Continuing our series on the Italian director Federico Fellini and his movies, this installment is on the director himself. In this post will discuss early influences and achievements. Future posts will investigate his career as filmmaker and artist.
While this exploration is important for film buffs, it is for anyone who has been moved by a Fellini film and would like to know more about this dynamic director.
Fellini - The Early Years
Fellini's early ambition and career choice was that of newspaper reporter. During the 1930's, while working in the Italian capitol of Rome, he remarked that he was inspired by American films of glamorous newspapermen of the period. He reported police news for the popular paper Il popolo di Roma, cartoons and short stories in Marc' Aurelio (a weekly satirical magazine). From there he moved to radio - and the next progression was to film.
In 1943 he met Giulietta Masina, who had a profound influence on his life and work. After getting to know each other from initial work on a radio serial, they were married in 1943. Giulietta went on to star in six of Fellini's films (Variety Lights, The White Sheik, La Strada, Il Bidone, Nights of Cabiria, Juliet of the Spirits).
Fellini - The Work
"Cinema is basically a pictorial medium, therefore a director must be curious about the multiple aspects of reality."
Fellini originally loved the black and white film medium. He thought that it allowed the viewer to engage more imaginately with the characters and objects in the film. The viewer would project the colors onto the film. In his first color project, Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini became a convert, playing with color and content like an artist on a canvas. Color became an integral feature of the film. When asked about his use of color, Fellini described cinema as movement and color as immobility. Trying to blend the two was the supreme ambition.
To compose a film, Fellini needed to know intimately everything in every shot - every shirt, every tie, every moustache. Understanding that art and life are not equivalent, he choose to create worlds that existed only on the screen. Enter a Fellini world and be prepared to witness another world where fantasy and reality twist and intertwine.
I hope this short essay leads you to explore Fellini's films and work. Stop back and leave us a note as you explore..
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