Fellini 9089645829, 9789089645821

Citation preview

Fellini

1

Fellini Author and editor

Sam Stourdzé Editors for EYE Marente Bloemheuvel Jaap Guldemond

EYE, Amsterdam Amsterdam University Press

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 1

12-02-14 17:03

Federico Fellini, 1950s.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 2

12-02-14 17:03

Contents Preface 4 The Parade of Images 8

Popular Culture Caricatures, juvenilia 20 The photo-novel 22 Mandrake the Magician 26 The voyage of Mastorna 28 Parades 30 Dinners 32 The circus 36 Grotesques 44 Casting sessions 46 The Rugantino 50 Paparazzi 54 Look-alikes 60 The Temptations of Doctor Antonio 64 Mock advertisements 66

Fellini at Work The scriptwriters The costumes Behind the camera Directing actors Studio 5 The helicopter

70 72 76 80 84 88

The City of Women Fellini, Catholic filmmaker? 92 Female obsessions 96 Anita Ekberg 102` Anna Magnani 106 All about posters 108 Prostitutes 110 Casanova 114 Fellini and his double 116 The myth of the fountain 120 Masina and Fellini 126

Biographical Imagination Visions 130 The Book of Dreams 138 Fellini superstar 144 Appendix Notes 152 Selected bibliography 152 Chronology 153 Filmography 154 Illustration credits 157 Acknowledgements 158

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 3

12-02-14 17:03

Preface EYE is proud and excited to announce a major exhibition, a publication and a substantial supporting programme that will be presented this summer, dedicated to the oeuvre of one of the most defining masters of post-war Italian cinema: Federico Fellini. His rich and incisive film oeuvre, which has been collected, preserved and screened by EYE for many years, now will be brought out under the spotlight on the broader stage of our new museum. The career of Federico Fellini (1920-1993) lasted for forty years and made him perhaps the most illustrious of all the filmmakers to have come out of Italy. Those forty years saw the appearance of titles that have carved out a permanent niche in the memory of generations of film lovers. The bellowing strongman in La Strada (1954); the anguished society reporter in La Dolce Vita (1960); the tyrannical director with the whip in 8½ (1963) or the woman who lovingly clutches the young boy from the village to her ample bosom: these characters have become the archetypes who inhabit that universe that we have come to call “Felliniesque.” A universe in which Fellini’s alter ego appears – often portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni – in different guises as a participant in an continuous parade of grotesque human failures. Before making his actual debut as a director, Fellini mainly concentrated on drawing and writing screenplays. He left his birthplace Rimini when he was nineteen years old in order to “conquer Rome.” For a period, he drew cartoons for satirical magazines, moving on to co-write numerous screenplays during the 1940s. He was confidant and assistant to Roberto Rossellini during the making of Roma, città aperta (1945), before making his debut as a director in 1950 with Luci del varietà. His international reputation was established when he received an Oscar for La Strada (1954). When he was forty years old, La Dolce Vita (1960) put Fellini at the centre of great controversy. This “decadent” and ­“blasphemous” film shocked the Catholic Church, which until then had supported him, even embracing him as a Catholic filmmaker. However, Fellini’s free spirit continued to guide his career, independently of trends and conventions. 8½ (1963) proved to be yet another watershed, when he decided to ignore all the rules of storytelling and to jettison any form of logical narrative. His exploration of the creative process and his reflections on cinema encouraged him to leave the beaten track of reality and to explore the world of the imagination. Childhood memories, dreams and the subconscious mind took on an increasingly important role in his work. His films always had a strong autobiographical element, but now Fellini no longer had any qualms about playing himself in his films (Blocknotes di un regista, I Clowns, Roma, Intervista). This book and the exhibition aim to reveal the universe of the filmmaker and the sources of his rich imagination, and to highlight the essential power of his work. The story of Fellini’s themes and obsessions is, twenty years after his death, told by movie stills, set photos and his drawings, as well as by archive material and posters. The fantasy world of Cinecittà, the studio where Fellini made so many of his films, is revealed through previously unseen behind-the-scenes pictures that were taken by photographers such as Gideon Bachmann, Deborah Beer, Pierluigi Praturlon and Paul Ronald. This publication, which was conceived as a visual laboratory, shows how Fellini created a mythical image of himself and of Italian life in his films and in other media, and how he constantly reinterpreted his early years, his dreams and the images and stories conjured up by his subconscious. We have chosen not to follow a chronological sequence, but to present Fellini’s take on the twentieth century – the age of cinema, of course, but also that

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 4

4

12-02-14 17:03

of mass media in general: television, newspapers, magazines and advertising. The age of imagery, in fact. From the 1950s on, audiences, especially in Italy, quickly fell under the spell of the mass media, enthusiastically embracing the images that were appearing everywhere. Fellini – who was of course the inventor of the term “paparazzi” (in La Dolce Vita) – was quick to predict the influence that the media would exert on human behaviour, and referred to it in his films (such as the enormous billboard featuring Anita Ekberg, which comes to life in the anthology film Boccaccio ’70). The publication includes four main chapters. Popular Culture concentrates on Fellini’s many sources of inspiration within the day-to-day popular culture of the time. This includes not only the steadily more prevalent mass media, but also such manifestations as the circus, rock music, cartoons and Catholic or political parades. Fellini at Work shows us the director on the film set, instructing his actors, working together with costume designers, behind the camera, and so on. The City of Women concerns Fellini’s most important subject and obsession: Woman, in all her many guises. Finally, Biographical Imagination presents Fellini in the guise of various doppelgangers, each reflecting a different aspect of his personality. Particular attention is given to his ‘Book of Dreams’ in which he recorded his dreams in words and drawings. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the many people who have worked on this wide-ranging project. First of all, we should mention Sam Stourdzé who compiled the (travelling) exhibition and the publication as well as writing the texts for the publication. NBC Photographie and Carole Troufléau Sandrin were involved in the production. The collaboration with Sam Stourdzé was especially inspiring, and we thank him for his enthusiasm and dedication and for his interesting concept and approach. Additionally, the cooperation and support of the Fondation Fellini pour le Cinéma (Sion, Switzerland), the Fondazione Fellini (Rimini, Italy) and the Cineteca di Bologna are essential to the success of this and any presentation about Fellini. Design Studio Claus Wiersma conceived the design for the exhibition, which is both complex and crystal clear. The graphic design of the book and the exhibition was in the capable hands of the designers at Joseph Plateau. They have produced a beautiful publication with a contemporary twist. And last but not least, our thanks go out to all the employees at EYE who have worked on the book, the exhibition and the accompanying programme with tremendous dedication and an infectious degree of commitment. I am convinced that, just as Fellini’s oeuvre has inspired us and many other generations of film lovers, this book and the exhibition will inspire a new audience and allow it to be captivated and absorbed by the work of this unrivalled maestro of the cinema.

Buon divertimento!



Sandra den Hamer Director EYE

5

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 5

12-02-14 17:03

From left to right: Fellini, his assistant Moraldo Rossi, the photographers Pierluigi Praturlon and Tazio Secchiaroli, the agent Ezio Vitale and the photographer Sandro Vespasiani, October 1958.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 6

6

12-02-14 17:03

7

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 7

12-02-14 17:03

The Parade of Images I don’t want to demonstrate anything: I want to show it Federico Fellini

1 Beno Graziani and Federico Fellini.

8

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 8

12-02-14 17:03

Fellini’s friend Beno Graziani, a correspondent of Paris Match in Rome in the 1950s, remembers him as a jovial man who wanted to be loved, and who was loved by everybody. “Fellini spoke to you as if you were the most intelligent person on earth.”1 One day Fellini revealed the subject of his next film to his friend, the adventures of a journalist in Rome. He would later confess to him that the character played by Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita was based on Graziani (ill. 1). Some friends were angered by these excessive borrowings, while others found it amusing that a story they told one evening would be used by Fellini the next day. But they all agreed about his talent as a storyteller. Fellini appropriates stories, he documents himself, meets with people and asks questions. Feeding on the people surrounding him, he absorbs reality and fits it into his films.

1 Interview with the author, 19 May 2009. 2 Fellini opened the Funny Face Shop in Via Nazionale in Rome together with Guglielmo Guasta and Carlo Bompiani. 3 Federico Fellini, Faire un film, Paris: Le Seuil, 1980, p.114. 4 Grotesque is the name given to the fantastic ornaments dating from ancient Rome that came back into fashion in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The term has since passed into common parlance and is synonymous with a distorted, comic or droll figure, a caricature.

Circus Fellini Before embarking on a career in film, the boy from Rimini, who had moved to Rome at the age of nineteen, worked as a cartoonist for popular magazines such as 420, Travaso and Marc’Aurelio. Fellini wrote little, and concentrated on drawing. In 1944, he opened the Funny Face Shop,2 (ill. 2) where he drew caricatures of passers-by, mostly GIs stationed in the city (ill. 3). As a master of caricature he needed just a few lines to capture a situation, constructing a world inhabited by grotesque figures, a now familiar universe that would soon become known under the name “Felliniesque.” Fellini’s oeuvre largely found its inspiration in the circus and its great parade. In The Clowns (1970), a child (the little Fellini) is terrified by the frightening spectacle and leaves the circus in tears. Back in his room, he confesses off-screen in Fellini’s own voice: The evening ended abruptly. The clowns didn’t made me laugh, on the contrary, they terrified me. Those plaster faces and enigmatic expressions, those drunken masks, the shouts, the laughter, the stupid and cruel pranks reminded me of those other strange and disturbing characters that can be found in every provincial town. Among this maelstrom of grotesque mugs, the viewer recognises the depraved tramp Giovannone, the midget nun (only one foot tall) who divides her time between the convent and the insane asylum, the matron who brings her husband home in a wheelbarrow, and the invalid WW I veteran in his wheelchair, accompanied by Signora Ines, who knows every one of Mussolini’s speeches by heart. The aberrant, grotesque, ragged clowns, with their total irrationality, violence and mad tantrums, have always seemed to me like the drunk and delirious heralds of a calling, a premonition or prophesy: the annunciation made to Federico. And in fact, isn’t the cinema, I mean making films, living with a group of people making a film, just like circus life?3 But who are they, that large family of strange individuals who populate Fellini’s films? Entertainers? Memories? Props of the spectacle? Do they form the counter­ part of the story, or its complements? They are living caricatures, heirs to the tradition of the grotesque, filmed with gusto by the director.4 They form the world according to Fellini, halfway between carnival and slum. Together they form the great parade of Circus Fellini. If we liken these extravagant, but very real characters to clowns, and if the cinema can be equated to the circus, then the teeming world we discover under the big top is a very strange one, which seems to have found its interpreter in

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 9

2 Fellini (left) in front of the Funny Face Shop, c. 1944.

9

12-02-14 17:03

Fellini and his oeuvre. In fact, Fellini found inspiration both in his immediate surroundings and in the long list of his real or invented memories.

Recurring motifs In a filmed interview from 1961, Fellini talks about the time when, as a child, he ran away from home and spent the day among circus people.5 This story of a rite of passage ends when the incredulous interviewer asks: “Is that really, really true?” Wondering why anyone would still want to know the truth, the annoyed Fellini retorts: “No, but anyway, so what if it is accurate or not…” This is an awkward formulation of one of his cinematographic mottos: when he is directing, the truth as such always comes second. I Vitelloni (1953) is his first venture into biographical fiction. For his fourth film, Fellini draws on his childhood memories.6 A band of young adults – loafers, vitelloni – who are continually playing pranks, drift idly through a grim and dreary provincial town (Rimini?). They all dream of leaving, but in the end only Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi) has the courage to move to Rome. Twenty years later, Amarcord (1973) tells a similar story. This time the main characters are a group of adolescents. Their pranks bring a ray of light to an otherwise gloomy town, Rimini, which for the occasion has been recreated in the studio.7 Their mischief is punctuated by female figures who embody the agonies and ecstasies of their sexual desire. In each consecutive film Fellini tells the same story, not by picking up where he has left off, but by changing his perspective, as if he were shifting his camera angle. From I Vitelloni to Amarcord, the main characters become younger, while at the same time Fellini expands his cinematographic vocabulary. His growing command of narrative techniques prompts him to introduce a new character with an undetermined status in Amarcord, a narrator who inserts himself between the spectator and the story, reminding us that the cinema mediates between the viewer and reality.

3 Federico Fellini, caricature, from the period in Rimini.

Female obsessions Fellini stages the same events in his life in a number of films. This recurrence is not mere repetition, but rather an attempt to tell a different version of the same story and enrich its meaning. In this respect, the comparison of two sequences, the confession in Amarcord and the visions in City of Women (1980), sheds light on the development of the filmmaker’s vision.8 In City of Women, Fellini first proposes a typology of femininity, which he further expands in Amarcord. Titta (Bruno Zanin), the main character of Amarcord, is questioned by the priest: “Do you touch yourself? Do you know Saint Louis weeps when you touch yourself!” The adolescent says to himself: “But how can you not touch yourself when she looks at you that way?…” In an introspective moment, Titta makes an inventory of the female species, full of mammary and gluteal protuberances… The list of his obsessions includes the buxom tobacconist with the tantalising bosom, the math teacher with the appearance of a lioness, the peasant women of Saint Anthony straddling their bicycles, the unabashedly nymphomaniac Volpina, and finally the femme fatale Gradisca entering a movie theatre. In fact we are already well-acquainted with the Felliniesque women who populate his films: isn’t Saraghina in 8½ a carbon copy of Volpina in Amarcord, isn’t the tobacconist in Amarcord the same as the peasant woman in City of Women?9 The sequence of visions in City of Women is based on the same model, a typology cast in the narrative form of a memory. It is not the simple confession of an adolescent, but an incursion into the subconscious of the character played by

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 10

10

12-02-14 17:03

Marcello Mastroianni, an actor who on several occasions has been used by Fellini as his double. Snaporaz, played by Mastroianni, a man in his fifties who has lost his way, is lured by strange noises under his bed and discovers a mysterious entrance there.10 It is the top end of a giant fairground slide into which he is engulfed. It is the start of a descent into the imaginary, into the heart of the image factory. With every turn, the mesmerised Mastroianni discovers new projections of the great feminine figures that marked his childhood and first stirred his erotic urges. Constructed like the scene in Amarcord, it is an accumulation of obsessions with female figures. We meet the fishmonger, the nurse, the housewife, the femme fatale, the widow in the graveyard, the mythical actresses seen in the cinema, and finally, the prostitute with her monumental ass. The formal similarity between these two sequences should not hide the fact that Fellini’s treatment of the subject has clearly evolved. In Amarcord it takes on a classic narrative form, while in City of Women the place where the images are formed – the collective imagination, to speak in Jungian terms – is personified. The descent is a metaphorical exploration of the unconscious, a call on memory. Three old men in tuxedos precede Mastroianni down the slide of memory. The fairground and the slide symbolise places of entertainment. The three old men are there to remind us of this; we had already seen them in Fellini’s Roma (1972), where they acted as presenters of the variety show. In the visions scene in City of Women, they announce which women are actual memories and which are only representations. The imagination becomes a mental variety show, an inexhaustible stock of images from which the director can draw at will to compose his films.

