Federico
Fellini ,
1920-1993 ; Life -- the women who both attracted and frightened
him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope
Pius XII -- inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording
in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material
for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina
(the devil herself said the priests who ran his school) -- and
the Gambettola farmhouse of his paternal grandmother would be
remembered in several films. His traveling salesman father Urbano
Fellini showed up in Dolce vita, La (1960) and 8 1/2 (1963).
His mother Ida Barbiani was from Rome and accompanied him there
in 1939. He enrolled in the University of Rome. Intrigued by
the image of reporters in American films, he tried out the real
life role of journalist and caught the attention of several
editors with his caricatures and cartoons and then started submitting
articles. Several articles were recycled into a radio series
about newlyweds "Cico and Pallina". Pallina was played by acting
student Giulietta Masina, who became his real life wife from
October 30, 1943, until his death half a century later. The
young Fellini loved vaudeville and was befriended in 1940 by
leading comedian Aldo Fabrizi. Roberto Rossellini wanted Fabrizi
to play Don Pietro in Roma, cittą aperta (1946) and made the
contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script
and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisą (1946). On that
film he wandered into the editing room, started observing how
Italian films were made (a lot like the old silent films with
an emphasis on visual effects, dialogue dubbed in later). Fellini
in his mid-20s had found his life's work.
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