March 3 - 17
The Sweet Life: The World of Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (1920-93) is one of the most celebrated directors in the history of film, whose oeuvre spans the years from Italian neo-realism to his own maturity as one of the cinema’s most idiosyncratic & visually flamboyant directors.
This season presents many of the director’s greatest achievements, from the international breakthrough La strada to the late masterpiece Amarcord by way of succès de scandale La dolce vita.
Born in the provincial seaside town of Rimini, Fellini decamped to Rome in his late teens (followed shortly thereafter by a formative period travelling Italy with a vaudeville troupe). In Rome Fellini met Roberto Rossellini – co-scripting Rome, Open City before co-writing & working as assistant director on Paisà –as well as his future wife & muse Giulietta Masina.
His subsequent work in the 1950s (La strada, Nights of Cabiria) represents a key break from the tenets of neo-realism & establishes the director’s chief thematic & stylistic preoccupations. Rome & his native Romagna are the two poles of Fellini’s cinema, with the Eternal City forming the object of an ever-intensifying love-hate relationship. La dolce vita –as well as being an ode to decadent Rome – marked the arrival of Fellini’s mature style. Henceforth, in films such as Roma & his Oscar-winning recollection of Rimini, Amarcord, he would draw on subjectivity, memory & Jungian psychology to create the intense images, characters & situations that are his unique gift to cinema.
7:00 - AMARCORD
Federico Fellini (1973) 123 mins M
Described by critic Roger Ebert as Fellini’s “final great film”, & the winner of 1974’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in a particularly vivid seaside town during Italy’s fascist era of the 1930s. Bursting with indelible imagery (shot by Giuseppe Rotunno), characters & episodes, the film’s highly stylised world is modelled on Fellini’s hometown of Rimini – its title loosely translating as “I remember” in the local Romagnolo dialect. Features one of Nino Rota’s most memorable scores.
35mm print courtesy of the BFI.
9:15 - LA STRADA
Federico Fellini (1954) 108 mins G
Awarded an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1956, Fellini’s landmark work continues his concern with character & environment in a picaresque tale focusing on a partnership between brutish circus strongman, Zampano (Anthony Quinn), & his naive companion, Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina). In the interplay between innocence & experience, Gelsomina searches for an individual identity under Zampano’s shadow, whilst they travel around Italy & perform in what becomes a basic struggle to exist. With Richard Baseheart.
March 10
7:00 - LA DOLCE VITA
Federico Fellini (1960) 174 mins M
Fellini’s seminal work sees writer Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) given the assignment of writing a gossip column about the rich & famous (of which he is neither). This highly influential & often caustic exploration of “the sweet life” of Rome was one of the most widely seen European films of the 1960s, & fully established the director’s reputation as an important commentator on contemporary life. Revolving around the passivity & vanity of its decadent central character, Fellini’s film also parades an array of beautiful supporting players (Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée & Nico).
10:05 - BOCCACCIO ‘70: Le tentazione del dottor Antonio
Federico Fellini (1962) 51 mins PG
Super-producer Carlo Ponti asked Fellini, Visconti, De Sica & Monicelli to create episodes for a compilation film that would explore issues of sexuality & censorship. This is Fellini’s lavishly ludicrous contribution. Dr Antonio (Peppino De Filippo) is a prudish moralist who is first outraged by the too-lusty image of a woman in a giant advertising poster, then pursued (& titillated) by said lusty woman, who comes to life as a 50ft Anita Ekberg.
35mm print courtesy of NFSA.
7:00 - ROMA
Federico Fellini (1972) 128 mins M
Fellini’s bravura cinematic valentine to the “history” of Rome is a charming, personalised & visually breathtaking (shot by Giuseppe Rotunno) brew of documentary, surreal fantasy & autobiography ( la Amarcord). Contains many of Fellini’s greatest set-pieces including an extraordinarily staged traffic jam, the discovery of ancient underground murals & an ecumenical fashion show (featuring wonderful production design by Danilo Donati). Brilliant score by Nino Rota & touching cameos by Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi & Gore Vidal.
CTEQ Annotation:
'Roma' by Adrian Danks 
9:20 - NIGHTS OF CABIRIA
Federico Fellini (1957) 110 mins M
In a role for which she won Best Actress at Cannes, esteemed actress, collaborator with & wife to Fellini, Giulietta Masina, plays a nave streetwalker befallen by hardships that cannot extinguish her faith in redemption. Influenced by Chaplin’s renowned Depression-era classic City Lights, & co-written by Pier Paolo Pasolini, this is the last of the director’s neo-realist-inflected “pre-Felliniesque” works. In its most transformative moments, this Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film provides tantalising glimpses of the visual freedom & expressiveness that was to come.
Print courtesy of NFSA