Images according to Jung In the early 1960s, Fellini is introduced to the works of Jung by Dr. Ernst Bernhard and acquaints himself with Jung’s theories of dream analysis and the collective unconscious. He then begins to meticulously record his dreams in drawings and writings, an enterprise that he would pursue until 1990.11 Fellini is very enthusiastic about Jung’s ideas because they provide him with a theoretical structure for his cinematographic research. As the psychoanalyst wrote:

5 This was the first long interview with Fellini, directed by André Delvaux for Belgian television. 6 I Vitelloni is Fellini’s third full-length film, and his fourth film if we include the episode A Marriage Agency from the film Love in the City. 7 Fellini left Rimini in 1937 and only returned in 1946, after the town had been mostly destroyed during the war. We can imagine how traumatic the experience was for someone who said that he no longer recognised his home town. He had lost the place of his memories, more precisely, the set of his past. For Amarcord, he recreated a town resembling Rimini in Studio 5, and when he made I Vitelloni, he chose to film in Ostia, near Rome. “I filmed I Vitelloni in Ostia because it is an artificial Rimini: it is more like Rimini than the real thing […] It is in fact a reconstruction of the town as I remember it, which you can visit, how do you say, as a tourist, without fear of being drawn in.” Les Propos de Fellini, Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1980, pp. 51-52. 8 In a letter to Georges Simenon from 19 October 1979, Fellini describes the scene of the slide in City of Women as a sequence of visions (Federico Fellini and Georges Simenon, Carissimo Simenon, mon cher Fellini, Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 1998, p. 66). 9 In Fellini, un rêve, une vie (Paris: Cerf, 1997), Jean-Max Méjean defines the Felliniesque woman as a polysemous creature, though she is certainly also polymorphous. 10 The character played by Marcello Mastroianni in City of Women is called Snaporaz. This strange name had already made a brief appearance in 8½. When Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) meets one of his old friends, the latter greets him with the enigmatic words “my good old Snaporaz.” This is a typically Felliniesque way to discretely stress the repetitive nature of a story with auto­ biographical overtones. 11 Over a period of almost thirty years Fellini recorded his dreams in two large albums of drawings. They were recently published in a facsimile edition: The Book of Dreams, New York: Rizzoli, 2008. 12 C.G. Jung a.o., Man and his Symbols, Garden City: Doubleday, 1964, p. 26. 13 Letter from Federico Fellini to Georges Simenon, 19 October 1979 (Federico Fellini and Georges Simenon, op. cit.).

I have found again and again in my professional work that the images and ideas that dreams contain cannot possibly be explained solely in terms of memory. They express new thoughts that have never yet reached the thres­ hold of consciousness.12

From 8½ onwards, his films become more introspective, and Fellini attempts to

find a cinematographic language capable of translating internal feelings that fluctuate between the unconscious, memories and dreams. In a letter to his friend Georges Simenon, another confirmed Jungian, Fellini describes the scene in City of Women as follows: I am now filming sequences, which I have given the generic name ‘visions’: it is a long journey, a protracted fall of the hero who descends along a spiralling slide, is swallowed up, re-emerges and once again plunges into the bright obscurity of his female mythology.13

In City of Women, Fellini pursues the experiment on which he had embarked in Amarcord. He develops a formal method that grounds the analogy between imagination and spectacle. But he goes one step further by adding a new presence to his typology of femininity. The three old men greet her with a song:

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 11

11

12-02-14 17:03

“Here she is, the cinema…” This is what appears in the midst of the procession of women: the cinema! It may seem strange to situate the cinema at the centre of a gallery of women. But the build-up is subtle: Fellini begins by projecting images of femmes fatales from old films onto the screen of a cinema, when the auditorium suddenly changes into a giant bed on which a row of boys masturbate while they gaze at the screen. Fellini is clearly trying to define his relation with the dark cinema and to find a place for it among his memories of women. In Amarcord, Fellini’s approach quickly turns into slapstick. In the erotically charged scene, Titta follows the magnificent Gradisca (Magali Noël) into a cinema. The eager adolescent, alone in the dark theatre with this incarnation of the femme fatale, sits down next to her and puts his hand on her thigh. Gradisca, sensually smoking a cigarette, takes her eyes from the screen and snaps at him: “Are you looking for something?” The adolescent then flees in a panic. In Amarcord, the seduction game is played by a man and a woman who are both watching the same film in the dark cinema. In City of Women, Fellini sublimates the relationship, making it more abstract. He shifts it from the auditorium to the screen and vice-versa. It is a radically different treatment of the same idea. The cinema as a place where the image of a woman is projected, the dark film theatre as a probable place of origin reflects Fellini’s ambiguous relation­ ship with women and film, as if they were indistinguishable. He explained this when the film first came out:

4 Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of late May 1980.

The ritual of going to the cinema is in itself profoundly feminine. The way we sit together in the dark, in an almost placental situation, the play of shadow and light, those giant transfigured images. In the cinema, everything has to do with projection, doesn’t it? And isn’t a woman a kind of screen onto which men can project their fantasies?14 (ill. 4)

The circulation of images Film acts as a mediator between reality and the way we perceive it. Fellini is conscious of its intermediary role and its power. He continuously questions the status of the image and the truthfulness of the message. In the second half of the twentieth century, which was largely dominated by the problem of the image, Fellini takes on the mediatisation of reality to its full extent, in which the event quickly changes into a spectacle. Fellini returns to the same images, questioning their origin and their future. In the end he never believed that they were neutral, on the contrary, he recognised that they were being manipulated and interpreted. This may be a lesson he learned from the distance that is a requisite of caricature, or something he remembered from the political claims of neorealism. We must not forget that Fellini was a contemporary of the birth of the media image. The simultaneous rise of cinema and the illustrated press paved the way for a new form of representation. The media create the event, and the image that they distribute makes the star. The illustrated press, television, posters, advertising, and film shape the image of reality and impose themselves as the new instruments of popular culture. Fellini makes abundant use of these instruments, for example in the miracle scene in La Dolce Vita, staged as a media show, or in the scene in which Anita Ekberg poses on a giant billboard in The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (1962), or in the televised comeback of Ginger and Fred… In the 1950s, the reconstruction of Italy, which had been taken up immediately following the war, had given way to prosperity. The scars of war were healing, and the country embraced the sweet life, with Rome leading the way. In the new

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 12

5 “The beautiful sites of Italy!”, La Domenica del Corriere, 17 August 1952.

12

12-02-14 17:03

electric society, people discovered the joys of consumerism, advertising and leisure – as well as their excesses (ill. 5). The deep antagonism between the old and the new Rome became more visible than ever. The Vatican, which was only a few blocks away from the new hub of debauchery, the Via Veneto, cast a disapproving eye upon the loss of values in the modern world. A detailed analysis of the sources of La Dolce Vita shows how deeply the film was influenced by reality, with all its references to the changing times, from religion as a spectacle to loose morals, from the rise of stardom to the suicide of the intellectual.

Felliniesque reality When Fellini was working with Flaiano and Pinelli on the script of La Dolce Vita, he regularly met up with photographers, with his arms full of magazines.15 (ill. 6)

14 Ornella Volta, “Autour de la Cité des femmes,” Michel Ciment (ed.), Federico Fellini Dossier Positif-Rivages, Paris: Rivages, February 1988, p.123. 15 Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli were Fellini’s faithful scripwriters. 16 Les Propos de Fellini, op. cit., pp. 107-108. 17 Paparazzi is the Italian plural form of paparazzo. The term was invented by Fellini and popularised by La Dolce Vita. One of its possible sources may have been a contraction of the words papatacco (small mosquito) and ragazzo (boy). 18 CIAK Newsreel, 1 May 1956. With the strong rise of communism, the Catholic Church develops a social doctrine in order to tighten its grip on the popular classes. In 1955, pope Pius XII, in a strategic attempt to win over the working classes, establishes 1 May as the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. On 1 May 1956, a statue of Christ the Worker is blessed before it is transported by helicopter to the Vatican.

I spent many evenings with the photographers of Via Veneto, talking with Tazio Secchiaroli and the others and learning about the tricks of their trade: How they tracked down their prey, what they did to make them nervous and how they prepared their reports to suit the demands of the different papers.16 In July 1958, near Terni, two children claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary. The photographer Tazio Secchiaroli covered the event and published his photo-report in Settimano Giorno. Two years later, Fellini filmed the same miracle, the popular hysteria and the accompanying media circus. In November 1958, Secchiaroli once again made the headlines of the magazines by photographing the striptease of a Turkish dancer in a fashionable club. The photos were particularly shocking because they showed Rome’s young jet-setters participating in the debauchery. Fellini would adapt the event for the striptease scene in La Dolce Vita. Rock ’n’ roll was conquering Rome. L’Espresso of 26 October 1956 published photos of people dancing in the streets of the city (ill. 7). Fellini picked up the story in La Dolce Vita by giving a role to a young singer, Adriano Celentano, who in the film launches into a frenzied rock ’n’ roll song as Anita Ekberg takes to the dance floor. All the visiting stars began to gravitate towards the bars and nightclubs in the Via Veneto. From that moment on, the grand avenue became the playground of a new type of photographer, hunting for scoops. For La Dolce Vita, the spectacle of the Via Veneto and its scent of scandal were recreated in the studio. In the film, the photographer played by Walter Santesso is called Paparazzo, a name which would become synonymous with an entire profession: after La Dolce Vita, scandal photographers became known as paparazzi.17 Many of Fellini’s images have been attributed to his extravagant fantasy, although they were actually based in real events. This is most notably the case with the opening scene of La Dolce Vita, which was inspired by a catholic newsreel showing a statue of Jesus Christ being transported by a helicopter.18 The script of La Dolce Vita, full of references to actual events, depicts life as it is represented by the new media. In a fascinating to-and-fro between fact and fiction, Fellini constructs his own reality. By appropriating media events, breaking with linear narrative and deconstructing the story, Fellini produces a powerful statement of the modern turn that his cinema is taking. With his use of biographical inserts and the mediatisation of reality, he experiments with film and questions its form.

6 From left to right: Fellini, his assistant Moraldo Rossi, the photographers Pierluigi Praturlon and Tazio Secchiaroli, the agent Ezio Vitale and the photographer Sandro Vespasiani, October 1958.

13

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 13

12-02-14 17:03

The myth of the fountain The history of the Trevi fountain scene in itself sums up Fellini’s complex recycling of images: the analysis of this process allows us to follow its development every step of the way. Fellini was inspired by a series of photos by Pierluigi published in 1958 in Il Tempo. They show Anita Ekberg taking a refreshing dip in the Trevi fountain on a warm summer’s night. In March 1959, at Fellini’s request, Ekberg recreated the event for La Dolce Vita, this time wearing a black dress and in the company of an escort. The images on the pages of Il Tempo are recycled in Fellini’s film. This process is typical of the creativity of a filmmaker who has the unerring talent to recognise anything that could be used as cinematographic material in his film. Twenty-seven years after La Dolce Vita, Fellini revisited the fountain sequence in The Interview (1987). The storyline of The Interview has a documentary feel about it. A Japanese television crew follows Fellini, who acts as their guide. The director plays himself, while Cinecittà no longer is the place where film sets are built, but the set itself. We meet Marcello Mastroianni in a Mandrake costume who is there to act in a commercial. Fellini, spurred on by the enthusiasm of the television crew, invites everybody to meet Anita Ekberg.19 The surprise visit turns into an improvised party. Mastroianni the magician conjures up a screen on which he projects two scenes from La Dolce Vita, including the fountain sequence. Before the eyes of the world – in this case, the Japanese television crew – the eternal couple on the screen plays out its role as archetype of romance, and as a symbol of the sixties and the sweet life. The images of La Dolce Vita from 1960, borrowed from Pierluigi, have been superseded by the bitter conclusion of The Interview. We know that some Felliniesque images have their antecedents, but here Fellini questions their future. The filmmaker is clearly aware of the fact that the image he created twenty-seven years earlier has changed. It has become an icon. It has been taken over and trans­formed by collective memory. By confronting Marcello and Anita with their image, Fellini shows them as helpless witnesses of their own decline. They are older and have lost much of their grace and beauty, and what they see before them is not La Dolce Vita, but rather its image, the myth of La Dolce Vita. Jungians would describe this as a modern archetype of La Dolce Vita, formed by the collective imagination or unconscious. The Fellini of The Interview is not interested in accounting for La Dolce Vita, but in appropriating what we have made of it. Astonishingly, no-one until then had noticed his intervention, because Fellini has taken great care to maintain our assumptions. Still, he reworks the sequence, reframing and re-editing it by cutting certain shots.20 He decontext­ual­ ises the scene by zooming in on his main characters, and so recreates the illusion that they are a couple. And he takes things even further by recording a new sound­track for the images of La Dolce Vita. What we see in The Interview is not the Marcello of La Dolce Vita speaking with the Sylvia of La Dolce Vita, nor the Marcello of The Interview speaking with the Anita of The Interview, but the Marcello of The Interview who asks the Sylvia of La Dolce Vita: “Who are you? A goddess, a mother, the deep ocean, home. You’re Eve…” Isn’t Marcello, by speaking to a projected image, actually addressing cinema itself? This is the endpoint, the conclusion, where everything comes together, from the recurring motifs to the mediatisation of reality.

I am Fellini In this light, let us return to our strange characters and to Fellini’s growing awareness of a constitutive element in his films. During the process of filming his own story or image, Fellini wasn’t trying to insert a portrait gallery – something

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 14

7 Rome. “Rock ’n’ roll makes its first public appearance,” L’Espresso, 26 October 1956.

14

12-02-14 17:03

he had already done in his earlier films – but his relation with this gallery. Fellini feels a deep affection for the crowd of extras that populates all his films. They act as a reassuring presence with which the filmmaker loves having around. Beno Graziani remembers visiting Studio 5 at Cinecittà, which swarmed with a strange and often frightening crowd that had come to offer its services. Fellini himself described his method as follows: […] I send a small advertisement to the newspapers which says more or less: “Federico Fellini is ready to meet anyone who wishes to see him.” During the following days, I meet hundreds of people. Every idiot in Rome turns up to see me, including the police. It’s a kind of surreal madhouse, it creates a very stimulating atmosphere. I look at all of them attentively. I steal something of each visitor’s personality. One fascinates me because of his tic, while the other attracts my attention with his glasses. I sometimes add a new character to my film because I discover a new face. I may see a thousand in order to pick two, but I assimilate them all. It’s as if they were saying to me, “Take a good look at us, each of us is a bit of the mosaic you are now building up.”21 From the beginning Fellini was aware of his special, obsessive bond with the crowd of extras. It already was a source of inspiration for him in the 1960s when he first tried to recreate it in his films. The first accounts of this rather unusual search for actors began to appear in the press. During the preparations for La Dolce Vita, the weekly magazines Oggi (ill. 8) and L’Espresso published articles recounting the trials and tribulations of these casting sessions. With titles such as “Fellini in search of a face” or “Fellini in search of actresses,” the press suggested that they had almost become a part of folklore. Fellini himself tried to reconstruct the true emotions that lie behind the

19 Fellini had already played with the same idea in A Director’s Notebook when he visited Marcello Mastroianni in his house in the Via Appia Antica. 20 The effect is a consequence of the change in film format. La Dolce Vita was shot in Total­ scope, and The Interview in 4:3. But Fellini seems to accept this. If he had wished to preserve the original format of La Dolce Vita, he could have simply reduced the size of the images. 21 L’Arc, nr. 45, Paris: Duponchelle, 1990, p. 64.

8 A two-page spread in the magazine Oggi showing the search for actresses for Fellini’s new film, La Dolce Vita, 19 February 1959.

15

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 15

12-02-14 17:03

thousands of photos and letters he received. In December 1972, for example, in the issue of Vogue which he edited (ill. 9), he reproduced four photos with excerpts from the accompanying letters: “I am an eighteen year old girl, or almost… You will say ‘well, she’s not pretty, she’s not tall, why would she want to be an actress?’ Well, not really a star, but a supporting role. Giulia.” Or: “The other night I was alone… with myself, when I thought of becoming the ideal actress. It is now up to you to ask me for a screen test. See you soon. Theodora C.”22 Since his first film, Fellini had received letters, often with photos. Each time he met a potential extra, he kept the portrait and sometimes took notes. Fellini’s albums contain several thousands of photographs sent by amateur actors or ordinary people who reacted directly to the power of identification that film offers.23 With their spontaneous aesthetics that lack the sophistication that is usually reserved for professional actors, these snapshots from personal albums were selected with great care. We see a woman in her sixties, hiding her bare breasts behind a large hat, looking straight into the camera with a broad smile. Ten or twenty years later, the girls have changed. Now the breasts are visible and the look provocative. We also see a group of friends with glasses in their hands: fourteen of them packed together in a small colour photograph, with a red arrow at top left identifying the woman who sent the picture, a strange photo, torn in two. One wonders what has led to this gesture. Why send a picture that reveals so little? As if everything revolves around showing one’s self, whether too much or too little, in the end it doesn’t matter. Each photo tells its own story, it is a projection of the self. For some these pictures represent a transgression of everyday life, and for others the hope of a glorified individuality. As a whole they form an X-ray of the spirit of an age, a period which Fellini tried so hard to recreate. The Funny Face Shop, the store of funny faces reappears in another form.24 This is not the world according to Fellini, but the world as it appeared to Fellini, the world that answered his call – the one that, rightly or wrongly, considered itself Felliniesque. The world of images takes a semantic turn. When Fellini is directing his extras, he creates his own universe, but when they come spontaneously to him, each one of them seems to be saying: “I am Fellini.” For these people are Felliniesque, whereas he is only Fellini! 9 Photos and letters sent to Fellini by would-be actors who wanted to play in his films, published for the first time in the special Fellini issue of Vogue, December 1972.

