documentary director for
RAIRAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
Television, and Maria Maddalena (m. Fabbri; 1929–2002).
In 1924, Fellini started primary school with the Sisters of 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 McCayWinsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator.A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades...
,
George McManusGeorge McManus was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the central characters in his syndicated comic strip, Bringing Up Father....
and
Frederick Burr OpperFrederick Burr Opper is regarded as one of the pioneers of American newspaper comic strips, best known for his comic strip Happy Hooligan...
. (Opper’s
Happy HooliganHappy Hooligan was a popular and influential early American comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper.Happy Hooligan, the first major comic strip by already celebrated cartoonist Opper, debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first...
would provide the visual inspiration for Gelsomina in Fellini's 1954 film
La stradaLa Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
; McCay’s
Little NemoLittle Nemo is the main fictional character in a series of weekly comic strips by Winsor McCay that appeared in the New York Herald and William Randolph Hearst's New York American newspapers from October 15, 1905 – April 23, 1911 and April 30, 1911 – July 26, 1914; respectively.The...
would directly influence his 1980 film
City of WomenCity of Women is a 1980 film written and directed by Federico Fellini. Amid Fellini's characteristic combination of dreamlike, outrageous, and artistic imagery, Marcello Mastroianni plays Snàporaz, a man who voyages through male and female spaces toward a confrontation with his own attitudes...
.) In 1926, he discovered the world of
Grand GuignolLe Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
, the circus with Pierino the Clown, and the movies.
Guido BrignoneGuido Brignone was an Italian film director. He was the father of actress Lilla Brignone.Brignone was born in Milan, Italy...
’s Maciste all’Inferno (1926), the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to
DanteDelivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
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
AmarcordAmarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
(1973)). In
MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
’s Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of the Avanguardista, the compulsory
FascistItalian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
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 RexThe SS Rex was an Italian ocean liner launched in 1931. It held the westbound Blue Riband between 1933 and 1935. Originally built for the Navigazione Generale Italiana as the SS Guglielmo Marconi, its state-ordered merger with the Lloyd Sabaudo line meant that the ship sailed for the newly created...
(which makes an appearance in Amarcord). The sea creature found on the beach at the end of
La Dolce VitaLa Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
(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 VitelloniI vitelloni is an Italian comedy drama film directed by Federico Fellini. Recognized as a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, the film has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy....
(1953),
8½8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
(1963), and
AmarcordAmarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
(1973), he insisted that such autobiographical memories were inventions: "It is not memory that dominates my films. To say that my films are autobiographical is an overly facile liquidation, a hasty classification. It seems to me that I have invented almost everything: childhood, character, nostalgias, dreams, memories, for the pleasure of being able to recount them."
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 Rimini’s Domenica del Corriere. Deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in 1938 where he published his first cartoon in the weekly 420. Failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in July 1938 after doubling the exam.
Rome (1939)
In September 1939, he enrolled in law school at the
University of RomeThe Sapienza University of Rome, officially Sapienza – Università di Roma, formerly known as Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy...
to please his parents although biographer
Hollis AlpertHollis Alpert 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:...
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, the highly influential biweekly humour magazine, he joined the editorial board, achieving success with a regular column titled Will You Listen to What I Have to Say? Described as “the determining moment in Fellini’s life”, he enjoyed steady employment between 1939 and 1942, interacting with writers, gagmen, and scriptwriters that 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 theorist and scriptwriter
Cesare ZavattiniCesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.-Brief biography:...
, and
Bernardino ZapponiBernardino Zapponi 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...
, a future Fellini screenwriter. Conducting interviews for CineMagazzino also proved congenial: when asked to interview
Aldo FabriziAldo Fabrizi was an Italian actor and cinema and theatre director.-Actor Filmography:* Avanti, c'è posto... by Mario Bonnard...
, Italy’s most popular variety performer, their immediate personal rapport led to professional collaboration. Specializing in humorous monologues, Fabrizi commissioned material from his young protégé.
Early screenplays (1940-43)
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 MattoliMario Mattoli was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 86 films between 1934 and 1966....
’s Il pirata sono io (The Pirate's Dream). Progressing rapidly to numerous collaborations on films at
CinecittàCinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
, his circle of professional acquaintances widened to include novelist
Vitaliano BrancatiVitaliano Brancati was an Italian writer. He was born in Pachino and died in Turin. In 1950 he won the Bagutta Prize.-Selected bibliography:* Don Juan in Sicily * The Handsome Antonio...
and scriptwriter Piero Tellini. In the wake of Mussolini’s declaration of war against France and England on June 10, 1940, he discovered Kafka’s
The MetamorphosisThe Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
, Gogol,
John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
and
William FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
along with French films by
Marcel Carné-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
,
René ClairRené Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
, and
Julien DuvivierJulien Duvivier was a French film director. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930-1960...
. 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 MasinaGiulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
in a studio office at the Italian public radio broadcaster
EIARThe Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche was the only public service broadcaster in Italy and the only one allowed to do so.-History:...
in autumn 1942. Well-paid as the voice of Pallina in Fellini's radio serial, Cico and Pallina, Masina was also known for her musical-comedy broadcasts which cheered an audience depressed by the war. In November 1942, Fellini was sent to
LibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, occupied by Fascist Italy, to work on the screenplay of I cavalieri del deserto (Knights of the Desert, 1942), directed by
Osvaldo ValentiOsvaldo Valenti was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 56 films between 1928 and 1945.He was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He and his lover, Luisa Ferida, were murdered by partisans in Milan, Italy, due to their links with Fascism...
