"I Vitelloni is the story of adolescents who cannot see
anything more in life than satisfying their animal desires–sleeping,
eating, fornicating. I was trying to say there is something
more, there is always more. Life must have a meaning beyond
the animal. In I Vitelloni I was portraying, not, as people
have claimed, the death throes of a decadent social class,
but a certain torpor of the soul."
–Federico
Fellini
Filmography
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Fellini
was born in 1920 in Rimini, an Adriatic port in North-central
Italy. His upbringing was religious, middle class and provincial.
His father, born in the region, was a we;;-to-do salesman of
coffee and other grocery specialties; his mother was originally
from Rome. The young Fellini attended religious boarding schools
where his main talent was drawing.
In
1985, at a gala tribute offered by the Film Society of Lincoln
Center, Fellini told a New York audience that his love of film
originated in Rimini’s primitive movie house, the Fulgor,
where he saw American movies for the first time.
In
1938, he left high school and moved to Florence, then established
himself in Rome. Inasmuch as his mother was Roman, he felt that
going there was for him like coming home. His original ambition
was to become a journalist. He published cartoons and short
stories in a satirical magazine, joined a vaudeville troupe,
travelling across Italy, and later wrote sketches for the radio.
He entered the movies as a rewrite man, working for various
directors.
It was in 1943 that Fellini met and married Giulietta Masina,
who had a profound influence on his life and work. She would
star in many of his films, including LA STRADA, THE NIGHTS OF
CABIRIA, and JULIET OF THE SPIRITS.
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In 1944, soon after
the liberation of Rome, Fellini and some of his friends found
a means of supporting themselves by opening a shop that provided
Allied troops with caricatures and portraits for their families.
Late in 1944, Roberto Rossellini visited the shop. Their encounter
was to be a turning point in Fellini’s career. Rossellini
asked him to collaborate on a film he was working on about the
Nazis’ occupation of Rome–the project became the landmark
neo-realist film OPEN CITY (1945) that ignited Italy’s
post-war film renaissance. Fellini joined the ranks of the most
esteemed neo-realist scriptwriters, remaining in Rosselini’s
orbit for several years, also working with him on PAISAN, THE
FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS, and THE MIRACLE. Fellini made his own
directorial debut collaborating with Alberto Lattuada on VARIETY
NIGHTS (1950), about the ups and down of a travelling vaudeville
troupe. His first solo directorial debut effort was the farcical
THE WHITE SHEIK (1952). Then I VITELLONI (1953) proved an overwhelming
success that established Fellini as a director of international
standing. It was followed by LA STRADA (1954), , starring Giulietta
Masina in an unforgettable performance as the innocent vagabond
clown Gelsomina and marked Fellini’s command of atmosphere.
It was chosen by the Motion Picture Academy as Best Foreign
Film–this was the first of five Oscars for its director.
Next came IL BIDONE (1955), his starkest film yet, a dark and
powerful moral tale about a petty crook.
The director’s
next work was THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957), written for Masina,
again memorable, this time as a resilient Roman prostitute.
CABIRIA not only won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, it was
turned into a popular Broadway musical, SWEET CHARITY, later
adapted into a big screen Hollywood musical starring Shirley
MacLaine.
LA DOLCE VITA (1960)
was a triumphant follow-up to the director’s international
successes of the 50s, an instant box office smash. This autobiographical
movie gave the world a sensational view of the decadent "sweet
life" of Roman society as seen through the eyes of a journalist
(Marcello Mastroianni), who left home to make his way in Rome.
After this film, the expression "la dolce vita" became
a part of the international language. It was followed by 8 1/2
(1963), another runaway success, a masterpiece of self-reflective
cinema built on the fantasies and frustrations of a celebrated
movie director who breaks down under pressure and refuses to
face reality. The flamboyant JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (1965), also
an exercise in psychoanalysis, is an outrageous Jungian color
vehicle for Masina, a sort of female companion piece to 8 1/2.
Next came SATYRICON
(1969), a loose adaptation of Petronius, a surrealist extravaganza
centered on a couple of adolescent Roman youths. Two of the
director’s current preoccupations, hallucinogenic drugs
and science fiction, shaped the look and feel of the film which
was made at a time when experimentation, polysexuality and self-discovery
were in vogue.
With his next fiction feature, the irresistible AMARCORD (1973),
his fourth Best Foreign Language Oscar winner and a milestone
in his career, Fellini returned to the top of his form in a
nearly plotless nostalgic amalgam of childhood memories. It
was followed by CASANOVA (1976), a vehicle for the director’s
thoughts n age, sex and death, in which the prolific lover is
seen as a dissipated, mechanical man. Although its recreation
of 18th century Venice is staggering, critical reaction to the
film was mixed, and while none of his subsequent works ranked
with the director’s greatest, they were all unmistakably
Fellini creations. With the death of Luchino Visconti, Fellini
was, in the eyes of most people, Italy’s undoubted king
of cinema.
In March 1993 came
one final trip to the United States to receive a Lifetime Achievement
Oscar. In October of the same year, after a massive stroke,
Fellini died in his beloved Rome. Many editorials and obituaries
remarked that with his death, an era had ended.
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