16

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 16

12-02-14 17:03

In A Director’s Notebook (1969) and in his penultimate film, The Interview, Fellini looks back on his relation with his extras. In both films, the aspiring actors file through the filmmaker’s office. One of them says in a pathetic voice that a wig would really change his life, while another wants to sell a painting, saying that the painter whose name he has forgotten is greater than Raphael! The incongruous dialogues raise a smile, while the obvious fact that they have been staged affects their authenticity. None of these attempts manages to recreate the powerful bond between the director and his characters. At the end of A Director’s Notebook Fellini’s off-screen voice confesses with some humility: Yes, I know, it might seem cynical, cruel. But no, I am very fond of all these characters who are always chasing after me, following me from one film to another. They are all a little mad, I know that. They say they need me. But the truth is that I need them more […].

A recursive cinema In A Director’s Notebook, a documentary produced for the American TV-channel NBC, a kind of “Fellini by himself” already heralding The Clowns and The Inter­ view, the filmmaker subverts the rules of the genre and follows the biographical path already laid down in 8½. While 8½, Fellini’s Roma and Amarcord25 could be described as biographical fiction, A Director’s Notebook, The Clowns and The Interview are fictional biographies that are closer to documentary essays. Fellini had sought to reveal himself through biographical fiction, so why did he not seize on the possibilities offered by the documentary form? Why did he under­ mine the genre by inserting a large dose of fiction? Most probably because for him, the biographical is not a question of subject matter but one of material. He does not want to tell his story, but delves into a stock of images and draws on a collection of cinematographic material. And this visual repository is essential for his creative process. According to a clearly Felliniesque mechanism, showing how the film is being made is a stronger guarantee of authenticity than the film itself. The operation is apparently just as important as the result, and should not show what is on and off screen, but the image and the factory of images. As if the film is only an illusion whose effects have to be neutralised by showing how it is being made, which in a sense means that we must always stay one step ahead of the illusion. Since La Dolce Vita, Fellini largely abandoned linear narrative and concentrated on introspection. Film should not only be used to tell a story, but must be questioned to determine what it can say, what it can show, and finally, what it wants us to see. It is a means to stage a personal quest, to understand one’s own history. In these three mock documentaries that mark the second part of his career (A Director’s Notebook, The Clowns and The Interview) – a continuation of his reflections on the mediatisation of reality –, Fellini pushes his biographical exploration to its limits by laying the foundations for a recursive cinema, a cinema that calls on itself to describe itself. We have come a long way from the neo-realist adventure which he experienced at the side of Rossellini.26 In the films in which Fellini casts himself in the role of director,27 cinema calls on itself to narrate the world, establishing itself not as reality or even as an image of reality, but as the projection of the image of reality through a succession of filters.28 In the end, isn’t Fellini’s cinema a cinematographic experiment at the limits of a self-referential cinema that has continued to question our relation with the world of images?

22 Vogue France, special issue edited by Fellini, December 1972-January 1973. 23 The collection is now at the small Fellini Museum at Cinecittà, and is curated by Roberto Mannoni, Fellini’s former executive producer. 24 In 1981, Diogenes publishes Fellini’s Faces. This is the only book that presents a selection from Fellini’s photo archives, an incredible collection of snapshots sent to the filmmaker. 25 I Vitelloni and La Dolce Vita are also loosely based on Fellini’s life. The former tells the story of a group of young people in a provincial town, and the latter recounts the adventures of a journalist. 26 In the 1940s, Fellini made a living as a script writer. He was very close to Roberto Rossellini, with whom he collaborated on Rome, Open City (1945), Paisà (1946), L’Amore (1948), Francesco, giullare di Dio (1950) and Europa ’51 (1952). 27 Fellini also films himself while he is filming Roma, for example in the scene where he meets with young people, or when he inter­ views Anna Magnani. 28 In a dream dating from the end of May 1980, Fellini draws himself while he is filming or projecting (it is not absolutely clear which) the image of a buxom naked woman. He confesses: “These images are truer than truth itself!” (ill. 4) Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini (eds.), New York: Rizzoli, 2008, p. 543.

10 Federico Fellini, sketch of a prostitute.

17

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 17

12-02-14 17:03

Popular Culture

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 18

12-02-14 17:03

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 19

12-02-14 17:03

After leaving his home province of Romagna to try his luck in Rome, Federico Fellini earned a living as a caricaturist for satirical newspapers. Employed successively by 420, Marc’­ Aurelio and Travaso, he worked in a vein of schoolboy humour exploiting the war of the sexes and the comic effects of repetition. Caricature is an art of distortion which only needs a few lines to capture a situation, a pose or a subject. With his pencil, the young Fellini deftly conjured up a world that was like a great parade, full of strange faces and generously endowed female creatures, a formula which he would keep using through­out his long career. At the same time, he was starting to write screenplays, working along­ side Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City, 1945, Paisà, 1946, Europa ’51, 1952), but also Pietro Germi (In the Name of the Law, 1948), Luigi Comen­cini (Behind Closed Shutters, 1950) and Giorgio Pastina (Came­ riera bella presenza offresi, 1951). In 1950, he co-wrote his first film, Variety Lights, with Alberto Lattuada. Not that Fellini ever gave up drawing. As a filmmaker, he always carried some pencils in his pocket and expressed himself in images as much as he did in language, using sketches to convey the situations he wanted to shoot to his actors and crew and, starting in the 1960s, transcribing his own dreams.

Caricatures, juvenilia Italian poster for Roberto Rossellini’s L’Amore, screenplay co-written by Fellini, 1948.

Federico Fellini, The two comrades, Il Travaso, 27 April 1947: “— Comrade, I just fell from the fourth floor! — But Comrade, it’s not mentioned in L’Unità! — Comrade, then it’s not true. We’ll meet in the cinema. Long live Togliatti!”

Fellini and a friend, Christmas 1944.

Federico Fellini, Il Travaso, 4 May 1947 “— Anything else, sir? — Another glass of water, please.”

Federico Fellini, 1940.

20

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 20

12-02-14 17:03

21

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 21

12-02-14 17:04

The rise of the illustrated press spawned a new genre: the cinenovel, the ancestor of the photo-novel. This form enjoyed its greatest popularity in post-war Italy, where millions of copies were sold every week. The first version of The White Sheik (1952), the archetypical photo-novel, was written by Michelangelo Antonioni who sent a manuscript of some twenty pages entitled Cara Ivan to the producer Carlo Ponti, who in turn gave Fellini and Tullio Pinelli – who later became one of Fellini’s regular scriptwriters – the task to write the screenplay. But Antonioni withdrew

from the project, so Fellini was chosen to make the film, his debut as a director. The White Sheik relates the adven­ t­ures of Wanda and Ivan, a young couple up from the provinces who are honeymooning in Rome. Taking advantage of her husband’s lack of attention, Wanda escapes from their packed programme and puts her time in the capital to good use by paying a visit to the White Sheik, the hero of her favourite photo-novel. During this unhoped-for encounter she learns all about the excesses of the world of entertain­ment. This film explores some

great Fellini themes such as popular culture, as shaped by the illustrated press and show business, religion and its ceremonies, and provincials in Rome.

The photo-novel Brunella Bovo, The White Sheik, 1952.

22

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 22

12-02-14 17:04

Ernesto Almirante in the role of film director, The White Sheik.

Alberto Sordi, The White Sheik, 1952. Alberto Sordi and Brunella Bovo, The White Sheik, 1952.

Italian poster for The White Sheik, 1952.

23

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 23

12-02-14 17:04

Cover of the photo-novel based on La Strada, 1954.

Inside spread and cover (p. 25) of the photo-novel based on Variety Lights, 1950.

24

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 24

12-02-14 17:04

25

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 25

12-02-14 17:04

Fellini had a lifelong passion for comic strips, in which narrative is condensed into a handful of frames. Reminis­ cences of those popular superheroes, notably of the character Mandrake, found their way into his films. Created in 1934 by Lee Falk, Mandrake, the music-hall magician, embodies another recurring Fellini­es­ que theme: popular entertainment. Fellini made numerous attempts to adapt Mandrake’s incredible adven­ tures, but to no avail. In fact, it was the print press that gave him the chance to carry through his project. As guest editor of the December 1972 issue of Vogue, Fellini, in collaboration with the photographers Franco Pinna and Tazio Secchiaroli, came up with a photo-novel in which Marcello Mas­tro­ ianni played the role of Mandrake. The ageing Mastroianni also made an appearance as Mandrake in The Interview (1987), a film constructed in the form of a mock documentary, but this time for the purposes of advertising. Here, Fellini was not only having a go at his star’s image; he was also questioning the value of cinema when measured by the criteria of television.

Mandrake the Magician

Federico Fellini as guest editor of a special issue of Vogue, photo-novel of the adventures of Mandrake, December 1972.

26

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 26

12-02-14 17:04

Marcello Mastroianni as Mandrake in the photo-novel in Vogue, 1972.

27

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 27

12-02-14 17:04

Whenever he was asked about his next film, Fellini would reply: “Mastorna.” In fact, he never managed to make his film about this character who dis­ covers the afterlife. The doomed film was postponed several times, before it was permanently shelved. Dino de Laurentiis, though, had agreed to produce the film. At great cost, Fellini had sets built of the cathedral of Cologne and of a lifesize aeroplane at Dinocittà (the producer’s studio). He eventually managed to shoot the first scenes but then became seriously ill and the project was put on hold. In the early 1990s the journalist Vicenzo Mollica suggested that he revive the project. The two friends shared a passion for comics: instead of a film, Mastorna would be a comic book! Mollica asked Milo Manara to get involved. This was the start of a strange exchange between Mollica, Fellini and Manara. Fellini drew a version of the story in the form of a storyboard and gave it to Mollica, who owned one of the first fax machines and forwarded the panels to Manara in Northern Italy. In 1992, this process eventually led to the publication of Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, detto Fernet in the maga­zine Ciak. Credited to both Fellini and Manara, this was one of Fellini’s last works.

The voyage of Mastorna Marcello Mastroianni during a screen test for Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, 1966.

Federico Fellini and Milo Manara, Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, CIAK Racconta, 1992.

28

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 28

28

12-02-14 17:04

Federico Fellini, sketch for Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, 1962.

Milo Manara, sketch for Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, 1992.

Federico Fellini and Milo Manara, Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, CIAK Racconta, 1992.

Marcello Mastroianni during a screen test for Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, 1966.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 29

12-02-14 17:04

Whether as political symbol, attribute of popular culture or object of mockery, parades are found in every form in Fellini’s work, from fascist pageants to processions of streetwalkers or clowns. “We were born with three images: the king, Il Duce and the pope,” he used to say.1 In his films we can still sense the ridiculous pomposity of those fascist parades marching through the scene at a running pace, as well as a mixture of fascination and derision with regard to the Church. “I love the choreography of the Catholic Church. I love its unchanging, hyp­notic repre­ sen­tations, its sumptuous theatre, its lugubrious dirges, the catechism, the election of the new pontiff, and the grandiose mortuary procedure. The merits of the Church are those of any mental construction which helps protect us against the engulfing magma of the unconscious.”2

Ecclesiastical parade, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Fascist parade, The White Sheik, 1952.

Parade of bikers, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Parades Procession of prostitutes in a brothel, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

30

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 30

30

12-02-14 17:05

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 31

12-02-14 17:05

When Fellini moved to Rome at the age of nineteen he lived in a family boarding house on Via Albalonga. In the evening he used to dine in a small trattoria, where he would observe the gargantuan eaters of spaghetti that are part of Italian folklore. When the weather improved, restaurant tables spilled out across the pavement and into the road, becoming a colourful meeting place. The director recreated this typically Roman ambience in the dinner scene of Fellini’s Roma (1972). “Everything here belongs to the belly, becomes belly. […] A spectacle to be devoured with the eyes, but also the menace of all those eyes, mouths, faces and overflowing bodies, eager to swallow.”3

Diners

Dinner scene, La Domenica del Corriere, 29 May 1965. Dinner scene, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1959.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 32

32

32

12-02-14 17:05

Dinner scene, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 33

Federico Fellini on the cover of Télérama on the occasion of the release of Fellini’s Roma, 4 June 1972.

12-02-14 17:05

Dinner scene in Cinecittà’s Studio 5, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 34

34

12-02-14 17:05

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 35

12-02-14 17:05

Fellini’s mythology often invoked the theatre of illusion. Beauty contests, dance halls and carnivals, those temples to the cult of appearance, provided regular inspiration. Circus and music hall also appear through­ out his work, from Variety Lights (1950) to I Clowns (1970). According to the legend, the young Fellini was so fascinated by travelling performers that he ran away to follow a circus caravan. “Immediately when I saw it I felt traumatized, and at the same time totally committed to that noise and music, to those monstrous apparit­ions, to those death-defying acts. I saw the big top as a miracle factory where things were done that were impossible for most men. This kind of show, based on wonder and fantasy, on pranks and nonsense, and on the lack of any coldly intellectual meaning, is just the thing for me.”4

Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina, La Strada, 1954.

The circus

Federico Fellini and a clown, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Richard Basehart as the tightrope walker, La Strada, 1954.

36

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 36

12-02-14 17:05

Clowns, 8½, 1963.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 37

37

12-02-14 17:05

Richard Basehart, La Strada, 1954. Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954. Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina, La Strada, 1954.

Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954. Poster for Silnice (La Strada), 1954, design Enrico Deseta. Giulietta Masina, La Strada, 1954.

Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954.

38

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 38

12-02-14 17:06

Poster for La Strada, 1954. Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954. Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954.

Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954. Richard Basehart and Giulietta Masina, La Strada, 1954. Richard Basehart, La Strada, 1954.

39

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 39

12-02-14 17:06

Anthony Quinn, La Strada, 1954.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 40

40

12-02-14 17:06

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 41

12-02-14 17:06

Carnival, I Vitelloni, 1953. Marcello Mastroianni, City of Women, 1980.

42

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 42

12-02-14 17:06

Alberto Sordi, I Vitelloni, 1953.

The end of carnival, I Vitelloni, 1953.

43

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 43

12-02-14 17:06

But who are these weirdoes, these living caricatures who amble through Fellini’s films? They are the heirs to a long tradition of grotesques, figures out of commedia dell’arte, the attributes of the spectacle. They make up the world according to Fellini, halfway between carnival and squalor. Together, they form the great parade of “Circus Fellini.”

Grotesques Ginger and Fred, 1986.

Satyricon, 1969.

44

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 44

12-02-14 17:06

Max Born, Satyricon, 1969.

Mario Romagnoli, Satyricon, 1969.

Ginger and Fred, 1986. Satyricon, 1969.

Ginger and Fred, 1986. The large sugar dress, photo for the special Fellini issue of Vogue, 1972.

from left to right Federico Fellini, drawing, no date. Federico Fellini, drawing, 1972. Federico Fellini, drawing, November 1974. Federico Fellini, drawing, July 1974. Federico Fellini, drawing, July 1974. Federico Fellini, drawing, no date. Federico Fellini, drawing, February 1972. Federico Fellini, drawing of Clemente Fracassi, 26 October 1974.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 45

Satyricon, 1969. Ginger and Fred, 1986. Federico Fellini, collage and drawing over photograph.