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
TripoliTripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
fell under siege by British forces, he and his colleagues made a narrow escape by boarding a German military plane flying to
SicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. 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
apoliticalThe state or quality of being apolitical can be the apathy and/or the antipathy towards all political affiliations. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position in regard to political matters.-References:...
Fellini was finally freed of the draft when an Allied air raid over
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
destroyed his medical records. Fellini and Giulietta hid in her aunt’s apartment until Mussolini's fall on July 25, 1943. After dating for nine months, the couple were married on October 30, 1943. Several months later, Masina fell down the stairs and suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a son, Pierfederico, on March 22, 1944 but the child died of
encephalitisEncephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain. Encephalitis with meningitis is known as meningoencephalitis. Symptoms include headache, fever, confusion, drowsiness, and fatigue...
three weeks later. The tragedy had enduring emotional and artistic repercussions.
Neorealist apprenticeship (1944–1949)
After the Allied liberation of Rome on June 4, 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 NeorealismItalian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
when
Roberto RosselliniRoberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
, at work on Stories of Yesteryear (later
Rome, Open CityRome, Open City is a 1945 Italian war drama film, directed by Roberto Rossellini. The picture features Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, and is set in Rome during the Nazi occupation in 1944...
), met Fellini in his shop proposing he contribute gags and dialogue for the script . Aware of Fellini’s reputation as Aldo Fabrizi’s “creative muse”, Rossellini also requested he try to convince the actor to play the role of Father Giuseppe Morosini, the parish priest executed by the SS on April 4, 1944.
In 1947, Fellini and
Sergio AmideiSergio Amidei 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 De Sica...
received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Rome, Open City.
Working as both screenwriter and assistant director on Rossellini’s
PaisàPaisà is a 1946 Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini, the second of a trilogy by Rossellini. It is divided into six episodes. They are set in the Italian Campaign during World War II when Nazi Germany was losing the war against the Allies, using themes such as the difficulty of communication...
(Paisan) in 1946, Fellini was entrusted to film the Sicilian scenes in
MaioriMaiori is a town and comune on the Amalfi coast in the province of Salerno...
. In February 1948, he was introduced to
Marcello MastroianniMarcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
, then a young theatre actor appearing in a play with Giulietta Masina. Establishing a close working relationship with
Alberto LattuadaAlberto Lattuada was an Italian film director.Lattuada was born in Milan, the son of composer Felice Lattuada...
, Fellini co-wrote the director’s
Senza pietàSenza pietà is a 1948 Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada and with script of Federico Fellini.-Plot:As the war ended, some soldiers of color refused to abandon northern Italy to return to America by the intolerance, deserting. Of them, Jerry falls in love with Angela , a local girl....
(Without Pity) and Il mulino del Po (The Mill on the Po). Fellini also worked with Rossellini on the
anthology filmAn anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
L'AmoreL'Amore is an anthology film directed by Roberto Rossellini starring Anna Magnani and Federico Fellini. The two segments are "Il Miracolo" and "Una Voce Umana", the latter based on the play The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau...
(1948), co-writing the screenplay and in one segment titled, "The Miracle", acting opposite
Anna MagnaniAnna Magnani was an Italian stage and film actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo....
. To play the role of a vagabond rogue mistaken by Magnani for a saint, Fellini had to bleach his black hair blond.
Early films (1950-53)
In 1950 Fellini co-produced and co-directed with Alberto Lattuada
Variety LightsVariety Lights is a 1950 Italian film directed and produced by Federico Fellini and Alberto LattuadaThe film launched Fellini's directorial career, but was a collaboration with Alberto Lattuada...
(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. 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 AmideiSergio Amidei 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 De Sica...
, and Fellini.
After travelling to Paris for a script conference with Rossellini on
Europa '51Europa '51 is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman and Alexander Knox.-Background:...
, Fellini began production on
The White SheikThe White Sheik is a 1952 film by Federico Fellini starring Leopoldo Trieste, Alberto Sordi, and Brunella Bovo.- Plot :Two young newlyweds from a provincial town, Wanda and Ivan Cavalli , arrive in Rome for their honeymoon...
in September 1951, his first solo-directed feature. Starring
Alberto SordiAlberto Sordi, also known as Albertone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films....
in the title role, the film is a revised version of a treatment first written by
Michelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
in 1949 and based on the fotoromanzi, the photographed cartoon strip romances popular in Italy at the time. Producer
Carlo PontiCarlo Ponti was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.-Career:...
commissioned Fellini and
Tullio PinelliTullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:...
to write the script but Antonioni rejected the story they developed. With
Ennio FlaianoEnnio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
, they re-worked the material into a light-hearted satire about newlywed couple Ivan and Wanda Cavalli (
Leopoldo TriesteLeopoldo Trieste was an Italian actor, film director and script writer.Trieste was born in Reggio Calabria...
, Brunello 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 RotaNino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
, the film was selected at Cannes (among the films in competition was
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
’s Othello) and then retracted. Screened at the 13th
Venice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, 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 VitelloniI vitelloni is an Italian comedy drama film directed by Federico Fellini. Recognized as a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, the film has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy....
found favour with the critics and public. Winning the Silver Lion Award in Venice, it secured Fellini’s first international distributor.
Beyond neorealism (1954-60)
Fellini directed
La stradaLa Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
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 CrawfordBroderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...
to interpret the role of an aging swindler in
Il BidoneIl bidone is an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. It features Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Giulietta Masina, among others....
. 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 BogartHumphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
but after learning of the actor’s lung cancer, chose Crawford after seeing his face on the theatrical poster of
All the King’s MenAll the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
(1949). The film shoot was wrought with difficulties stemming from Crawford’s alcoholism. Savaged by critics at the 16th Venice Film Festival, the film did miserable 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 TobinoMario Tobino was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist.Tobino was born in Viareggio, Tuscany. A prolific writer, he debuted as a poet but later composed mostly novels...
