Date of Birth
20 January 1920, Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Date of Death
31 October 1993, Rome, Italy (heart attack)
Nickname
FeFe
Il Maestro
Height
6' (1.83 m)
M
ini Biography
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 La dolce vita (1960) and 8½ (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, città aperta (1945) and made the contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisà (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
La Strada is Federico Fellini's moving masterpiece that explores the soul's eternal conflict between the heart and mind. Zampano (Anthony Quinn) is a cruel, traveling carnival strongman who buys his assistant, a simple minded young woman named Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), from her poverty-stricken family. Gelsomina is innocent and childlike (Masina's exquisite performance is as comic as it is heartbreaking). She does Zampano's bidding without question or resistance, even though he is abusive to her. He abandons her in the street to spend the night with a woman. He lashes her with a tree branch when she misquotes her introductory lines. He forces her to steal from a convent. Yet, she remains faithful and uncomplaining. It is a relationship akin to Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: inasmuch as one resents being with the other, there is also a realization that one needs the other. But soon, their fragile relationship is disrupted when Gelsomina meets The Fool (Richard Basehart), a witty circus clown. He mercilessly taunts the oafish Zampano, who can only react with violence. Nevertheless, he is kind and reassuring to the gentle, suffering Gelsomina, offering her a means to leave Zampano. It is the rivalry over her that precipitates the film's inevitable tragedy. La Strada is one of Fellini's most accessible and humane works, a film of understated beauty and profound insight.
The theme of a soul torn between the heart and mind is prevalent in Fellini's films. Visually, he uses the imagery of a man suspended between the earth and sky (In the opening sequence of La Dolce Vita, a helicopter transports a statue of Jesus Christ). Note the upward camera angle used to film Zampano's inane chain trick. The crucifix is prominently held aloft during a vigil procession. The Fool is first shown on a tightrope, performing his high-wire act. The effect is subtle; the implications are devastating. There is no triumph in such a struggle for the soul, only consequences, and a resignation to the pain of existence.
Date of Birth
20 January 1920, Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Date of Death
31 October 1993, Rome, Italy (heart attack)
Nickname
FeFe
Il Maestro
Height
6' (1.83 m)
Mini Biography
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 La dolce vita (1960) and 8½ (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, città aperta (1945) and made the contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisà (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
La Strada is Federico Fellini's moving masterpiece that explores the soul's eternal conflict between the heart and mind. Zampano (Anthony Quinn) is a cruel, traveling carnival strongman who buys his assistant, a simple minded young woman named Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), from her poverty-stricken family. Gelsomina is innocent and childlike (Masina's exquisite performance is as comic as it is heartbreaking). She does Zampano's bidding without question or resistance, even though he is abusive to her. He abandons her in the street to spend the night with a woman. He lashes her with a tree branch when she misquotes her introductory lines. He forces her to steal from a convent. Yet, she remains faithful and uncomplaining. It is a relationship akin to Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot: inasmuch as one resents being with the other, there is also a realization that one needs the other. But soon, their fragile relationship is disrupted when Gelsomina meets The Fool (Richard Basehart), a witty circus clown. He mercilessly taunts the oafish Zampano, who can only react with violence. Nevertheless, he is kind and reassuring to the gentle, suffering Gelsomina, offering her a means to leave Zampano. It is the rivalry over her that precipitates the film's inevitable tragedy. La Strada is one of Fellini's most accessible and humane works, a film of understated beauty and profound insight.
The theme of a soul torn between the heart and mind is prevalent in Fellini's films. Visually, he uses the imagery of a man suspended between the earth and sky (In the opening sequence of La Dolce Vita, a helicopter transports a statue of Jesus Christ). Note the upward camera angle used to film Zampano's inane chain trick. The crucifix is prominently held aloft during a vigil procession. The Fool is first shown on a tightrope, performing his high-wire act. The effect is subtle; the implications are devastating. There is no triumph in such a struggle for the soul, only consequences, and a resignation to the pain of existence.
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