45

12-02-14 17:07

Fellini employed the same method before each new shoot: “I send a small advertisement to the news­papers which says more or less: ‘Federico Fellini is ready to meet all those people who wish to see him.’ The following days I meet hundreds of people. Every idiot in Rome turns up to see me, including the police. It’s a kind of surreal mad­ house, it creates a very stimulating atmosphere. I look at all of them attentively. I steal something of each visitor’s personality. […] I may see a thousand in order to pick two, but I assimilate them all. It’s as if they were saying to me, ‘Take a good look at us, each of us is a bit of the mosaic you are now building up’.”5 At the interview, potential extras were asked to leave a photo. This repertoire of weird faces forms an astonishing collection, which Fellini himself classified by type: Interesting faces, Exotic men, Pretty women, Ample women with sensual faces, Grannies, Dancers, Ugly mugs, Generously endowed, Whorish girls, Naïve and droll girls, Little fag faces, Clowns, Sophisticated, Funereal women, etc. This is not the world according to Fellini, but the world as it appeared to Fellini, the world that answered his call – the one that, rightly or wrongly, considered itself Felliniesque.

Casting sessions Photo of would-be actor sent to Fellini. Federico Fellini, casting session for A Director’s Notebook, 1969.

Photo of would-be actor sent to Fellini.

46

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 46

12-02-14 17:07

Casting session for Fellini’s Casanova, 1976.

Photos of would-­be actors sent to Fellini.

47

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 47

12-02-14 17:07

Photos of would-­be actors sent to Fellini.

48

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 48

12-02-14 17:07

49

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 49

12-02-14 17:07

One evening in November 1958, a young Roman aristocrat was cele­ brat­­ing his birthday in a fashionable night­club, the Rugantino, which was popular with bright young things but also with film stars, writers and intel­ lectuals. That night, Anita Ekberg set the joint on fire by launching into a wild, barefoot dance. Eager to outdo the star, Aiché Nanà, a young actress desperate to make a name for herself, raised the roof with a provocative striptease. An uproar ensued. The scene was immortalised by Tazio Secchiaroli, one of the first celebrity photo­graphers, and the next morning his pictures were on the front page of all the magazines. Italians were outraged, and worried by the decadence of the nation’s high society. As for Fellini, who at the time was in the middle of his screenplay for La Dolce Vita (1960), the event inspired him to write the scene with the strip­ tease by the actress Nadia Gray.

The Rugantino Music hall scene, Variety Lights, 1950.

Striptease scene, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

50

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 50

12-02-14 17:08

Striptease scene, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

51

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 51

12-02-14 17:08

Nadia Gray’s striptease, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

52

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 52

12-02-14 17:08

“Turkish girl strips,” L’Espresso, 16 November 1958.

Aiché Nanà strips at the Rugantino, November 1958.

53

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 53

12-02-14 17:08

In the 1950s, the American studios were looking to cut costs. At the time, Cinecittà, with its sophisticated infra­ structure and its cheap skilled labour was a commercial godsend for the big Hollywood production companies. Over the next years, these giants of cinema invaded the place with a trawl of film stars, love affairs and scandals in their wake. Rome became known as Hollywood-on-Tiber. This was the birth of the celebrity press, scandal sheets that published photos taken on the sly. The Via Veneto became the playground of a new kind of photographer who was always hunting for a scoop or a snapshot of a star. Pictures that fetched high prices grabbed the headlines of the gutter press. In La Dolce Vita, Fellini shows the entertainment world and casts an amused eye on this game of appear­ ances. The photographer in the film, Paparazzo, played by Walter Santesso, is modelled after Tazio Secchiaroli, the most famous photo­ grapher at the time. Fifty years later, La Dolce Vita is a cult film and the term paparazzi has become a house­hold word.

Paparazzi Paparazzi photographing the arrival of Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

54

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 54

12-02-14 17:08

Ava Gardner on the front page of L’Espresso, 26 July 1956. Photographers at work, L’Espresso, 17 February 1957. Candid photos of Ava Gardner and Walter Chiari swimming, 26 August 1956.

Anouk Aimée and two photographers in the Via Veneto, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

55

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 55

12-02-14 17:08

Anita Ekberg and her husband Anthony Steel about to give chase to a photographer, 15 August 1958.

Anthony Steel chasing a photographer, 15 August 1958. Anita Ekberg greeting journalists with a bow and arrow, 20 October 1960.

The actor Walter Chiari chasing Tazio Secchiaroli, 1958.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 56

12-02-14 17:09

Federico Fellini, drawing of Walter Santesso as Paparazzo, around 1960. Photographer with his damaged camera, 1950s. Walter Santesso, the photographer Paparazzo in La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Tazio Secchiaroli in front of the Café de Paris, Via Veneto, 1950s.

57

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 57

57

12-02-14 17:09

Sandro Simeoni, poster for La Dolce Vita, 1960.

58

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 58

12-02-14 17:09

59

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 59

12-02-14 17:09

In the 1940s, Ginger and Fred became acclaimed music hall stars with their imitation of the tap dancing of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Forty years later, forgotten by the public, they are hauled back into the limelight by television for a comeback, randomly surrounded by a troupe of dwarves, a lover of extraterrestrials and a defrocked priest (played by photo­ grapher Jacques-Henri Lartigue). Among this Felliniesque crowd was an amazing host of look-alikes, as if to say that television is merely a pale copy, that cinema is still the original. To recruit his extras, Fellini care­ fully organised casting sessions with Deborah Beer, his set photo­grapher. Among the look-alikes of celebrities from the worlds of cinema and literature were two Woody Allens, a Kojak, a Marlene Dietrich and a Brigitte Bardot. Fellini even took on literature, with look-alikes of Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka.

Look-alikes Marlene Dietrich and Kojak, casting for lookalikes, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

Ronald Reagan, Brigitte Bardot, Bette Davis, Woody Allen 1 and Woody Allen 2, casting for look-alikes, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

60

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 60

60

12-02-14 17:09

Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust and Elisabeth II, casting for look-alikes, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 61

12-02-14 17:09

Bette Davis, casting for look-alikes, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 62

12-02-14 17:09

63

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 63

12-02-14 17:09

Anita Ekberg had caused a sensation in La Dolce Vita. The following year, Fellini offered Anita Ekberg a rather unusual role in his new film, The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (1962). Here, a giant advertising poster shows the generously endowed actress reclining, encouraging passers-by to drink more milk! This billboard stands in the middle of a vacant lot, facing the buildings of the EUR district, built under Mussolini. This “gross indecency” incurs the wrath of a local resident, the very puritanical Doctor Antonio. Outraged at this assault on morality, he starts up a censorship campaign, but then the splendid creature comes down from her poster and starts trying to seduce him. Fellini was once again exploring the theme of morality ravaged by the images of the modern world.

The Temptations of Doctor Antonio

Peppino De Filippo as Saint George, The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

Anita Ekberg on an advertisement poster, “Drink more milk,” The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

64

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 64

12-02-14 17:09

The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

Peppino De Filippo, The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

65

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 65

12-02-14 17:09

Ginger and Fred (1986) is a long diatribe against private television and the mediocrity of its fare. “For me, television has nothing in common with cinema: it reduces and mortifies films. In fact, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a televisual style. […] Television is a domestic appliance, incapable of conveying images by an authentic filmmaker.”6 Fellini even interlarded his film with mock advertisements and over-the-top posters. The filmmaker targets television and casts a critical eye on this brave new world in which commercials persuade us that everything is for sale. These were the decisive years when the Italian government started privatising the public channels and Silvio Berlus­coni laid the foundation of a powerful media group. Soon the businessman was arguing that films on television should be broken up to fit in com­mercials. Fellini was furious.

Mock advertise­ments Group of young hippies, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Federico Fellini, sketches for a mock poster, The Voice of the Moon, 1990.

66

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 66

12-02-14 17:10

Mock advertisement posters, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

67

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 67

12-02-14 17:10

Fellini at Work

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 68

12-02-14 17:10

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 69

12-02-14 17:10

“I dread the script. Odiously indis­pens­ able. In order to work I need to create a feeling of schoolboy camaraderie with my collaborators, to share the same memories, the same tastes, the same jokes, in an atmosphere of contestation and mockery towards the work we are trying to do. Against the film. I’ve always been lucky enough to have this schoolboy comradeship with the scriptwriters who have worked with me, from Tullio Pinelli to Ennio Flaiano, from Zapponi to Rondi and to Tonino Guerra. When I have an idea for the next film, I speak with them about it, as if I was telling them about something that I had partly glimpsed and partly dreamed, some­ thing that […] really happened to someone I know, who could also be me.”1 In 1956, at Fellini’s request, the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini worked on the script of Nights of Cabiria (1957). Fellini had read his first novel, The Ragazzi, and the two men had become friends. Fellini was already working with the scriptwriters Flaiano and Pinelli, but he believed that Pasolini would infuse the typically Roman scenes with a unique atmosphere, and make the prostitutes and their pimps vivid and convincing. Pasolini remembers: “It was I who invented the character of the crippled uncle who goes to the Sanctuary of Divine Love. It is a true story, one that I had heard. A hunchbacked pimp takes his girls to the Sanctuary and brings along his crippled uncle. But no miracle occurs, and the uncle falls down and hurts himself.”2

The scriptwriters

Federico Fellini and the scriptwriter Tullio Pinelli, around 1955.

Mario Passante in the scene of the pilgrimage, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

Pier Paolo Pasolini and Federico Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

Federico Fellini, caricature of his scriptwriter Ennio Flaiano.

70

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 70

70

12-02-14 17:10

Ennio Flaiano, Fellini and Giulietta Masina (from left to right), Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 71

12-02-14 17:10

“When starting my films, I spend most of my time sitting at my desk, doodl­ing tits and bums. It’s my way of begin­ning my film, of deciphering it through these doodles.”3 “Later, these sketches and little notes also end up in the hands of my collaborators: the set designer, the costume designer and the make-up artist all use them as models to get their own work going.”4 Piero Gherardi, Fellini’s great set and costume designer, worked with him on I Vitelloni, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits (1965). He twice won the supreme award, an Oscar, for his costumes: first for La Dolce Vita, then for 8½. Their first collaboration dates back to 1948, when they worked together on Alberto Lattuada’s film Without Pity. They would continue working together for the next twenty years. Recalling the importance of the costume designer’s role, Fellini said: “Sometimes I even use the make-up and costume to emphasise anything that may bring out the person’s psychology.”5

Giulietta Masina, La Strada, 1954.

The costumes Piero Gherardi, Fellini’s set designer.

Federico Fellini, drawing of Giulietta Masina in the costume of Gelsomina, La Strada, no date.

72

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 72

12-02-14 17:10

Pina Gualandri, costume fitting for the role of the prostitute Matilda, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

73

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 73

12-02-14 17:10

Federico Fellini, preliminary sketch of Cabiria’s costume and hairstyle, Nights of Cabiria, around 1957.

Giulietta Masina, costume fitting for the role of Cabiria, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

74

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 74

12-02-14 17:11

Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

75

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 75

12-02-14 17:11

“I am incapable of looking at things in a detached way, through the camera for example. […] I couldn’t care less about the lens. I need to be in the thick of things. I need to know everything about everyone, to make love with everything around me.”6 “With the group, we are all in the same boat so long as the filming lasts. Then we part ways as if we never met, like an army of mercenaries who have been recruited by a different lord, only to re-establish the same strong ties a year later. I like that very much. It is the highest form of social life I know.”7 In the course of his career, Fellini received twenty-four Oscar nomina­ tions and won eight: four Oscars for the best foreign language film (for La Strada in 1956, Nights of Cabiria in 1957, 8½ in 1963 and Amarcord in 1974), three Oscars for the best costumes (for La Dolce Vita in 1961 and 8½ in 1963, with costumes by Piero Gherardi, and for Fellini’s Casanova in 1976, with costumes by Danilo Donati) and an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1993.

On the camera, Federico Fellini had written: “Remember that this is a comic film,” 8½, 1963.

Behind the camera

Federico Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 1957. Federico Fellini, Il Bidone, 1955.

Federico Fellini, 8½, 1963.

76

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 76

12-02-14 17:11

Federico Fellini, 8½, 1963.

77

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 77

12-02-14 17:11

Federico Fellini looks through the camera. Federico Fellini and his director of photography, Giuseppe Rotunno, on the set of Fellini’s Casanova, 1976.

On the set of Satyricon, 1969.

Federico Fellini on the set of 8½, 1963. City of Women, 1980.

Federico Fellini and his film crew on the set of Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

78

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 78

12-02-14 17:11

Federico Fellini in action. Federico Fellini in the 1960s.

Federico Fellini looks through the camera.

Federico Fellini in action. Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, 1963.

79

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 79

12-02-14 17:11

When shooting a scene, Fellini always tried to get his actors to manifest an attitude or emotion. Words were of little interest to him at this stage. In fact, he was not much in favour of live recording. He preferred his actors simply to count rather than speak their lines: “Count up to six, slowly and bitterly, then continue up to twenty­nine, but with a hint of contempt as well.”8 “I put dialogue into the film after I have made it. The actor plays better that way, not having to remember his lines. This is all the more so because I often use nonactors and, in order to make them behave naturally, I get them to talk as they would in real life.”9 The real work on the dialogues thus began in the post-production phase, and Fellini often held casting sessions in order to find the voice that would best fit the character.

Federico Fellini and Pupella Maggio, Amarcord, 1973. Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Directing actors Federico Fellini rehearsing with Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

80

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 80

12-02-14 17:11

Federico Fellini, Marcello Mastroianni and Anouk Aimée on the set of 8½, 1963.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 81

81

12-02-14 17:12

Bernice Stegers, Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of City of Women, 1980.

82

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 82

Federico Fellini and Eddra Gale as La Saraghina, 8½, 1963.

12-02-14 17:12

83

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 83

12-02-14 17:12

“Cinema is made up of images. An image is developed with light and it is light that creates the image. In this sense, I think that cinema is really closely connected to painting, and therefore to light. In the studio, you can command, control and model the light and express yourself with it. On location, this is more difficult. [...] For me, the studio is the place where the images you have seen in your imagina­tion can be made in a totally controlled way, just as a painter does on a canvas with his brush.[…] Because cinema really is an artificial and fictional form of expression, it is normal that most films are made in the studio. In the studio we can achieve greater precision and veracity. It allows us to be more faithfull to the artificial and fictional nature of the fantasy image that we have in us.”10 “The Via Veneto which Piero Gherardi rebuilt was exact down to the smallest detail, but it had one thing peculiar to it: it was flat instead of sloping. As I worked on it I got so used to this perspective that my annoyance with the real Via Veneto grew even greater. […] When I pass the Café de Paris, I cannot help feeling that the real Via Veneto was the one in Studio 5 [at Cinecittà]. […] I also have the irresistible urge to act with the same despotic control on the real street as I do on the artificial set. This is all rather complicated, one day I should talk to someone who understands psychoanalysis.”11

Studio 5

“I was born near the sea. It has given me my most captivating memories. Now­adays it seems to me as a comforting mystery, it evokes an idea of permanency, of eternity, of a primordial element.”12

Studio reconstruction of the Via Veneto, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 84

84

12-02-14 17:12

85

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 85

12-02-14 17:12

Artificial sea, Fellini’s Casanova, 1976.

86

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 86

12-02-14 17:12

Artificial sea, And the Ship Sails On, 1983.

Model of the battleship, And the Ship Sails On, 1983.

Artificial sea, Amarcord, 1973.

87

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 87

12-02-14 17:12

The famous opening scene of La Dolce Vita (1960), in which a helicopter carries a statue of Christ through the air, has a precedent. On 1 May 1956, four years before the film was released, a Catholic newsreel showed a heli­ copter landing on Piazza del Duomo in Milan, where a solemn procession carried in a statue of Christ and lashed it to the machine. The helicopter (a Bell 47, the same model as in La Dolce Vita) and its strange passenger then took off for the Vatican to the cheers of the crowd. The irony is that this Felliniesque opening sequence was the reason that the film was censored in Spain because of its blasphemous nature! “I never had any intention to moral­ ize. I am not a moralist by nature. The interpretation of the film [La Dolce Vita] as a mirror of the times, a harsh portrayal, the chronicle and trial of an entire society, certainly was not my idea. For me, La Dolce Vita is nothing more than the story of the diurnal and nocturnal wanderings of an undistin­ guished journalist.”13

The statue of Christ the Worker fastened to a helicopter, Milan, 1 May 1956.