’s novel, The Free Women of Magliano. Located in a mental institution for women, financial backers considered the subject had no potential and the project was abandoned.
While preparing
Nights of CabiriaNights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
in spring 1956, Fellini learned of his father’s death by cardiac arrest at the age of 62. Produced by
Dino De LaurentiisAgostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
and starring Giulietta Masina, the film took its inspiration from news reports of a woman’s decapitated head retrieved in a lake and stories by Wanda, a shantytown prostitute Fellini met on the set of
Il BidoneIl bidone is an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. It features Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Giulietta Masina, among others....
.
Pier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
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 an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film and brought Masina the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance.
With Pinelli, he developed Journey with Anita for
Sophia LorenSophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
and
Gregory PeckEldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
. 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 LiarsLovers and Liars is a 1979 Italian feature film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. It was released in the United States in February 1981.-Plot:...
(1981), a comedy directed by
Mario MonicelliMario Monicelli was an Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana , three times nominated for Oscar.-Biography:...
with
Goldie HawnGoldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
and
Giancarlo GianniniGiancarlo Giannini is an Italian actor and dubber.Giannini was born La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. He studied at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica in Rome, and made his film debut in a small part in Fango sulla metropoli in 1965...
. For
Eduardo De FilippoEduardo De Filippo was an Italian actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet, best known for his Neapolitan works Filumena Marturano and Napoli Milionaria.-Biography:...
, he co-wrote the script of Fortunella, tailoring the lead role to accommodate Masina’s particular sensibility.
The Hollywood on the
TiberThe Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
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 EkbergKerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
wading fully dressed in the
Trevi FountainThe Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....
provided further inspiration for Fellini and his scriptwriters. Changing the title of the screenplay to
La Dolce VitaLa Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
, Fellini soon clashed with his producer on casting: the director insisted on the relatively unknown Mastroianni while De Laurentiis wanted
Paul NewmanPaul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
as a hedge on his investment. Reaching an impasse, De Laurentiis sold the rights to publishing mogul
Angelo RizzoliAngelo Rizzoli was an Italian publisher and film producer.- Early life :Orphaned at a young age and raised in poverty, Rizzoli rose to prosperity...
. Shooting began on March 16, 1959 with Anita Ekberg climbing the stairs to the cupola of Saint Peter’s in a mammoth décor constructed at
CinecittàCinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
. The statue of Christ flown by helicopter over Rome to
Saint Peter's SquareSaint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome .-History of St...
was inspired by an actual media event on May 1, 1956, which Fellini had witnessed. The film wrapped August 15 on a deserted beach at
Passo OscuroPasso Oscuro is a small town and beach resort situated in the comune of Fiumicino in the Lazio region of Italy, south of Rome, at the Tyrrhenian Sea, 5 km north of Fregene....
with a bloated mutant fish designed by
Piero GherardiPiero Gherardi was the Costume and Set Designer of Federico Fellini's La dolce vita and 8½ for which he won two Oscars....
.
La Dolce VitaLa Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
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
MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
screening on February 5, 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
VaticanThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
's official press organ,
l'Osservatore RomanoL'Osservatore Romano is the "semi-official" newspaper of the Holy See. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released...
, 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 VitaLa Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
had severe consequences. In competition at Cannes alongside Antonioni’s L’Avventura, the film won the
Palme d'OrThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
awarded by presiding juror
Georges SimenonGeorges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.-Early life and education:...
. The Belgian writer was promptly “hissed at” by the disapproving festival crowd.
Art films and dreams (1961–1969)
A major discovery for Fellini after his
Italian neorealismItalian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
period (1950–1959) was the work of
Carl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
. After meeting Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Ernst Bernhard in early 1960, he read Jung's autobiography,
Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsMemories, Dreams, Reflections is a partially autobiographical book by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and associate Aniela Jaffé...
(1963). Bernhard also recommended that Fellini consult the
I ChingThe I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
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
8½8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
(1963),
Juliet of the SpiritsJuliet of the Spirits is a 1965 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini that uses "caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape"...
(1965),
SatyriconSatyricon is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini. It is loosely based on Petronius's work, Satyricon, a series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome.-Plot:The film opens on a graffiti-covered...
(1969),
CasanovaFellini's Casanova is a 1976 Italian film by director Federico Fellini, adapted from the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th century adventurer and writer....
(1976), and
City of WomenCity of Women is a 1980 film written and directed by Federico Fellini. Amid Fellini's characteristic combination of dreamlike, outrageous, and artistic imagery, Marcello Mastroianni plays Snàporaz, a man who voyages through male and female spaces toward a confrontation with his own attitudes...
(1980).
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 guarded editorial and business skills forced the company to close down soon after cancelling Pasolini’s project,
AccattoneAccattone is a 1961 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Despite being filmed from an original screenplay, academics perceive Accattone as a cinematic rendition of Pasolini's earlier novels, particularly Boys of Life and A Violent Life...
(1961).
Condemned as a “public sinner” for La Dolce Vita, Fellini responded with The Temptations of Doctor Antonio, a segment in the omnibus
Boccaccio '70Boccaccio '70 is a 1962 Italian portmanteau film directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, from an idea by Cesare Zavattini...