The helicopter Christ of the Depths and helicopter accident in the Alps, illustrations in La Domenica del Corriere, 14 September 1958.

88

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 88

12-02-14 17:12

Helicopter transporting a statue of Christ, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 89

89

12-02-14 17:13

The City of Women

90

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 90

12-02-14 17:13

91

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 91

12-02-14 17:13

Neorealism was an engaged form of cinema that dealt with the economic and social problems of Italy during the years of reconstruction. Led by Cesare Zavattini, Neorealist critics on the Left publicly attacked Fellini for betraying its precepts in La Strada (1954), a film that had been supported by the Church and earned him the label of “Catholic film­ maker.” Certainly, Fellini had begun to make films that were more concerned with individual destiny. La Strada, Il Bidone (1955) and Nights of Cabiria (1957) have often been described as “films of redemption,” and they do evoke a search by the protagonists for some­thing that will save their soul. Fellini himself spoke of “an irresistible, providen­ tial force that is innate within us.”1 Torn between an omnipresent Catholic culture and his own desires as a free man, in 1957 he wrote to a Jesuit priest: “Cabiria, my last creature, is also fragile, tender and unlucky after so much bad luck and the collapse of her innocent dream of love, still believes in love and life. My latest film ends with a lyrical explosion with musical overtones, a serenade sung in the woods; it is all very dramatic because Cabiria carries in her heart a hidden state of grace that she has just discovered. It is kinder to leave Cabiria the joy of telling us if this grace is her finding God.”2

Fellini, Catholic filmmaker? Giulietta Masina, coloured photo, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

92

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 92

12-02-14 17:13

Giulietta Masina, La Strada, 1954.

Photos and poster for La Strada, 1954.

93

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 93

12-02-14 17:13

Giulietta Masina and François Périer, coloured photo, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

94

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 94

12-02-14 17:13

François Périer, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 95

95

12-02-14 17:13

Fellini’s female obsessions jostle and teem from one film to the next, forming one big family in which he manifestly feels very much at home. The nympho­­­ mania of La Saraghina in 8½ (1963) is strangely akin to that of Volpina in Amarcord (1973), and the mammary munificence of the tobacconist in Amarcord seems carbon-copied in that of the farmer’s wife in City of Women (1980)… “La Saraghina in 8½ is a child’s image of woman, one out of a thousand different forms in which a woman can express herself. This is woman seen as rich in animal femininity, huge and elusive and at the same time sustaining, as seen through the eyes of a teenager avid for life and sex, an Italian teenager inhibited and held back by priests, Church, family and a disastrous education. A teenager who, craving a woman, imagines and desires one who is a great quantity of women.”3 Maria Antonietta Beluzzi as the tobacconist, Bruno Zanin as Titta, Amarcord, 1973.

Female obsessions

Federico Fellini, The Leopard Woman.

Dream of September 1963 P. has become an enormous, extremely soft form of transportation; lying down, stretched out upon her vast belly, clinging joyously to her immense tits that rise up like round hills in front of me, the great soft body that is wider than the road it is stretched out on, completely nude, slips along sweetly like a white vessel. Her hips touch the façades of the houses. “Oh what joy! What a party!” I shout. “My great big marvellous whore’s hips have gotten even wider! It’s wonderful! I love being up here!”4

96

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 96

12-02-14 17:13

Federico Fellini, The Book of 97Dreams, dream of September 1963.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 97

12-02-14 17:13

98

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 98

12-02-14 17:13

Maria Antonietta Beluzzi as the tobacconist, Bruno Zanin 99as Titta and Federico Fellini, Amarcord, 1973.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 99

12-02-14 17:13

Eddra Gale as La Saraghina, 8½, 1963.

100

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 100

12-02-14 17:13

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of 18 July 1980. “You see? I managed to see you for real.”

Josiane Tanzilli as Volpina, Amarcord, 1973.

Federico Fellini, preliminary sketch for the character Volpina, around 1973.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 101

101

12-02-14 17:13

In the 1950s, the pinup was emblem­ atic of both changing morals and the rise of a certain kind of men’s maga­ zine. In this modern world where images played such an important part, it was enough for a woman to be generously endowed for her to become famous. And when it came to sex symbols, Marilyn Monroe, in spite of strong competition from Brigitte Bardot, Jayne Mansfield and Anita Ekberg, stood head and shoulders above the rest. As for Anita Ekberg, the volup­tuous beauty of this cover girl prompted Bob Hope, her partner in Paris Holi­day, to quip that her parents should have won “the Nobel Prize for archi­tecture.” Voted Miss Sweden in 1950, Ekberg embarked on a film career while appearing regularly on magazine covers over the coming decade. Fellini chose her for La Dolce Vita because of what she represented. “Her beauty was superhuman. The first time I saw her portrait was in an American maga­­ zine. ‘Please God,’ I thought, ‘may I never meet her!’ Years later, when I saw her walking towards me in the garden of the Town Hall, I experienced the same feeling of wonder, of enraptured awe, of unbelief that we feel when confronted with exceptional creatures such as the giraffe, the elephant or the monkey bread tree…”5

Anita Ekberg

102

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 102

Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita, 1960

Federico Fellini, drawing of Anita Ekberg inscribed to his set designer Piero Gherardi, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

12-02-14 17:14

Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Anita Ekberg and Federico Fellini, T­ he Interview, 1987. Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita, 1960. Anita Ekberg, The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (Boccaccio ’70), 1962.

103

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 103

12-02-14 17:14

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of 24 October 1965 (detail).

Dream of 24 October 1965 (Transcription of the text opposite this drawing) The bar at the grade crossing comes down. I’m in my car, which has come to a stop halfway across, awry. Anita is there, completely naked, with her breasts reduced by plastic surgery (like P. did). I play with a little girl (or a doll?). She’s very small (The same one that doctor who came dancing into Signora Bernhard’s studio was holding in his arms?) I make her fly from one arm to the other, pretend to toss her into the car. A cargo train comes rolling past from left to right, with the rhythmic

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 104

cadence of its wheels over the train track joints. While I’m playing with the little girl and Anita with her new breasts a rail­car loaded with green grain draws further away, on the other side of the lowered bar, with its slow and equal pace. Is that the idea for a new film that as soon as it is born disappears while I fool around with my usual neurotic head games? Is it a new psychol­­ogical attitude that I have not been able to bring to fruition? Why are they taking that green grain away? When will I see it again? When will I be able to gather the ripe sheaves? 6

12-02-14 17:14

Anita Ekberg, magazine covers.

105

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 105

12-02-14 17:14

Roberto Rossellini: “Federico once told me a story that he had made up and that I filmed with the title Il Miracolo, but he led me to believe that it was a Russian story whose author he’d forgotten. I thought of Fellini for the role of the tramp whom Anna Magnani takes for Saint Joseph. He accepted.”7 Il Miracolo, the second part of L’Amore (1948), was Fellini’s first appearance on screen. He grew a beard specially for the role and dyed his hair blond. In the film, the solitary Anna Magnani responds to his silence with an incredible monologue. Much later, the actress made an appearance in Fellini’s Roma (1972); for the director, it was unthinkable not to include her when evoking Rome. In the film he follows her to her door and, we hear his voice off screen: “Can I ask you a question?” “No, I don’t trust you. Ciao Federico, go to bed.” This was to be Magnani’s last film role, concluding their series of encounters.

Federico Fellini and Anna Magnani on the set of Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Anna Magnani

Anna Magnani, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 106

106

12-02-14 17:14

Federico Fellini and Anna Magnani on the set of Roberto Rossellini’s film The Miracle, 1948.

107

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 107

12-02-14 17:14

Let us dwell for a moment on the sym­bolism of the posters for Fellini’s Roma (1972). The Italian one shows a dominant-looking prostitute. Here, Fellini is illustrating the story of Rome as told by Titus Livius, who wrote that the founders of the city, Remus and Romulus, were brought up by Lupa (the She-Wolf), this being the name not of the animal but of the street­walker who took them in. The French poster takes a more classical approach to Rome’s founda­ tion myth. A beautiful naked woman adopts the posture of the she-wolf. Her breasts – Fellini’s favourite anatomical feature – have become the row of teats that will feed the new Remus and Romulus for – note this subtle touch – the founders of the Eternal City do not appear in this parody. The American version is more pragmatic: a wolf is a wolf! In this appropriation of the myth, the narrative part is concentrated in the space usually occupied by Remus and Romulus, where what we see is Circus Fellini, as if to tell us that Federico is the true founder of Rome.

All about posters

American poster, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

French poster, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

108

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 108

12-02-14 17:15

Federico Fellini, study of a prostitute, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Prostitute, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Italian poster, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

109

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 109

12-02-14 17:15

When working on the film Nights of Cabiria (1957), in which Giulietta Masina plays the role of an innocent prostitute, Fellini did extensive research into his subject. Indeed, his friend Beno Graziani, with whom he often walked through the suburbs of Rome, recalls that all the prostitutes there used to recognise the director and call him by his first name. For Fellini, “the prostitute is the essential counterpoint to the Italian mamma. Neither is conceivable without the other. And just as our mothers fed and clothed us, so – I am speaking for my generation here – it was inevitable that whores would introduce us to sex. We owe them everything, we are all in debt to those women who have replaced our desire, hopes and fantasies with an often shabby and petty but sometimes equally wonderful prospect.”8 In the visions sequence in Amarcord, Fellini shows “the first whore, with her huge swaying white and sulky arse walking up the stairs of the brothel, who always looked like she was on the verge of revealing something to us, and who held us under her eternal spell […].”9 For this scene – a subjective camera follows the impressive rear of the prostitute as she climbs the stairs – Fellini held a casting session to find the actress with the backside that was most suited for the role. It was then left up to the make-up crew to fill in the final details...

Brothel, Fellini’s Roma, 1972. Prostitutes in a brothel, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Federico Fellini, study of a prostitute.

Prostitutes

Prostitutes, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

Article on the closure of brothels in Italy, L’Espresso, 21 September 1958.

110

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 110

12-02-14 17:15

Italian poster, Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

Brothel, Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 111

12-02-14 17:15

Federico Fellini, study of a prostitute climbing the stairs, no date.

Casting the buttocks of the prostitute in City of Women, 1980

112

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 112

12-02-14 17:15

113

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 113

12-02-14 17:15

To evoke Fellini’s relation to women is, by the same token, to consider the man’s role. His relation to Casanova is a complex one in this respect. When Fellini signed his contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis, he had never read the famous libertine’s History of My Life. And the character he discovered when he did was hardly to his liking: “Casanova? I loathe him. […] The Italian male at his saddest: a coward, a fascist. After all, what is fascism if not belated adolescence? Casanova is a super-vitellone, and not a very nice one at that, a sinister Pinocchio who refuses to be a ‘good little boy.’”10 The heavy responsibility of playing Casanova – and bearing the brunt of Fellini’s aversion for the character – fell to the Canadian Donald Sutherland. Every morning, the director insisted on uglifying his leading actor. The actor spent three hours in make-up while his forehead was being enlarged by seven centimetres, his brows were plucked and he was fitted with a false nose and a false chin. But very occasionally Fellini would also confess to identifying with the great seducer: “Casanova dances with an imaginary woman who is a ghost because that is his destiny or at least the destiny that I have given to the Casanova character, because, to cut a long story short, I identify myself with him… Not as a lover of women, but as a man who is incapable of loving women because he is deeply in love with a fantasy image of women.”11

Federico Fellini, Casanova in foetal position, around 1976.

Casanova

Cicely Browne and Donald Sutherland, Fellini’s Casanova, 1976.

114

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 114

12-02-14 17:15

Donald Sutherland, Fellini’s Casanova, 1976.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 115

115

12-02-14 17:15

Although there was a strong personal bond between Fellini and Mastroianni, the director was categorical: “It is not true that Marcello is me, my cinemato­ graphic double, an alter-ego… I don’t put my hat on his head in order to identify him with me, but to give him an idea, a suggestion. I try to make him look like me, because for me that’s the most direct way I have of thinking about the character and the story. It’s a very complicated function, made possible only by deep friend­ship and an exacerbated exhibitionism.”12 Even so, it is often said that the actor was the director’s on­screen double. This identification is perhaps justifi­ Self-portraits In my dreams, I almost always see myself from behind. I have hair and I’m thinner, just like I was twenty or thirty years ago. Here, this is how I see myself and that’s how I’ll draw myself in the dreams I write down in this book. But this is how I should draw myself.13

able if we think of 8½ (1963), in which Mastroianni plays a director struggling for inspiration. Mastroianni, who appeared in six of Fellini’s films, plays himself in A Director’s Notebook (1969) and The Interview (1987), while Fellini’s shadow hangs heavily over partly autobiographical films such as La Dolce Vita, 8½ and City of Women. Conversely, In Ginger and Fred (1986), there is hardly a trace of Fellini in the character played by Mastroianni. All we have is a series of set photos in which the actor seems to mirror the filmmaker by wearing his coat and hat.

Fellini and his double

Federico Fellini, self-portraits, The Book of Dreams. Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, 1960s.

116

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 116

12-02-14 17:15

Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, 1963.

117

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 117

117

12-02-14 17:15

Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, 1963.

Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, 1963. Federico Fellini in action.

Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, 8½, 1963.

118

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 118

118

12-02-14 17:16

Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, City of Women, 1980.

119

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 119

12-02-14 17:16

“Certain events that have inspired this film [La Dolce Vita] took place this year [1958]. My collaborators and I only had to read the papers to find exciting material.”14 For the famous fountain scene in La Dolce Vita, Fellini was inspired by a series of photographs by Pierluigi, published in Il Tempo in September 1958, showing Anita Ekberg bathing in the Trevi Fountain. Seven months later, at Fellini’s request, the actress replayed the scene, this time with Marcello Mastroianni. The image of Ekberg and Mastro­ ianni in the fountain has been seen all over the world, making them a mythical couple. However, this was hardly borne out by the script, in

which they never even get to kiss. The confusion was deliberately maintained on the film’s release by means of a promotional photograph that made their lips look closer than they ever were when acting. By shoot­ ing at a slight angle, the photo­grapher managed to create the illusion of a kiss. Twenty-seven years later, in The Interview (1987), Fellini brought Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg together once again, and showed them the mythical scene from La Dolce Vita. The ageing actors look on helplessly. An alchemist of the cinema, Fellini had altered the sequence so that Mastroianni and Ekberg became a couple at last.

The myth of the fountain

Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni and Federico Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

120

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 120

12-02-14 17:16

Anita Ekberg on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

A crowd of onlookers, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

121

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 121

121

12-02-14 17:16

Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 1960.

122

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 122

12-02-14 17:16

123

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 123

12-02-14 17:16

Anita Ekberg in a white dress in the Trevi fountain two years before La Dolce Vita, Tempo, 9 September 1958.

124

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 124

12-02-14 17:16

Lobby card (fotobusta) for La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni, The Interview, 1987.

125

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 125

12-02-14 17:16

Giulietta Masina and Federico Fellini met in the early 1940s. At the time, Fellini was writing the radio plays in which she was acting. They got married in 1943 and stayed together for the rest of their lives. Giulietta would outlive Fellini, who died in 1993, for only five months. For over fifty years, they were an item both in life and in the studio. Giulietta won international plaudits for her portrayal of Gelsomina in La Strada. She played a circus clown who is sometimes over­whelmed by sadness, a female incarnation of the little tramp Charlie Chaplin. “Giulietta doesn’t like the way I look at her. She probably thinks that my gaze is not suggested by natural attrac­tion or professional experience, but that it is the expression of an authoritarian and capricious husband. […] Giulietta is unaware of her true talent. She doesn’t know herself. She mistrusts her comic genius and doesn’t want to realise that what makes it so special is precisely the set of expres­ sions, between the buffoonish and the dramatic, which her clown’s face is capable of simultaneously express­ ing.”15

Masina and Fellini

Giulietta Masina, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

126

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 126

12-02-14 17:16

Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, Paris Match, 1957.

Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina on the set of Nights of Cabiria, 1957.

Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, Juliet of the Spirits, 1965. Giulietta Masina, Vogue, special Fellini issue, December 1972.

127

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 127

127

12-02-14 17:16

Biographical Imagination

128

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 128

12-02-14 17:16

129

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 129

12-02-14 17:16

“These days I am filming sequences, which I have given the generic name ‘visions’: it is a long journey, a protracted fall of the hero who descends along a spiralling slide, is swallowed up, re-emerges and once again plunges into the bright obscurity of his female mythology: Rosina the chamber maid’s monumental legs, avidly spied from under the table when he was a child; the opulent dentist’s wife, the rustling sound of her striptease in the semidarkness of the cabin beach hut, before she steps out into the dazzling light of a beach in August accompan­ ied by a swell who resembled Tarzan;

the lady who gave private Latin lessons, so decent, so reserved and passionate; the first whore, her huge white arse […] the blonder-thanblond female bikers of the ‘The Circle of Death’ in skin-tight black leather, all swagger and cruelty; the fishwife, wrapped up in cardigans like a samurai, her arms and big breasts glistening with sweat like the silvery life that writhed in her baskets. […] I confess, my dear Simenon, that I wish I never had to leave this part of the film, that I could stay there forever, in its fiery, drowsy warmth.”1

Visions The first whore, “visions” sequence, The City of Women, 1980. The opulent dentist’s wife and her Tarzan, “visions” sequence, The City of Women, 1980.

The widow in the cemetery, “visions” sequence, The City of Women, 1980.

130

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 130

12-02-14 17:17

The female bikers of the “Circle of Death,” “visions” sequence, The City of Women, 1980. Marcello Mastroianni, “visions” sequence, The City of Women, 1980.

131

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 131

12-02-14 17:17

“I feel as if I am always making the same film: I have filmed images and nothing but images, always using the same material that was perhaps presented each time from a different point of view.”2

Lobby card (fotobusta) for I Vitelloni, 1953.

The peasant women of Saint Anthony, confession sequence, Amarcord, 1973. Peter Gonzales Falcon as the young Fellini on his arrival in Rome, Fellini’s Roma, 1972. Federico Fellini, preliminary sketch, peasant woman of Saint Anthony, Amarcord, 1973.

132

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 132

12-02-14 17:17

Federico Fellini and Peter Gonzales Falcon on the set of Fellini’s Roma, 1972.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 133

133

12-02-14 17:17

134

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 134

12-02-14 17:17

The adolescents and the narrator, Amarcord, 1973. 

135

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 135

12-02-14 17:17

“The vitelloni seen from behind on that jetty stretching out into the sea, a grey winter sea, under a low, opaque and cloudy sky… My brother holding his hat so the wind won’t blow it away, the small scarf from Trieste floating across Moraldo’s face, the sound of the waves, the cry of seagulls.”3

I Vitelloni, 1953.

Federico Fellini, drawing of the vitelloni on the beach, around 1953.

136

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 136

136

12-02-14 17:17

137

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 137

12-02-14 17:17

In the early 1960s, Fellini started seeing the psychoanalyst Ernst Bernhard and developed a passion for the work of Carl Gustav Jung. Bernhard encouraged him to draw and transcribe his dreams. Between 1960 and 1990 Fellini filled two big ledgers, the kind used for production accounts, with his annotations. His assiduity in doing so suggests that this was more than a spon­taneous exercise performed when he woke up or suffered from bouts of insomnia. These, after all, were hefty albums and not the kind of little notebooks one could keep on a bedside table. The richness of the colours and the occasional use of gouache also confirm that Fellini sat down for long sessions of drawing. Not that he was unfailingly regular over those thirty years in his practice of putting his obsessions, fears and anxieties on paper. The ledgers show large gaps, notably during those periods when he was filming. The Book of Dreams can also be read as an inventory of forms, motifs and stories, an exercise in style that the director performed, like a musician doing his scales, in order to sustain and stimulate his imagination. How­­ever, there were many setbacks before the historical document was eventually published. Although Fellini did not really concern himself with his legacy, he was aware of the document’s value and appointed six different heirs to take care of the book. After his death, the six agreed on two things: they would keep the precious volume in a safe which would only be opened when the six of them had met and decided what to do with the book. As the years passed, the six parts of The Book of Dreams were either acquired by or bequeathed to the Fellini Foundation. When the institu­ tion finally owned both ledgers, its patience was further put to the test because the next generation of heirs still hadn’t had the opportunity to meet. Finally, in 2007, the safe was opened and the Foundation immedi­ately set about publishing a facsimile edition of the book. The whole story probably would have pleased Fellini.

The Book of Dreams

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of December 1974.

138

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 138

12-02-14 17:17

Dream of December 1974 In the big basket of a balloon together with Pope Paul VI, who’s wearing a red pope’s beret on his head. The situation could even be considered dangerous because there’s no balloon in sight above our little ship. But everything was going just fine and I wasn’t afraid. The beach and seaside at Riccione are below, crowded with people looking up into the air and pointing at some­ thing. Suddenly a marvellous creature wearing a bathing suit appeared, higher and vaster than Mount Blanc. She was a woman, a goddess, she looked like. She looked into the blue sky without seeing us, and then from her incredibly beautiful, soft mouth she released an “oh” of wonder and the whole sky filled up with white clouds.4

Dream – silent explosion The periphery of a seaside village. It is night. Giulietta and I are walking along a beautiful path between small houses enclosed by low walls and little gardens. Behind us a huge plane that is landing makes two or three turns before disastrously disappearing into a hangar. We run to escape from the explosion which takes place a moment later. In the sky I see that one of the engines, which was flung into the air by the blast, is coming towards us. It gets bigger and bigger and comes nearer and nearer… but it doesn’t fall down on us, its trajectory takes it past us and it lands further down the road.

Federico Fellini, “silent explosion,” The Book of Dreams.

139

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 139

12-02-14 17:17

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of 1 April 1975.

140

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 140

12-02-14 17:18

Hypnagogic vision of 1 April 1975 P., naked and pink like a gigantic newborn, seated on a cloud, immobile in the middle of a bright blue sky. I could feel that it was time to intervene and I started blowing on the cloud, saying, “It’s time to fertilize what’s underneath!” Driven by a powerful breath like that of a god, P.’s cloud started floating slowly and calmly through the space. P. gathered up her big fabulous breasts in her hands with a solemn gesture, and an ordered, shining rainfall fell down on the earth. Well, whatever!5

Dream of 20 August 1984 “All that we can do is try to become aware that we are part of this unfathomable mystery that is created. We obey its unknowable laws, its rhythms, its changes. We are a mystery among mysteries.”6

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of 20 August 1984.

141

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 141

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini, The Book of Dreams, dream of 8 May 1982.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 142

142

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini, drawing of a dream representing Fellini and his scriptwriter, The Book of Dreams. “Zapponi: Very moving… The clown: My father… hei! Father… hei!!”

143

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 143

143

12-02-14 17:18

8½ (1963) tells the story of a director struggling for inspiration. He is played by Marcello Mastroianni, who is like Fellini’s on-screen double. The film marks a turning point in Fellini’s work, as his thoughts about creativity and the nature of cinema begin to push him beyond the frontiers of the real and into an exploration of the imaginary. Childhood memories, the unconscious and dreams now become prominent themes. Fellini him­­ self also became one of the recurring subjects of his own cinema, as he began to theatricalise his own image, a fact reflected in the posters for 8½. The French posters played on the synergy between Fellini and Mastro­ ianni: a large 8 wearing Mastroianni’s hat and spectacles is sitting in the director’s chair on which we can read the name FELLINI in capital letters. The series of Italian lobby cards – the fotobustas – show a more subtle take on the same idea. On each card two photos are placed next to each other: in the middle, a colour image of a scene with Mastroianni, and in the margin a black and white photo showing Fellini directing the film. This juxtaposition of Mastroianni and Fellini, of the film and what is happen­ ing behind the scenes, indicates that the director has become the object of his own cinema. The film’s obscuresounding title is in fact simply a reminder that it was movie number eight-and-a-half: Variety Lights (1950), which he co­directed with Alberto Lattuada, counts for only one half, as do his two shorts, A Marriage Agency (1953) and The Temptations of Doctor Antonio (1962). In the films that followed, Fellini explored the same themes and continued to assert his presence, either by adding his name to the titles of his films – Fellini’s Satyricon (1969), Fellini’s Roma – or by playing himself in the role of director, as in Fellini’s Roma and The Interview. On 29 March 1993, a few months before his death, as the crown of his career, Fellini receives the life-time award at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. He has only thirty seconds to give his speech – not a second more: “I want to thank all of you to make me feel this way. In these circumstances it is easy to be generous and to thank everybody. I would like, naturally, first of all, to thank all the people who worked with me. I cannot nominate everyone. Let me only mention one name of an actress who is also my wife. Thank you, dearest Giulietta, and please, stop crying.”7 144

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 144

Fellini Superstar

Federico Fellini imitating Groucho Marx.

144

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini, March 1956.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 145

145

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini, Balthus and his wife Ketsuko.

Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni at Cinecittà during the filming of Fellini’s Casanova. Federico Fellini and Jacques-Henri Lartigue as a priest, Ginger and Fred, 1986.

Federico Fellini on the set of 8½, 1963.

146

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 146

146

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini on the set of 8½, 1963.

Italian poster for 8½, 1963. French poster for 8½, 1963.

Federico Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

147

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 147

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini and Martin Potter on the set of Satyricon, 1969.

Federico Fellini, 1950s.

Federico Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

Federico Fellini on the set of Satyricon, 1969.

148

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 148

12-02-14 17:18

Federico Fellini and Sandra Milo on the set of 8½, 1963. Federico Fellini.

Federico Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960. Federico Fellini on the set of Satyricon, 1969.

Federico Fellini, 1960s. Federico Fellini, Cinecittà, 1960.

149

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 149

12-02-14 17:19

Federico Fellini on the set of La Dolce Vita, 1960.

150

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 150

12-02-14 17:19

151

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 151

12-02-14 17:19

Notes All quotations have been translated from the French by Walter van der Star, unless otherwise stated. Popular Culture 1

2 3 4 5 6

Françoise Pieri, Federico Fellini: conteur et humoriste, 1939-1942, Perpignan: Institut Jean Vigo, 2000, p. 192. Federico Fellini, Cinecittà, Paris: Nathan, 1989, p. 105. Jean Collet, La Création selon Fellini, Paris: José Corti, 1990. Françoise Pieri, op. cit., p. 93. L’Arc, nr. 45, Paris: Duponchelle, 1990, p. 64. Michel Ciment, “Entretien avec Federico Fellini,” Federico Fellini Dossier Positif-Rivages, Paris: Rivages, February 1988, p. 113.

5

Federico Fellini, Cinecittà, Paris: Nathan, 1989, pp. 113-115. 6 Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini, op. cit., p. 498. 7 Geneviève Agel, Les Chemins de Fellini, Paris: Cerf, 1956, p. 7. 8 Fellini, Faire un film, op. cit., p. 147. 9 Federico Fellini and Georges Simenon, Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 1998, p. 66. 10 Tulio Kezich, Fellini, Paris: Gallimard, 2007, p. 321. 11 Peter Bondanella, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, p. 317. 12 Fellini, Cinecittà, op. cit., p. 52. 13 Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini, op. cit., p. 555. 14 Federico Fellini, “Paris en parle cette semaine,” L’Express, 9 July 1959, p. 60. 15 Fellini, Cinecittà, op. cit., p. 59.

Fellini at Work

Biographical Imagination

1

1

Federico Fellini, Faire un film, Paris: Le Seuil, 1996, p. 248. 2 Interview for Belgian television directed by André Delvaux, 1961. 3 Giovanni Grazzini, Fellini par Fellini, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1984, p. 12. 4 Ibid., p. 13. 5 Federico Fellini, Cinecittà, Nathan, Paris, 1989, p. 49. 6 L’Arc, nr. 45, Paris: Duponchelle, 1990, p. 30. 7 Fellini, Cinecittà, op. cit., p. 113. 8 Ornella Volta, “Le film que Fellini ne tourne pas,” Federico Fellini Dossier Positif-Rivages, Paris: Rivages, 1988, p. 76. 9 L’Arc, op. cit., p. 66. 10 Jean Gili, “Ce mot magique, Cinecittà – Entretien avec Federico Fellini,” Federico Fellini Dossier Positif- Rivages, Paris: Rivage, 1988, pp. 179-180. 11 Fellini, Cinecittà, op. cit., p. 122. 12 Geneviève Agel, Les Chemins de Fellini, Paris: Cerf, 1956, p. 94. 13 Fellini, Cinecittà, op. cit., p. 39. The City of Women 1 2 3 4

Renzo Renzi, Premier Plan nr. 12: Federico Fellini, Lyon: SERDOC, 1960, p. 39. Federico Fellini, Les Propos de Fellini, Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1980, p. 97 Federico Fellini, Faire un film, Paris: Le Seuil, 1996, p. 145. Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini (eds.), Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams, New York: Rizzoli, 2008, p. 493.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 152

Federico Fellini and Georges Simenon, Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 1998, p. 66. 2 Giovanni Grazzini, Fellini par Fellini, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1984, pp. 78-79. 3 Ibid., p. 89. 4. Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini (eds.), Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams, New York: Rizzoli, 2008, p. 524. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid., p. 525. 7 Tulio Kezich, Fellini, Paris: Gallimard, 2007, p. 393.

Selected bibliography For a comprehensive list of publica­ tions we refer to the bibliography published under the auspices of the Fondazione Federico Fellini in Rimini: Marco Bertozzi, BiblioFellini, Rome: Scuola Nazionale di Cinema/ Fondazione Federico Fellini, 2002.

edited by Damien Pettigrew, New York: Abrams, 2003. Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, Paris: Éditions de l’Étoile/Cahiers du cinéma, 1998 (with Georges Simenon). La mia Rimini, Rimini: Guaraldi, 2003. Il libro dei sogni, Milan: Rizzoli, 2007. Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams, edited by Tulio Kezich and Vittorio Boarini, New York: Rizzoli, 2008. Studies and memoirs Geneviève Agel, Les Chemins de Fellini: Suivi de Journal d’un bidoniste, Paris: Cerf, 1956. Giovanna Bertelli, Divi e Paparazzi, La Dolce Vita di Fellini, Genève: Le Mani, 2009. Peter Bondanella, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Gilles Ciment (ed.), Federico Fellini, Marseille: Rivages, 1988. Bernardino Zapponi, Mon Fellini, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2003. Tullio Kezich, Fellini, Paris: Gallimard, 2007. Aurelio Magistà, Dolce Vita Gossip: star, amori, mondanità e kolossal negli anni d’oro di Cinecittà, Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2007. Periodicals Fellini Amarcord, Rivista di studi fellini­ani, quarterly review published since 2001 by the Fondazione Fellini in Rimini. DVDs Fellini au travail, quatre films autour de Fellini (Carlotta Films, 2009). Fellini, André Delvaux (1961) Ciao Federico, Gideon Bachmann (1969). Secret Diary of Amarcord, Maurizio Mein and Liliana Betti (1973). And Fellini’s Casanova?, Gianfranco Angelucci and Liliana Betti (1975).