. His first colour film, it was the sole project green-lighted at Federiz. Infused with the surrealistic satire that characterized the young Fellini’s work at Marc’Aurelio, the film ridiculed a crusader against vice who goes insane trying to censor a billboard of Anita Ekberg 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 A Fine Confusion) as the movie’s title. Under pressure from his producers, Fellini finally settled on 8½, a self-referential 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 AiméeAnouk Aimée is a French film actress. Aimée has appeared in 70 films since 1947. She began her film career in 1947 at age 14. In 1958 she portrayed the tragic artist Jeanne Hébuterne in the film Les Amants de Montparnasse...
, and
Sandra MiloSandra Milo is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, winning a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each film.-Career:...
in lead roles, and did screen tests at the Scalera Studios in Rome. He hired
cinematographerA cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Gianni Di VenanzoGianni di Venanzo , was a distinguished Italian cinematographer.He collaborated with several notable directors, working on films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni such as L'amore in città , Le amiche , Il grido , La notte and L'eclisse...
, 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 8½, 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".
Shooting began on May 9, 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 October 14,
Nino RotaNino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
composed various circus marches and fanfares that would later become signature tunes of the maestro’s cinema. Nominated for four Oscars, 8½ won awards for best foreign language film and best costume design in black-and-white. In Hollywood for the ceremony, Fellini toured Disneyland with
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
the day after.
Increasingly attracted to
parapsychologyThe term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, Fellini met the
TurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
magician
Gustavo RolGustavo Adolfo Rol was an Italian thinker and painter. His devotees consider him to have been a great spiritual master and have testified to miraculous feats he supposedly accomplished....
in 1963. Rol, a former banker, introduced him to the world of
SpiritismSpiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
and séances. In 1964, Fellini experimented with LSD 25 under the supervision of Emilio Servadio, his psychoanalyst during 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 SpiritsJuliet of the Spirits is a 1965 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini that uses "caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape"...
(1965), depicting
Giulietta MasinaGiulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
as a housewife, Juliet, who rightly suspects her husband's infidelity and succumbs to hearing voices of spirits summoned at a séance at her home. Her sexually voracious next door neighbor Suzy (
Sandra MiloSandra Milo is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, winning a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each film.-Career:...
) introduces Juliet to a world of uninhibited sensuality but Juliet is haunted by childhood memories of her
Catholic guiltCatholic guilt is a term used to identify the supposed excess guilt felt by Catholics and lapsed Catholics. It is a concept that many non-Catholics have, partly based on a strict definition of sacraments by Martin Luther that diminished the role of Confession in many Protestant Churches and on the...
and a teenaged friend who committed suicide. Complex and filled with psychological symbolism, the film is set to a jaunty score by
Nino RotaNino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
.
Honours (1970–1980)
Fellini received a lifetime achievement at the 27th Cannes Film Festival in 1974.
AmarcordAmarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975.
The following year
Fellini's CasanovaFellini's Casanova is a 1976 Italian film by director Federico Fellini, adapted from the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th century adventurer and writer....
won the Oscar for Best Costumes (Danilo Donati).
Late films and projects (1981–1990)
Organized by his publisher Diogenes Verlag in 1982, the first major exhibition of 63 drawings by Fellini was held in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and the
Pierre MatissePierre Matisse was an art dealer active in New York City. He was the youngest child of French painter Henri Matisse.-Background and early years:...
Gallery in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. A gifted caricaturist, much of the inspiration for his sketches was derived 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 September 6, 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 CenterThe Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
’s annual award for cinematic achievement.
Long fascinated by
Carlos CastanedaCarlos Castaneda was a Peruvian-born American anthropologist and author....
’s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Fellini accompanied the Peruvian author on a journey to the
YucatánYucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
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 GrimaldiAlberto Grimaldi is an Italian film producer.He was born in Naples. He is credited with producing some of the most famous films in film history including "For A Few Dollars More" in 1965, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966, Last Tango in Paris in 1972 and Gangs of New York in...
, 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 AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and the jungles of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
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 SeraThe Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
in May 1986. A barely veiled satirical interpretation of Castaneda's work, Viaggio a Tulun was published in 1989 as a graphic novel with artwork by
Milo ManaraMaurilio Manara – known professionally as Milo Manara – is an Italian comic book writer and artist, best known for his erotic approach to the medium.-Career:...
and as Trip to Tulum in America in 1990.
For
IntervistaIntervista is a 1987 film by the Italian film director 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 is prepared for a sequence that Fellini defines as “the prisoner’s dream”...
, produced by Ibrahim Moussa and RAI Television, Fellini intercut memories of the first time he visited
CinecittàCinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
in 1939 with present-day footage of himself at work on a screen adaptation of
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
’s
Amerika- Places :* Amerika, Saxony, a town in Germany* Amerika, Drenthe, a hamlet in the Netherlands- Literature :* Amerika , a 2010 film by Tito Joe* Amerika , a 1927 novel by Franz Kafka...
. A meditation on the nature of memory and film production, it won the special 40th Anniversary Prize at Cannes and the 15th Moscow Film Festival Grand Prize. In Brussels later that year, a panel of thirty professionals from eighteen European countries named Fellini the world’s best director and 8½ 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 des lunatici (The Lunatics’ Poem). A small town was built at Empire Studios on the via Pontina outside Rome. Starring
Roberto BenigniRoberto Remigio Benigni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director of film, theatre and television.- Early years :...
as Ivo Salvini, a madcap poetic figure newly released from a mental institution, the character is a combination of La stradas Gelsomina,
PinocchioThe Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
, and Italian poet
Giacomo LeopardiGiacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
. 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 ImperialeThe Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
, the equivalent of the
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in the visual arts, awarded 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 PettigrewDamian Pettigrew is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus and Federico Fellini...
to establish "the longest and most detailed conversations ever recorded on film". Described as the "Maestro's spiritual testament” by his biographer
Tullio KezichTullio Kezich was an Italian film critic, screenwriter, playwright and actor.Kezich was born in Trieste...
, excerpts culled from the conversations later served as the basis of their feature documentary,
Fellini: I'm a Born LiarFellini: I'm a Born Liar is a 2002 French documentary film written and directed by Damian Pettigrew.Based on Federico Fellini's last confessions filmed by Pettigrew in Rome in 1991 and 1992 , the film eschews straightforward biography to highlight the Italian director's unorthodox working...
(2002) and the book,
I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini LexiconI'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon is a book combining film stills and photographs with transcripts of the last filmed interviews with Federico Fellini conducted by Canadian filmmaker Damian Pettigrew in Rome in 1991 and 1992...
. Finding it increasingly difficult to secure financing for feature films, he developed a suite of television projects whose titles reflect their subjects: Attore, Napoli, L’Inferno, L’opera lirica, and L’America.
In April 1993, Fellini received his fifth
OscarAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for lifetime achievement "in recognition of his cinematic accomplishments that have thrilled and entertained audiences worldwide". On June 16, he entered the Cantonal Hospital in
ZurichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
for an "angioplasty on his femoral artery" but suffered a stroke at the Grand Hotel in Rimini two months later. Partially paralyzed, he was first transferred to
FerraraFerrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
for rehabilitation and then to the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome to be near his wife, also hospitalized. He suffered a second stroke and fell into an irreversible coma. Fellini died in Rome on October 31 at the age of 73, a day after his fiftieth wedding anniversary. The memorial service was held in Studio 5 at Cinecittà attended by an estimated “70,000 people”. At the request of
Giulietta MasinaGiulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
, trumpeter
Mauro Maur- Biography :First Trumpet for the Orchestra of the Opera House in Rome from 1985 to 2009, Mauro Maur has appeared on several popular television shows such as:...
played the "Improvviso dell'Angelo" by
Nino RotaNino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
during the funeral ceremony. Five months later on March 23, 1994, Giulietta Masina died of lung cancer.
Fellini, Masina and their son Pierfederico are buried in a bronze sepulchre sculpted by
Arnaldo PomodoroArnaldo Pomodoro is an Italian sculptor. He was born on 23 June 1926, in Morciano, Romagna, Italy. He currently lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro was also a sculptor....
. Designed as a ship's prow, the tomb is located at the main entrance to the Cemetery of
RiminiRimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
. The Federico Fellini Airport in
RiminiRimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
is named in his honour.
Influence and legacy
Personal and highly idiosyncratic 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
paparazziPaparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
to the English language, derived from Paparazzo, the photographer friend of journalist Marcello Rubini (
Marcello MastroianniMarcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
).
Contemporary filmmakers such as
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
,
Pedro AlmodovarPedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
,
Tim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
,
Terry GilliamTerrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
,
Emir KusturicaEmir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
,
David LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
,
Girish KasaravalliGirish Kasaravalli is a noted film director, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema in Kannada cinema, who has won the National Film Award for Best Film four times, Ghatashraddha , Tabarana Kathe , Thaayi Saheba and Dweepa...
,
David CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
,
Martin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, and
Juraj JakubiskoJuraj Jakubisko is a Slovak film director. In his movies he managed to catch life's most beautiful colors, unhinge the poetry behind the ordinary and to be ahead of his time without forgetting his roots....
have cited Fellini's influence on their work.
Polish director,
Wojciech HasWojciech Jerzy Has was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer.-Early Life & Studies:...
, whose two major films,
The Saragossa ManuscriptThe Saragossa Manuscript is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story containing gothic, picaresque and erotic elements...
(1965) and
The Hour-Glass SanatoriumThe Hour-Glass Sanatorium is a 1973 Polish film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Mieczysław Voit, Halina Kowalska and Gustaw Holoubek. It is also known as The Sandglass in English speaking countries. The story follows a man who visits his father in a mystical...
(1973) are examples of modernist fantasies, has been compared to Fellini for the sheer "luxuriance of his images".
I Vitelloni inspired European directors
Juan Antonio Bardem,
Marco Ferreri, and
Lina WertmullerLina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
and had an influence on
Martin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's
Mean StreetsMean Streets is a 1973 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and 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...
(1973),
George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
's
American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
(1974),
Joel SchumacherJoel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...
's
St. Elmo's FireSt. Elmo's Fire is a 1985 American coming-of-age film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film, starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham, is a prominent movie of the Brat Pack genre, and revolves around a group of friends that have...
(1985), and
Barry LevinsonBarry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
's
DinerA diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
(1987), among many others. When the American magazine Cinema asked
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
in 1963 to name his favorite films, the film director listed I Vitelloni as number one in his Top 10 list.
Nights of Cabiria was adapted as the Broadway musical
Sweet CharitySweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
and the movie
Sweet CharitySweet Charity, full title of which is Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved, is a 1969 American musical film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, written by Neil Simon, and with music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields...
(1969) by
Bob FosseRobert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
starring
Shirley MacLaineShirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
.
8½ inspired among others:
Mickey OneMickey One is a 1965 surrealistic dramatic film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Its kaleidoscopic camerawork, film noir atmosphere, lighting and design aspects, Kafkaesque paranoia, philosophical themes and Warren Beatty's performance in the title...
(
Arthur PennArthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
, 1965),
Alex in WonderlandAlex in Wonderland is a 1970 feature-length film directed by Paul Mazursky, written with his partner Larry Tucker and starring Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. Sutherland plays Alex Morrison, a director who has made one feature and spends his time in Hollywood pondering what his next will be...