Writings by Federico Fellini Les Propos de Fellini, Paris: Buchet/ Chastel, 1980. Fellini par Fellini, entretiens avec Giovanni Grazzini, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1984. Cinecittà, Paris: Nathan, 1989. Faire un film, Paris: Le Seuil, 1996. I’m a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon,

152

12-02-14 17:19

Chronology 20 January 1920 Born in Rimini. 1925-1926 Attends the nursery school run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini, followed two years later by the Carlo Tonni primary school. Discovers the world of Grand Guignol, the movies with Guido Brignone’s Maciste all’Inferno, and the American comics of Windsor McCay, George McManus and Frederick Burr Opper. Summer 1927 “Runs away” from boarding school to join the circus with Pierino the Clown 1930 Attends the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare where he befriends Luigi “Titta” Benzi. August 1937 Publishes his first cartoons of balilla (fascist youth group members) in musketeer costumes in the only issue of La Diana published by the Balilla Troop of Rimini. Opens the cartoon shop Febo together with painter Demos Bonini. Draws caricatures under the pseudonym Fellas. At the same time, he draws portraits of famous actors for the Fulgor cinema. 1938-1939 Publishes humorous articles in Domenica del Corriere and in the weekly 420. 1939 Leaves Rimini for Rome and enrolls in law school at the University of Rome. There is no record of his ever having attended a class. Earns a living by drawing in restaurants and writing sketches for opening variety acts in the cinema. He eventually finds work as a cub reporter for the newspapers Il Piccolo, Il Popolo di Roma and CineMagazzino. 1939-1943 Writes on a regular basis for the satirical magazine Marc’Aurelio and joins the editorial board where he meets Ettore Scola, Cesare Zavattini and Bernardino Zapponi. 1941-1943 Writes for the radio series Cico and Pallina, about the adventures of two newlyweds, in which the actress Giuli­ etta Masina plays the voice of Pallina. 1942 Starts his career as a screenwriter for film. Meets Giulietta Masina in the fall of 1942. 30 October 1943 Marries Giulietta Masina. Summer 1944 Opens the cartoon shop the Funny Face Shop, together with Enrico De Seta, where they earn a living by drawing caricatures of American soldiers.

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 153

1945 Participates in the screenwriting of Rome, Open City by Roberto Rossellini. 1946-1949 Becomes a regular contributor to the newspaper Il Travaso. 1946 Co-writer and assistant of Roberto Rossellini on Paisà (Paisan). Beginning of his collaboration with screenwriter Tullio Pinelli. 1948 Meets Marcello Mastroianni, a colleague of Giulietta Masina in the theater. Encounters Nino Rota on the set of Senza Pietà (Without Pity). Co-writes the screenplay of Roberto Rosselllini’s The Miracle, the second episode of the film L’Amore, in which he makes his first appearance as an actor. 1950 Variety Lights, coproduced with Alberto Lattuada. 1952 Finishes The White Sheik. 1953 A Marriage Agency, fourth episode of the film Love in the City. I Vitelloni, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. 1954 La Strada, winner of the Academy Award for best foreign language film. 1955 Il Bidone. 1957 Nights of Cabiria, winner of the Academy Award for best foreign language film. For her role, Giulietta Masina receives the award for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival . 1959 Meetings with Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Ernst Bernhard. 1960 La Dolce Vita, Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Award for best costume design. 1960-1968 First period of recording his dreams. 1961 Belgium television devotes a series of four programs to Fellini, produced by André Delvaux. 1962 The Temptations of Doctor Antonio, second episode of the film Boccaccio ‘70. 1963 8½, Academy Awards for best foreign language film and best costume design. 29 June 1965 Death of Dr. Ernst Bernhard, which deeply affects Fellini. Script of Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, written with Brunello Rondi and Dino Buzzati. Juliet of the Spirits. 1968 Toby Dammit, third episode of Spirits of the Dead.

A Director’s Notebook for the American TV-channel NBC. 1969 Satyricon. 1970 The Clowns, made for Italian television. 1972 Fellini’s Roma. 1973-1982 Second period of recording his dreams. 1973 Amarcord, Academy Award for best foreign language film. 1973 Maurizio Mein and Liliana Betti, Fellini’s assistants, direct a documentary for the Italian TV channel RAI on the making of Amarcord: The Secret Diary of Amarcord. 1975 Gianfranco Angelucci and Liliana Betti, Fellini’s assistants, direct a documentary on the making of Casanova with Alain Cuny, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi and Ugo Tognazzi: And Fellini’s Casanova? 1976 Fellini’s Casanova. 10 April 1979 Death of Nino Rota. Orchestra Rehearsal. 1980 City of Women. 1983 And the Ship Sails On. 1984 Makes two TV commercials for Campari and Barilla. 1986 Ginger and Fred. Publishes the graphic novel Viaggio a Tulun (Trip to Tulum) with artwork by Milo Manara. 1987 The Interview, 40th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. 1990 The Voice of the Moon. 1992 Makes three TV commercials for Banca di Roma. Publishes the graphic novel Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, detto Fernet, with artwork by Milo Manara. 29 March 1993 Receives the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement. 31 October 1993 Federico Fellini dies in Rome. 23 March 1994 Giulietta Masina dies in Rome.

153

12-02-14 17:19

Filmography Screenplays by Fellini Imputato alzatevi!, 1939 Screenplay: Vittorio Metz, Mario Mattoli, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Mario Mattoli Lo Vedi come sei?, 1939 Screenplay: Vittorio Metz, Steno, Mario Mattoli, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Mario Mattoli Non me lo dire!, 1940 Screenplay: Vittorio Metz, Marcello Mario Mattoli, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Mario Mattoli ll Pirata sono io, 1940 Screenplay: Vittorio Metz, Steno, Mario Mattoli, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Mario Mattoli

L’Ultima carrozella, 1943 Screenplay: Aldo Fabrizi, Federico Fellini, Piero Tellini Director: Mario Mattoli Tutta la città canta, 1945 Screenplay: Vittorio Metz, Marcello Marchesi, Steno, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Riccardo Freda Roma, città aperta (Rome, Open City), 1945 Screenplay: Alberto Consiglio, Sergio Amidei, Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini Assistant director: Federico Fellini Director: Roberto Rossellini Paisà (Paisan), 1946 Screenplay: Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, in collaboration with Alfred Hayes, Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero Assistant director: Federico Fellini Director: Roberto Rossellini

I Cavalieri del deserto (Gli Ultimi Tuareg), 1942 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Vittorio Mussolini (as Tito Silvio Mursino) Director: Gino Talamo, Osvaldo Valenti

Il Delitto di Giovanni Episcopo, 1947 Adaptation of the novel Giovani Episcopo by Gabriele D’Annunzio: Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Aldo Fabrizi, Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Piero Tellini Director: Alberto Lattuada

Avanti c’è posto, 1942 Screenplay: Aldo Fabrizi, Cesare Zavattini, Piero Tellini, Federico Fellini Director: Mario Bonnard

Il Passatore, 1947 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli Director: Duilio Coletti

Documento Z3, 1942 Screenplay: Sandro De Feo, Alfredo Guarini, Ercoli Patti, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Alfredo Guarini

La Fumeria d’Oppio (Ritorna Za-la-Mort), 1947 Screenplay: Raffaello Matarazzo, Ettore M. Margadonna, Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli, Tullio Pinelli Director: Raffaello Matarazzo

Quarta pagina, 1942 Screenplay: Piero Tellini, Federico Fellini, Edoardo Anton, Ugo Betto, Nicola Manzari, Spiro Manzari, Giuseppe Marotta, Gianni Puccini, Steno, Cesare Zavattini Director: Nicola Manzari Campo de ’fiori, 1943 Screenplay: Aldo Fabrizi, Federico Fellini, Piero Tellini, Mario Bonnard Director: Mario Bonnard Chi l’ha visto?, 1943, distributed in 1945 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Piero Tellini Director: Goffredo Alessandrini Apparizione, 1943 Screenplay: Piero Tellini, Lucio De Caro, Giuseppe Amato, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Jean de Limur

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 154

Senza Pietà (Without Pity), 1948 Screenplay based on an idea by Ettore M. Margadonna: Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Tullio Pinelli Director: Alberto Lattuada L’Amore (episode Il Miracolo (The Miracle)), 1948 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Roberto Rossellini Assistant director and actor: Federico Fellini Director: Roberto Rossellini In Nome della legge (In the Name of the Law ), 1949 Screenplay based on the novel Piccola Pretura by Giuseppe Guido Lo Schiavo: Aldo Bizzarri, Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Mario Monicelli, Tullio Pinelli Director: Pietro Germi

Il Mulino del Po, 1949 Screenplay based on the novel Il mulino sul Po by Riccardo Bacchelli: Riccardo Bacchelli, Corrado Bonfantini, Luigi Comencini, Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada Director: Alberto Lattuada La Città Dolente, 1949 Screenplay: Anton Giulio Majano, Aldo De Benedetti, Federico Fellini, Mario Bonnard Director: Mario Bonnard Il Cammino della speranza, 1950 Story: Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Tullio Pinelli Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli Director: Pietro Germi Francesco, giullare di Dio, 1950 Screenplay based on Les Fioretti di San Francesco: Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, with the help of Father Félix Morlion and Father Antonio Lisandrini Assistant director: Federico Fellini Director: Roberto Rossellini Persiane chiuse (Behind Closed Shutters), 1950 Screenplay: Massimo Mida, Gianni Puccini, Franco Solinas, Sergio Sollima, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Luigi Comencini La Città si defende, 1951 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Giuseppe Mangione, Tullio Pinelli Director: Pietro Germi Cameriera bella presenza offresi..., 1951 Screenplay: Agenore Incrocci, Aldo De Benedetti, Federico Fellini, Ruggero Maccari, Nicola Manzari, Tullio Pinelli, Furio Scarpelli Director: Giorgio Pàstina Il Brigante di Tacca de lupo, 1952 Screenplay based on the play Il Brigante di Tacca de lupo by Riccardo Bacchelli: Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Tullio Pinelli, Fausto Tozzi Director: Pietro Germi Europa ’51, 1952 Screenplay: Sandro De Feo, Diego Fabbri, Mario Pannunzio, Ivo Perilli, Roberto Rossellini Assistant director: Federico Fellini Director: Roberto Rossellini 154

12-02-14 17:19

Dov’è la libertà...?, 1953 Screenplay: Vitaliano Brancati, Ennio Flaiano, Antonio Pietrangeli, Vincenzo Talarico, Roberto Rosselini, Federico Fellini Assistant director: Federico Fellini shooting a scene with Toto Director: Roberto Rossellini Fortunella, 1958 Screenplay: Federico Fellini Director: Eduardo De Filippo Sweet Charity, 1969 Screenplay based on the script of Le Notti di Cabiria: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano Director: Bob Fosse Viaggio con Anita, 1979 Screenplay: Tullio Pinelli, Federico Fellini (uncredited) Director: Mario Monicelli

Directed by Fellini Luci del varietà (Variety Lights), 1950 Co-directed with Alberto Lattuada Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Felice Lattuada Cast: Peppino de Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, Giulietta Masina, John Kitzmiller, Folco Lulli, Dante Maggio, Carlo Romano Production: Capitolium film. Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik), 1952 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Director of photography: Arturo Gallea Music: Nino Rota Cast: Brunella Bovo, Leopoldo Trieste, Alberto Sordi, Giulietta Masina, Fanny Marchiò, Ernesto Almirante, Enzo Maggio Production: PDC / DFI Luigi Royere Un’agenzia matrimoniale (A Marriage Agency), fourth episode of the film L’Amore in città (Love in the City), 1953 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli Director of photography: Gianni di Venanzo Music: Mario Nascimbene Cast: Antonio Cifariello, Livia Venturini Other episodes directed by: Dino Risi, Carlo Lizzani, Alberto Lattuada, Cesare Zavattini, Francesco Maselli and Michelangelo Antonioni Production: Faro Film

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 155

I Vitelloni, 1953 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo Trieste, Riccardo Fellini, Leonora Ruffo, Jean Brochard Production: PEG Films, Cité Films La Strada, 1954 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, in collaboration with Ennio Flaiano Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere, Livia Venturini Production: Carlo Ponti – Dino de Laurentiis Il Bidone, 1955 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Lorella De Luca, Franco Fabrizi, Giulietta Masina, Alberto De Amicis, Maria Werlen Production: Titanus Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria), 1957 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi Directors of photography: Aldo Tonti, Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Giulietta Masina, Amedeo Nazzari, François Périer, Aldo Silvani, Franca Marzi, Pina Gualandri, Dorian Gray, Franco Fabrizi, Mario Passante Production: Dino de Laurentiis La Dolce Vita, 1960 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Alain Cuny, Magali Noël, Lex Barker, Valeria Ciangottini Production: Giuseppe Amato, commissioned by Riama Film – Pathé Consortium Cinéma

Le tentazioni del Dottor Antonio (The Temptations of Doctor Antonio), second episode of the film Boccaccio ’70, 1962 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi and Goffredo Parise Director of photography: Otello Martelli Music: Nino Rota Cast: Peppino de Filippo, Anita Ekberg, Donatella della Nora, Antonio Acqua Other episodes directed by: Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli, Vittorio de Sica Production: Carlo Ponti Otto e mezzo (8½), 1963 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Brunello Rondi, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Director of photography: Gianni di Venanzo Music: Nino Rota Cast: Anouk Aimée, Marcello Mastroi­anni, Sandra Milo, Claudia Cardinale, Rossela Falk, Madeleine Lebeau, Caterina Boratto Production: Angelo Rizzoli Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits), 1965 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi Director of photography: Gianni di Venanzo Music: Nino Rota Cast: Giulietta Masina, Silva Koscina, Sandra Milo, Valentina Cortese, Mario Pisu, Lou Gilbert, Silvana Jachino Production: Federiz Toby Dammit, third episode of the film Tre passi nel delirio (Spirits of the Dead), 1968 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Terence Stamp, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Françoise Prévost, James R. Justice, Anny Duperey, Serge Marquand, Andreas Voutsinas Other episodes directed by: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle Production: PEA, Alberto Grimaldi Block-notes di un regista (A Director’s Notebook), 1969 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi Director of photography: Pasquale De Santis Music: Nino Rota Playing themselves: Federico Fellini, Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni, Catarina Boratto Production: Peter Goldfarb and NBC

155

12-02-14 17:19

Fellini Satyricon (Satyricon), 1969 Screenplay: Bernardino Zapponi, Federico Fellini after Pétrone Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Mario Romagnoli, Alain Cuny, Gordon Mitchell, Capucine Production: Alberto Grimaldi I Clowns (The Clowns), 1970 Story and screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi Director of photography: Dario di Palma Music: Nino Rota Playing themselves: Mimo Billi, Scotti, Rizzo, Pistoni, Giacomo Furia, Galliano Sbarra, les quatre Colombaioni, Federico Fellini, Anita Ekberg Production: Federico Fellini, Ugo Guerra, Elio Scardamaglia Roma (Fellini’s Roma), 1972 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Peter Gonzales, Fiona Florence, Britta Barnes, Marne Maitland, Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi, Federico Fellini Production: Turi Vasile Amarcord, 1973 Screenplay: Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini based on an idea by Federico Fellini Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Nandino Orfei, Ciccio Ingrassia, Maria Beluzzi, Magali Noël, Josiane Tanzilli Production: Franco Cristaldi Il Casanova di Fellini (Fellini’s Casanova), 1976 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi, in collaboration with Andrea Zanzotto. Loosely based on History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne, Carmen Scarpitta, Clara Algranti, Daniella Gatti, Margareth Clementi, Olimpia Carlisi Production: Alberto Grimaldi and Universal-Fox- Gaumont-Titanus

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 156

Prova d’orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal), 1979 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Nino Rota Cast: Baldwin Haas, Clara Colosimo, Elisabeth Labi, Ronaldo Bonacchi, David Maunsell, Ferdinando Villela, Francesco Aluigi Production: Daime Cinematografica and the RAI, Albatros Produktion La Città delle donne (City of Women), 1980 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Luis Enriquez Bacalov Cast: Anna Prucnal, Marcello Mastroianni, Bernice Stegers, Donatella Damiani, Iole Silvani, Fiammenta Baralla, Ettore Mannis Production: Opera Film Production and Gaumont

La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon), 1990 Screenplay: Federico Fellini. Loosely based on the novel Il poema dei lunatici (The Lunatic’s Poem) by Ermanno Cavazzoni Director of photography: Tonino Delli Colli Music: Nicola Piovani Cast: Roberto Benigni, Paolo Villagio, Nadia Ottavioni, Marisa Tomasi, Sim, Suzy Blady, Angelo Orlando Production: Mario Cecchi Gori and Vittorio Cecchi Gori, RAI-Uno