(
Paul MazurskyPaul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...
, 1970), Beware of a Holy Whore (
Rainer Werner FassbinderRainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
, 1971),
Day for NightDay for night, also known as nuit américaine , is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot to create the illusion of darkness or...
(
François TruffautFrançois Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, 1973),
All That JazzAll That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his...
(
Bob FosseRobert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
, 1979),
Stardust MemoriesStardust Memories is a 1980 film written and directed by Woody Allen, who considers this to be one of his best films in addition to The Purple Rose of Cairo and Match Point. The film is shot in black-and-white, particularly reminiscent of Federico Fellini's 8½ , which it parodies...
(
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, 1980), Sogni d'oro (
Nanni MorettiGiovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...
, 1981), Parad Planet (Vadim Abdrashitov, 1984), La Pelicula del rey (
Carlos SorinCarlos Sorín is a film director, screenplay writer, cinematographer, and film producer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina....
, 1986),
Living in OblivionLiving in Oblivion is a darkly comic, low-budget independent film depicting the making of a low-budget independent film, written and directed by Tom DiCillo and starring Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck and James LeGros. The film won Tom DiCillo the Waldo Salt...
(
Tom DiCilloThomas A. "Tom" DiCillo 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...
, 1995),
8½ Women8½ Women is a 1999 comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Greenaway, and starring John Standing, Matthew Delamere, and Vivian Wu. The international co-production was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:After the death of his wife , wealthy businessman Philip Emmenthal 8½...
(
Peter GreenawayPeter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
, 1999),
Falling DownFalling Down is a 1993 crime-drama film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster , a divorcee and unemployed former defense engineer...
(Joel Schumacher, 1993), along with the successful
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical,
NineNine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The story is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
(
Maury YestonMaury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist.He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine...
and Arthur Kopit, 1982). Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), a Spanish novel by Puerto Rican writer
Giannina BraschiGiannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
, features a dream sequence with Fellini that was inspired by 8½.
City of Women was adapted for the Berlin stage by
Frank CastorfFrank Castorf is a German theater director and since 1992 the artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz...
in 1992.
Fellini’s work is referenced on the albums
Fellini DaysFellini Days is Fish's seventh solo studio album since he left Marillion in 1988 and the first since Raingods with Zippos . Released on Fish's own label Chocolate Frog Records Company.-Track listing:Note: "Dick" is Fish's actual surname....
(2001) by
FishDerek William Dick, better known as Fish, is a Scottish progressive rock singer, lyricist and occasional actor, best known as the former lead singer of Marillion.-Biography:...
and
FunplexFunplex is the seventh studio album by The B-52s, recorded during 2006 and 2007. The album was released on March 25, 2008 by Astralwerks Records with holdings by Go! Discs...
(2008) by
the B-52'sThe B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
with the song Juliet of the Spirits, and in the opening traffic jam of the music video Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. It influenced two American TV shows,
Northern ExposureNorthern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
and Third Rock from the Sun.
Certain of his film related material and personal papers are contained in the
Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
Cinema Archives to which scholars and media experts from around the world may have full access. In October 2009, the
Jeu de PaumeJeu de paume is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, though these were eventually introduced. It is a former Olympic sport, and has the oldest ongoing annual world championship in sport, first established over 250 years ago...
in Paris opened an exhibit devoted to Fellini, running through to January 2010. The exhibition included Fellini ephemera, television interviews, behind-the-scenes photographs, and excerpts from La dolce vita and 8½. It also featured the Book of Dreams based on 30 years of illustrations and notes by Fellini.
Selected awards and nominations
- Rome, Open City
Rome, Open City is a 1945 Italian war drama film, directed by Roberto Rossellini. The picture features Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, and is set in Rome during the Nazi occupation in 1944...
(Dir. Roberto RosselliniRoberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
, 1945)
- Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (with Sergio Amidei
Sergio Amidei 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 De Sica...
)
- Paisà
Paisà is a 1946 Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini, the second of a trilogy by Rossellini. It is divided into six episodes. They are set in the Italian Campaign during World War II when Nazi Germany was losing the war against the Allies, using themes such as the difficulty of communication...
(Dir. Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
- Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (with Sergio Amidei, Alfred Hayes
Alfred Hayes was a British screenwriter, television writer, novelist, and poet, who worked in Italy and the United States...
, Marcello PaglieroMarcello Pagliero was an Italian film director, actor, and screenwriter.Pagliero was born in London and died in Paris...
, and Rossellini)
- I Vitelloni
I vitelloni is an Italian comedy drama film directed by Federico Fellini. Recognized as a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, the film has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy....
(1953)
- Venice Film Festival Silver Lion
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (with Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:...
, Ennio FlaianoEnnio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
)
- La Strada
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
(1954)
- Venice Film Festival Silver Lion
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film
- Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay (with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano)
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film
- Screen Directors Guild Award for Best Foreign Film
- Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
(1957)
- Festival de Cannes Best Actress Award (Giulietta Masina
Giulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
)
- Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film
- La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
(1960)
- Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at Festival de Cannes
- Oscar Best Costumes in B&W (Piero Gherardi
Piero Gherardi was the Costume and Set Designer of Federico Fellini's La dolce vita and 8½ for which he won two Oscars....
)
- Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay (with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi), Best Art and Set Direction
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- National Board of Review citation for Best Foreign Language Film
- 8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
(Otto e Mezzo, 1963)
- Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....
Grand Prize
- Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
- Oscar for Best Costumes in B&W (Piero Gherardi)
- Oscar nomination for Best Director
- Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration in B&W (Piero Gherardi)
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbons for Best Cinematography in B&W (Gianni Di Venanzo
Gianni di Venanzo , was a distinguished Italian cinematographer.He collaborated with several notable directors, working on films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni such as L'amore in città , Le amiche , Il grido , La notte and L'eclisse...
), Best Director (Federico Fellini), Best Original Story (Fellini and Flaiano), Best Producer (Angelo RizzoliAngelo Rizzoli was an Italian publisher and film producer.- Early life :Orphaned at a young age and raised in poverty, Rizzoli rose to prosperity...
), Best Score (Nino RotaNino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
), Best Screenplay (Fellini, Pinelli, Flaiano, Rondi), and Best Supporting Actress (Sandra MiloSandra Milo is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, winning a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each film.-Career:...
)
- Berlin Film Festival Special Award
- BAFTA Film Award nomination for Best Film from any Source
- Bodil Award for Best European Film
- Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film
- National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Picture
- Grolla d’Oro at Saint Vincent Film Festival for Best Director
- Kinema Junpo
, commonly called , is a Japanese film magazine which began publication in July 1919. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology . In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three...
Award for Best Foreign Language Film & Best Foreign Language Film Director
- Juliet of the Spirits
Juliet of the Spirits is a 1965 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini that uses "caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape"...
(1965)
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film
- National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Story
- Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Best Foreign Language Film
- Satyricon
Satyricon is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini. It is loosely based on Petronius's work, Satyricon, a series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome.-Plot:The film opens on a graffiti-covered...
(1969)
- Oscar nomination for Best Director
- I clowns
I clowns is a 1970 television film by Federico Fellini about the human fascination with clowns and circuses...
(1970)
- National Board of Review citation for Best Foreign Language Film
- Amarcord
Amarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
(1974)
- Oscar for Best Foreign Film
- Oscar nomination for Best Director
- Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Direction
- New York Film Critics Award for Best Motion Picture
- Fellini's Casanova
Fellini's Casanova is a 1976 Italian film by director Federico Fellini, adapted from the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th century adventurer and writer....
(1976)
- Oscar for Best Costumes (Danilo Donati)
- Intervista
Intervista is a 1987 film by the Italian film director 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 is prepared for a sequence that Fellini defines as “the prisoner’s dream”...
(1987)
- Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....
Grand Prize
- Festival de Cannes Special 40th Anniversary Prize
- The Voice of the Moon (1990)
- David di Donatello Awards for Best Actor, Best Production Design, and Best Editing
Distinctions
- 1974
- 27th Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
Lifetime Achievement Award (with French director René ClairRené Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
)
- 1985
- 42nd Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
Golden LionIl Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
for Lifetime Achievement
- Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
Award for Cinematic Achievement
- 1989
- Lifetime Achievement Award - European Film Awards
- 1990
- Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale
The Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
(equivalent of the Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in the visual arts)
- 1993
- Oscar
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Lifetime Achievement
Major screenplay contributions
- L'ultima carrozzella (1943) (dir. Mario Mattoli
Mario Mattoli was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 86 films between 1934 and 1966....
) Co-scriptwriter
- Roma, città aperta (1945) (dir. Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
) Co-scriptwriter
- Paisà
Paisà is a 1946 Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini, the second of a trilogy by Rossellini. It is divided into six episodes. They are set in the Italian Campaign during World War II when Nazi Germany was losing the war against the Allies, using themes such as the difficulty of communication...
(1946) (dir. Roberto Rossellini). Co-scriptwriter
- Il delitto di Giovanni Episcopo (1947) (dir. Alberto Lattuada
Alberto Lattuada was an Italian film director.Lattuada was born in Milan, the son of composer Felice Lattuada...
) Co-scriptwriter
- Senza pietà
Senza pietà is a 1948 Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada and with script of Federico Fellini.-Plot:As the war ended, some soldiers of color refused to abandon northern Italy to return to America by the intolerance, deserting. Of them, Jerry falls in love with Angela , a local girl....
(1948) (dir. Alberto Lattuada) Co-scriptwriter
- Il miracolo (1948) (dir. Roberto Rossellini) Co-scriptwriter
- Il mulino del Po (1949) (dir. Alberto Lattuada) Co-scriptwriter
- Francesco, giullare di Dio (1950) (dir. Alberto Lattuada) Co-scriptwriter
- Il Cammino della speranza (1950) (dir. Pietro Germi
Pietro Germi was an Italian actor, screenwriter, and director. Germi was born in Genoa, Liguria, to a lower-middle class family. He was a messenger and briefly attended nautical school before deciding on a career in acting.He studied acting and directing at Rome's Centro Sperimentale di...
) Co-scriptwriter
- La città si defende (1951) (dir. Pietro Germi) Co-scriptwriter
- Persiane chiuse
Persiane chiuse is a 1950 Italian film directed by Luigi Comencini.-Plot:Sandra searches her missing sister. For this, she enters the morally degraded seaside of Genoa....
(1951) (dir. Luigi ComenciniLuigi Comencini was an Italian film director. Together with Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli, he was considered among the masters of the commedia all'italiana genre....
) Co-scriptwriter
- Il brigante di Tacca del Lupo (1952) (dir. Pietro Germi) Co-scriptwriter
- Fortunella (1979) (dir. Eduardo De Filippo
Eduardo De Filippo was an Italian actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet, best known for his Neapolitan works Filumena Marturano and Napoli Milionaria.-Biography:...
) Co-scriptwriter
- Lovers and Liars
Lovers and Liars is a 1979 Italian feature film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. It was released in the United States in February 1981.-Plot:...