E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On), 1983 Screenplay: Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini, in collaboration with Andrea Zanzotto Director of photography: Giuseppe Rotunno Music: Gianfranco Plenizio Cast: Freddie Jones, Norma West, Barbara Jefford, Peter Cellier, Maurice Barrier, Jonathan Cecil, Victor Poletti, Jean Schlegel Production: Franco Cristaldi, RAI, Vides Produzione, Gaumont Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred), 1986 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, Tullio Pinelli Director of photography: Tonino Delli Colli Music: Nicola Piovani Cast: Franco Fabrizi, Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, Frédérick Ledebur, Augusto Poderosi, Toto Mognone, Jacques-Henri Lartigue Production: Alberto Grimaldi Intervista (The Interview), 1987 Screenplay: Federico Fellini, in collaboration with Gianfranco Angelucci Director of photography: Tonino Delli Colli Music: Nicola Piovani Cast: Sergio Rubini, Paola Liguori, Maurizio Mein, Nadia Ottavioni, Lara Wendell, Antonella Ponziani, Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni Production: Ibrahim Moussa, Aljosha Productions, RAI-Uno

156

12-02-14 17:19

Illustration credits The illustration references are as follows: If there are more than one illustrations on the page the following references will apply: l (left), r (right), t (top), m (middle), b (bottom). These references can be combined, for example ltb means it refers to the top and bottom images on the left side of the page. Alessandro von Normann, courtesy Emanuele von Normann: 119 (t) Collection Christoph Schifferli, Zurich: 32 (l), 38 (ltb), 39 (lmb / rb), 43 (t), 45 (b), 46 (b), 57 (lt), 75, 76 (rb), 79 (l third row), 103 (rt), 117, 127 (rb), 149 (rt) Collection Christoph Schifferli, Zurich, courtesy Carlotta Films, Paris: 148 (r) Collection Christoph Schifferli, Zurich, courtesy Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris: 54-55, 90-91, 102 (t), 103 (lt) Collection Ciné-Image, Paris: 21 Collection Cinémathèque Française, © ADAGP, Paris, 2009: 72 (rb), 74 (t) Collection Cineteca del Comune di Bologna: 2, 22, 23 (lt), 38 (rt), 39 (rm), 42 (t), 43 (b), 50 (r), 57 (lb), 70 (lt / rm), 71, 72 (lb), 72 (t), 73, 74 (b), 76 (rt), 78 (rb), 78 (rm), 87 (b), 89, 93 (lt), 93 (rt), 94 (mb), 95, 98-99, 101(lt), 107 (rt), 132 (lb), 134-135, 136-137, 144, 148 (lt) Collection Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, courtesy Carlotta Films, Paris: 44 (l), 45 (t), 64 (t), 65, 78 (lb), 86, 106 (t), 110 (ltm), 111 (b), 127 (lt), 132 (rt), 146 (m), 149 (rb) Collection David Secchiaroli, Milan: 6-7, 13 (b), 56 (b) Collection EYE, Amsterdam: 38 (lm), 147 (rt) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion: 23, 33 (t), 36 (rtb), 37, 38 (rm / mb), 39 (lt / rt), 40-41, 45 (third row m), 46 (t / l), 47 (l), 48, 49, 50 (l), 70 (rt), 72 (m), 78 (lt), 79 (l second row m / r), 80 (l), 80 (rtm), 87 (rt), 88 (a), 103 (rb), 93 (lb), 96 (l), 110 (lb), 116 (b), 118 (rb), 125 (b), 132 (lt), 146 (lt), 147 (lt), 146 (lb), 160, 333 Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion et Collection parti­ culière (Whisper): 104 (r), 105 Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, courtesy Carlotta Films, Paris: 30, 31, 33 (b), 66 (t), 76 (lb), 78 (lm), 108, 109 (r), 115 Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, courtesy Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris: 148 (lb)

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 157

Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © ADAGP, Paris, 2009 44, 45 (drawings), 101 (lb), 114 (t), 139, 143 Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Archivio Bachmann-Beer / Cinemazero: 9, 20 (lb), 68-69, 70 (rb), 107 (l), 118 (rm) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Fondazione Corriere della Sera, Milan: 12 (b), 32 (t), 88 (b) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Il Travaso: 20 (r) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Milo Manara: 28, 29 (rt) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Reporters Associati, Rome: 125 (t) Collection Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion, © Vogue, Paris: 16, 26, 27 Collection Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris: 36 (l), 51, 52, 55 (b), 84-85, 120, 121 (t / lb), 146 (rt), 150-151 © Collection Fondazione Federico Fellini, Rimini: 10, 12 (t), 17, 57 (rt), 66 (b), 70 (lb), 96 (r), 97, 101 (r), 102 (b), 104 (l), 109 (lt), 110 (lt), 112 (lt), 116 (t), 132 (rb), 136 (l), 138, 140, 141, 142 Collection Michel Giniès, Paris: 38 (rb), 57 (rb), 107 (rb), 118 (lb) Collection Michel Giniès, Paris, courtesy Carlotta Films, Paris: 103 (lb) Collection Vincenzo Mollica, Rome 20 (lt), 24 (t) Collection Vincenzo Mollica, Rome, © ADAGP, Paris, 2009: 29 (l) Collection Vincenzo Mollica, Rome, © Milo Manara: 29 (m) Deborah Beer, collection Fondation Fellini pour le Cinéma, Sion, © Archivio Bachmann-Beer / Cinemazero: 42 (b), 44 (r), 45 (second row / third row r), 60, 61, 62-63, 67, 82, 87 (l), 112 (r), 113, 119 (b), 126, 130, 131, 300, 146 (rb) G.B. Poletto, © Archivio Storico del Cinema – AFE, Rome: 34-35, 106 (b), 109 (lb), 110 (lb) Michelangelo Durazzo, © Agence ANA, Paris: cover, 47 (r), 77, 81, 118 (rt), 147 (rb) Paul Ronald, © Archivio Storico del Cinema – AFE, Rome: 37, 64 (b), 100, 118 (lt) Private Collection: 14, 15, 18-19, 24 (b), 25, 53 (t), 55 (newspapers), 78 (lt), 92, 93 (lm / rb), 94 (t), 101 (lm), 111 (t), 121 (rmb), 122123, 124, 127 (rt), 128-129, 145, 147 (lb), 149 (rm) Private Collection Beno Graziani, Paris: 8

Private Collection, courtesy Carlotta Films, Paris: 114 (b) Private Collection, courtesy Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris: 80 (rb) Sandro Simeoni, collection Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé: 58-59 Tazio Secchiaroli, Collection Christoph Schifferli, Zurich, © David Secchia­roli, Milan: 53 (rb), 149 (m) Tazio Secchiaroli, © Collection David Secchiaroli, Milan: 27, 28-29, 29 (rb), 45 (third row l), 53 (ltb), 56 (t / m), 76 (l), 78 (rt), 79 (lb), 83, 112 (lb), 127 (lb), 133, 149 (l) The excerpts from The Book of Dreams are reproduced here with kind permission of Rizzoli. Translated from the Italian by Aaron Maines and David Stanton, © Rizzoli Inter­national Publications. Most film images used in this book belong to their respective producers or distributors. Our sincere apologies for copyright owners who, despite our efforts, have been unintentionally overlooked. We will correct these errors in the next edition of this book insofar as they have been reported to us.

157

12-02-14 17:19

Acknowledgements

Oscar Righini RTBF, Brussels Warner Bros. Nederland, Amsterdam

The exhibition Fellini – The Exhibition could not have been organised without the active participation of our lenders and the film copyright holders. Our sincere gratitude goes out to them.   Works

My thanks go out to Gianluca Farinelli whose constant encourage­ ments have inspired me to bring this project to a conclusion. Thanks to Stéphane Marti who has the ability to move mountains. Thanks to Didier Quilain, my partner from the earliest days.

Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion Fondazione Federico Fellini, Rimini Cineteca di Bologna, Bologna Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris Cinemazero, Pordenone Christoph Schifferli, Zurich Piero Servo, Archivio Storico del Cinema – AFE, Rome David Secchiaroli, Milan Antonio Maraldi, Cesena Centro Cinema, Cesena Vicenzo Mollica, Rome Cinémathèque française, Paris Michel Giniès, Paris Agence ANA, Paris Donatella Durazzo, New York Paul Ronald Emanuele Von Normann, Rome Gideon Bachmann Reporters Associati, Rome Fondazione Corriere della Sera, Milan Ciné-image, Paris Nino Comba, Paris and all those who preferred to remain anonymous   Films

And finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have provided indispens­able help: Anouk Aimée Damien Bachelot Gideon Bachmann Daniela Barbiani Xavier Barral Giovanna Bertelli Vittorio Boarini, Guiseppe Ricci, Enrica Bedosti, Fondazione Federico Fellini, Rimini Vincent Paul Boncourt, Fabien Braule, Victor Moisan, Céline Cléris, Carlotta Films, Paris Éric Bullot Morena Campani Alessandro Canestrelli, Emanuela Acito, Ilaria Cecchi, Reporters Associati, Rome Jean-Louis Capitaine, Alexandre Boyer, Ciné-image, Paris Pascale Cassagnau Claudia Cardinale Umberto et Edoardo Cicconi, Fondazione Allori, Rome Gabrielle Claes, Jean-Paul Dorchain, Cinémathèque royale, Brussels Matthieu Charon Clément Chéroux François Cheval Fabrizio Cioni Walter Civirani Jean-Marie Colombani Nino Comba Andrea Crozzoli, Andrea Riccardo, Cinemazero, Pordenone Martine d’Astier, Donation JacquesHenri Lartigue, Charenton-le-Pont Sylviane de Decker Dominique Delouche Catherine Delvaux Thys Donatella Durazzo Anita Ekberg Christophe Eon, Odile Le Gal, Laurent Hutin, Janvier, Paris Davide Faccioli, Arianna Gadaldi, Galerie Photology, Milan Gian Luca Farinelli, Anna Fiaccarini, Andrea Meneghelli, Alessandra Bani, Giampaolo Parmigiani, Rosaria Gioia, Manuela Marchesan, Cecilia Cenciarelli, Guy Borlée, Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, Bologna Caroline Geraud, Vogue, Paris Jean Gili Marta Gili, Anne Racine, Véronique Dabin, Judith Czernichow, Danièle

A-Film, Amsterdam Archivio Storico, Gideon Bachmann Banca di Rome, Rome Barilla Holding, Parma Beta Film, Oberhaching Broadcaster Text International, Amsterdam Campari Group, Milan Carlotta Films, Paris Cinémathèque royale, Brussels Cinemazero, Pordenone Cinemien / Homescreen, Amsterdam Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, Bologna Cineteca Nazionale – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome Eureka / The Masters of Cinema Series, London EYE Distribution, Amsterdam Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion Gaumont, Paris Peter Goldfard, New York Hollywood Classics, London Intramovies, Rome Lumière, Amsterdam / Ghent Minerva Pictures, Rome Park Circus, Glasgow Pathé Distribution, Paris

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 158

Hibon, Jeu de Paume, Paris Michel Giniès Peter Goldfard Beno Graziani Nathalie Guiot, David d’Equainville, Maud Prangey, Nina Goussé, Éditions Anabet, Paris Kate Guyonvarch Elisabetta Iurcev, Barilla Holding SpA, Parma Tullio Kezich Martina Knabe, Beta Film, Oberhaching Roberto Koch, Constrato, Rome Emmanuelle Kouchner Gaëlle Lassée, Marie Boué, Renaud Temperini, Flammarion, Paris Milo Manara Roberto Mannoni, Cineteatro 5, Cinecittà Gianfranco Maragnello, Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna – MAMBO, Bologna Alessandra Mauro, Forma, Milan Antonio Maraldi, Centro Cinema, Cesena Stéphane Marti, Gerald Morin, Daniel Joliat, Fondation Fellini pour le cinéma, Sion Claudia Maruffa, Pierluigi Magliocca, Nazario Dal Poz, L’Espresso, Rome Maria Grazia Meda Victoria Metzger, RTBF, Bruxelles Ignasi Miró, Montse Sánchez, Mireia Gubern, Fundació LaCaixa, Barcelona Frédéric Mitterrand Vincenzo Mollica Magali Noël Martine Offroy, Gilles Venhard, Corinne Faugeron, Gaumont, Paris Dominique Païni Carlo Patrizi, Marco Patrizi Richard Peduzzi, Lili Hinstin, Vittoria Matarrese, François Laurent, Evelyne Rollet, Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, Rome Emanuela Pelizzola, Campari, Milan Laurent Perreau Tullio Pinelli Serge Plantureux, Galerie Plantureux, Paris Didier Quilain, Olympus France, Rungis Oscar Righini Jacqueline Risset Cyril Rojinski Paul Ronald Giuseppe Rotunno Rossana Rummo, Sara Garbagnoli, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Paris Tatti Sanguinetti Gracia and Christoph Schifferli Ettore Scola David Secchiaroli Gérard Ségard Catterina Seia, Fabio Del Giudice, Sergio Turco, Archivio Storico, Banca di Roma – Unicredit, Rome Piero Servo, Archivio Storico del Cinema – AFE, Rome

158

12-02-14 17:19

Jérôme Seydoux, Christine Hayet, Pascale Paulet, Pathé Distribution, Paris Sophie Seydoux, Stéphanie Salmon, Sandra Escalante, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, Paris Agnès Sire, Fondation Henri CartierBresson, Paris Jacques du Sordet, Agence ANA, Paris Sergio Spinelli Bernard Stiegler Patrick Talbot Philippe Terrier-Hermann Alexandre Therwath Sergio Toffetti, Fulvio Baglivi, Francesca Angelucci, Laura Argento, Antonella Felicioni, Cineteca Nazionale, Rome Serge Toubiana, Laurence Plon, Jean-François Rauger, Olivier Père, Joël Daire, Jacques Ayroles, Isabelle Regelsperger, Cinémathèque française, Paris Francesca Tramma, Andrea Moroni, Federica Terrile, Fondazione Corriere della Sera, Milan Carole Troufléau Camille Viazaga Emanuele von Normann and warm thanks to Véronique TerrierHermann and to Lou Stourdzé

Colophon This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Fellini – The Exhibition June 30 – September 22, 2013 EYE IJpromenade 1 1013 KT Amsterdam, the Netherlands +31-20-589 14 00 [email protected] www.eyefilm.nl

The exhibition is made possible with collaboration and support from Fondation Fellini pour le Cinéma (Sion, Switzerland) and Fondazione Federico Fellini (Rimini, Italy).

Publishers: EYE, Amsterdam / Amsterdam University Press

Exhibition Compilation exhibition: Sam Stourdzé, in collaboration with EYE Production: NBC photographie EYE Director: Sandra den Hamer Director of Exhibitions: Jaap Guldemond Associate Curator: Marente Bloemheuvel Project Coordinators: Sanne Baar; Claartje Opdam Exhibtion Design: Claus Wiersma Graphic Design: Joseph Plateau Film Programmer: Jan van den Brink Debate and Reflection: Gerlinda Heywegen Curator Filmrelated Collections: Soeluh van den Berg Director of Presentation and Communication: Ido Abram Publicity and Marketing: Inge Scheijde; Marnix van Wijk Technical Production: Rembrandt Boswijk; Martin Schrevelius Audiovisual Equipment: Beamsystems Installation: Landstra & De Vries Publication Text and Compilation: Sam Stourdzé Editing: Marente Bloemheuvel, Jaap Guldemond Translations: Walter van der Star Copy Editing: Chantal Nicolaes Publication Coordination AUP: Jeroen Sondervan, Chantal Nicolaes / Amsterdam University Press Graphic Design: Joseph Plateau Graphic Designers, Amsterdam Project Coordinators: Sanne Baar, Claartje Opdam Paper: Supercol, Magno Gloss Font: Futura Printing and lithography: Die Keure, Bruges (Belgium) Binding: Hexspoor, Boxtel

Amsterdam University Press Herengracht 221 1016 BG Amsterdam Tel. +31-20-420 00 50 www.aup.nl [email protected] ISBN 978 90 8964 582 1 NUR 674 / 644 © 2013 Sam Stourdzé / EYE / AUP All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the authors of the book. Printed and Bound in Europe. This book is distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press.

Acknowledgements Sam Stourdzé, Carole Troufléau 159

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 159

12-02-14 17:19

HOLGER_Fellini boek opmaak.indd 160

12-02-14 17:19