(1979) (dir. Mario MonicelliMario Monicelli was an Italian director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana , three times nominated for Oscar.-Biography:...
) Fellini not credited
Television commercials
- TV commercial for Campari Soda (1984)
- TV commercial for Barilla pasta (1984)
- Three TV commercials for Banca di Roma (1992)
Written and directed
- Luci del varietà
Variety Lights is a 1950 Italian film directed and produced by Federico Fellini and Alberto LattuadaThe film launched Fellini's directorial career, but was a collaboration with Alberto Lattuada...
(1950) (co-credited with Alberto Lattuada)
- Lo sceicco bianco
The White Sheik is a 1952 film by Federico Fellini starring Leopoldo Trieste, Alberto Sordi, and Brunella Bovo.- Plot :Two young newlyweds from a provincial town, Wanda and Ivan Cavalli , arrive in Rome for their honeymoon...
(1952)
- I vitelloni
I vitelloni is an Italian comedy drama film directed by Federico Fellini. Recognized as a pivotal work in the director's artistic evolution, the film has distinct autobiographical elements that mirror important societal changes in 1950s Italy....
(1953)
- L'amore in città
L'Amore in Città is a 1953 anthology film composed of six different segments, each with a different writer or director...
(1953) (segment Un'agenzia matrimoniale)
- La strada
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
(1954)
- Il bidone
Il bidone is an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. It features Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Giulietta Masina, among others....
(1955)
- Le notti di Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
(1957)
- La dolce vita
La Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
(1960)
- Boccaccio '70
Boccaccio '70 is a 1962 Italian portmanteau film directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, from an idea by Cesare Zavattini...
(1962) (segment Le tentazioni del Dottor Antonio)
- 8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
(1963)
- Giulietta degli spiriti
Juliet of the Spirits is a 1965 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini that uses "caricatural types and dream situations to represent a psychic landscape"...
(1965)
- Histoires extraordinaires
Histoires extraordinaires is a 1968 "omnibus" film comprising three segments...
(1968) (segment Toby Dammit, based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Never Bet the Devil Your Head")
- Fellini: A Director's Notebook
Fellini: A Director's Notebook is an Italian documentary directed by Federico Fellini shot in 16mm and first broadcast in the United States on NBC in 1969.- Plot :...
(1969)
- Satyricon
Satyricon is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini. It is loosely based on Petronius's work, Satyricon, a series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome.-Plot:The film opens on a graffiti-covered...
(1969)
- I clowns
I clowns is a 1970 television film by Federico Fellini about the human fascination with clowns and circuses...
(1970)
- Roma
Roma, also known as Fellini's Roma, is a 1972 semi-autobiographical, poetic film depicting director Federico Fellini's move from his native Rimini to Rome as a youth. It is formed by a series of loosely connected episodes. The plot is minimal, and the only character to develop significantly is...
(1972)
- Amarcord
Amarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
(1973)
- Il Casanova di Federico Fellini
Fellini's Casanova is a 1976 Italian film by director Federico Fellini, adapted from the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th century adventurer and writer....
(1976)
- Prova d'orchestra
Orchestra Rehearsal is a 1978 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. It follows an Italian orchestra as the members go on strike against the conductor...
(1978)
- La città delle donne (1980)
- E la nave va (1983)
- Ginger e Fred
Ginger and Fred is a 1986 comedy/drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina.The title is a reference to the American dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers...
(1986)
- Intervista
Intervista is a 1987 film by the Italian film director 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 is prepared for a sequence that Fellini defines as “the prisoner’s dream”...
(1987)
- La voce della luna
The Voice of the Moon is a 1990 film by Italian director Federico Fellini, featuring actors Paolo Villaggio and Roberto Benigni. Returning to themes he first explored in La strada , Fellini crafts a parable on the whisperings of the soul that only madmen and vagabonds are capable of hearing...
(1990)
Further reading
General
- Betti, Liliana (1979). Fellini: An Intimate Portrait. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
- Bondanella, Peter (ed.)(1978). Federico Fellini: Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Cianfarani, Carmine (ed.) (1985). Federico Fellini: Leone d'Oro, Venezia 1985. Rome: Anica.
- Fellini, Federico (2008). The Book of Dreams. New York: Rizzoli.
- Panicelli, Ida, and Antonella Soldaini (ed.)(1995). Fellini: Costumes and Fashion. Milan: Edizioni Charta. ISBN 8886158823
- Rohdie, Sam (2002). Fellini Lexicon. London: BFI Publishing.
- Tornabuoni, Lietta (1995). Federico Fellini. Preface Martin Scorsese. New York: Rizzoli.
- Walter, Eugene (2002). Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet. Ed. Katherine Clark. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80965-2
Documentaries on Fellini
- Ciao Federico (1969). Dir. Gideon Bachmann. (60')
- Federico Fellini - (2000). Dir. Paquito Del Bosco. (RAI TV, 68')
- Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar is a 2002 French documentary film written and directed by Damian Pettigrew.Based on Federico Fellini's last confessions filmed by Pettigrew in Rome in 1991 and 1992 , the film eschews straightforward biography to highlight the Italian director's unorthodox working...
(2002). Dir. Damian Pettigrew. Feature documentary. (ARTEArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
, EurimagesEurimages is the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution, exhibition and digitisation of European cinematographic works. It aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation between professionals....
, Scottish ScreenScottish Screen is the national body for film and television in Scotland, established in April 1997. It took on the functions of the Scottish Film Council, the Scottish Film Production Fund, Scottish Screen Locations and Scottish Broadcast and Film Training, forming a unitary organisation.Scottish...
, 102')
External links