Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Date of Birth: 20 Jan 1920

Country: Italy

Biography: 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 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.

Total Credits at Criticker: 13 (Actor), 27 (Director), 40 (Writer)

Biography last updated by inhmn, and picture by kangadoodoo

Find more information about Federico Fellini at The Internet Movie Database

Titles you haven't rated - Actor (13) | Director (27) | Writer (40)

    La Strada
    Gelsomina is sold by her very poor mother to Zampano, an itinerant strongman. She follows him on the road (La Strada)
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    8½
    A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies (imdb)
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    La Dolce vita
    Marcello is a young playboy journalist who spends his days between celebrities and rich people, seeking for ephemeral joy in parties and sex... (imdb)
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    Amarcord
    In this movie Fellini portrays his home town of Rimini as he remembered it in '30s, during his young days... (imdb)
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    Nights of Cabiria
    A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finding only heartbreak. (imdb)
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    City of Women
    A businessman finds himself trapped at a hotel and threatened by women en masse. (imdb)
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    Fellini\
    Casanova is a libertine, collecting seductions and sexual feats. But he is really interested in someone... (imdb)
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    Juliet of the Spirits
    Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband. (imdb)
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    And the Ship Sails On
    In July 1914 a luxury liner leaves Italy with the ashes of the famous opera singer Tetua. The boat is filled with her friends... (imdb)
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    Fellini Satyricon
    In first century Rome, two student friends, Encolpio and Ascilto, argue about ownership of the boy Gitone... (imdb)
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    Sweet Charity
    Dance-hall dancer Charity continues to have faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands... (imdb) (IMDB)
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    Il Bidone
    Aging small-time con man Augusto, who swindles peasants, works with two younger men: Roberto, who wants to become the Italian Johnny Ray... (imdb)
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    I Vitelloni
    A sensitive character study of five young men trapped in a small town on the Adriatic. (imdb)
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    The White Sheik
    The first two days of a marriage. Ivan, a punctilious clerk brings his virginal bride to Rome for a honeymoon... (imdb)
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    Rome, Open City
    Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his friend Francesco's, and asks Pina, Francesco's fiancée, for help (imdb)
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    Roma
    A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens... (imdb)
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    Ginger and Fred
    Amelia and Pippo are reunited after several decades to perform their old music-hall act (imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) on a TV variety show. (imdb)
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    Orchestra Rehearsal
    An orchestra assmbles for a rehearsal in an ancient chapel under the inquisive eyes of a TV documentary crew, but an uprising breaks out. (imdb)
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    Variety Lights
    When a young woman of beauty and talent joins a provincial vaudeville troupe, they're suddenly playing to packed houses, and their aging comic Checco Dalmonte gets big ideas. He falls in love with the ingenue, Liliana, and ignores his companion of several years, Melina Amour. (imdb)
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    The Flowers of St. Francis
    The film dramatizes about a dozen vignettes from the life of St. Francis and his early followers - starting with their return in the rain to Rivotorlo from Rome when the Pope blessed their Rule and ending with their dispersal to preach. The unconnected chapters are like parables, some with a moral. The slight and comic Ginepro returns naked to St. Mary's of the Angels, having given away his tunic, but not his ricotta... (imdb)
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    Europa \
    Playing a character far older than herself, Bergman portrays a society woman whose life is in ruins after her son's suicide. Attempting to give her life some purpose, she takes the advice of a leftist friend, and begins working with the ill and destitute of Rome. Her insensitive husband Alexander Knox finds Bergman's charitable activities distasteful; when the opportunity presents itself, he has her committed to a mental institution. (All Movie Guide)
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    Paisan
    Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice.
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    Boccaccio \
    Four directors tell tales of Eros fit for a 1970s Decameron... (imdb)
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    The Voice of the Moon
    The elfin, irrepressible and very popular Italian comic Roberto Benigni and the similarly popular Paolo Villaggio star in this, the last of celebrated director Federico Fellini's films. The film's dreamlike story follows the meanderings of the moon-struck (or lunatic) Salvini (Benigni). (All Movie Guide)
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    I Clowns
    I Clowns (1971) - TV Movie
    The culmination of filmmaker Federico Fellini's lifelong love affair with circus folk. Fellini's alter ego this time is a young boy, taking in his first circus... (All Movie Guide)
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    Intervista
    Intervista has been termed a semi-documentary: This is in fact the filmed autobiography of Italian director Federico Fellini, framed in the form of an interview conducted by a Japanese film crew. As the interview progresses Fellini's mind wanders to his earliest days (the reenacted events conflict with several of the "official" stories of his life). (Allmovie)
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    Amore
    Two-part anthology film, each segment starring Anna Magnani as different women who confront heartache in an unconventional manner.
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    Il cammino della speranza
    Disciples of Italian filmmaker Pietro Germi have noted the stylistic influence of Hollywood's John Ford in Germi's neorealist Il Camino Della Speranza. The story concerns the plight of illegal immigration, as experienced by a pair of Sicilian miners. Unable to find work in their own country, the protagonists embark on a long and arduous journey to the French border, with immigration officials nipping at their heels every step of the way... (Hal Erickson)
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    Senza pietà
    The plot is based on an actual postwar dilemma: in Northern Italy, dozens of black American GIs chose to go AWOL rather than return to a racially divided United States. John Kitzmiller plays an occupation soldier named Jerry, who decides to remain in Italy when he falls in love with a blonde, Caucasian local girl named Angela (Carla Del Poggio). (allmovie.com)
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    Four Ways Out
    As a soccer match is in progress, a group of four criminals robs the stadium office. Before they can make their getaway, a chase begins, and they must split up before they can divide the money. The police have little to go on, since it appears that none of the robbers were experienced criminals. Meanwhile, the thieves have to arrange for dividing the money while trying to avoid being captured. (imdb)
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    NBC Experiment in Television
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    Il Mulino del Po
    Lattuada's first masterpiece is considered by many to be Il Mulino del Po, which, though considered neo-realist, was atypically based on a novel and set in the past. Co-scripted with Fellini and others, it dramatized the agrarian struggles in northern Italy in the 19th century and the rise of socialism there. Its release in 1949 coincided with a national strike of agricultural workers. Lattuada would later recall with satisfaction that this epic film, which used Soviet style montage effects. (Surreal Moviez)
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    La città dolente
    The city of Pola is being evacuated after the peace conference of 1947 decided to assign the sovereignty to Tito's Jugoslavia. However the main character decides to stay, thinking that communism might bring him a better future. Life turns to be hard for him and his family until he changes his mind, but he is killed before he can leave the country. (imdb)
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    Avanti c\
    A funny bus driver helps out a jobless girl in wartime Rome.
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    Campo de\
    Peppino, a fishmonger on Campo de' Fiori, a famous Roman marketplace, works alongside Elide, a greengrocer, who has a soft spot for him, despite the fact they argue all day long... But neither Peppino, nor his friend Aurelio, the barber, are interested in getting married. Until he meets the beautiful Elsa...
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    L\
    The roman coachman Totò doesn't want his coach being replaced by cars and doesn't want his daughter Nannarella to go out with the taxi driver Roberto. But it is Roberto who saves him when he gets into trouble.
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    Alta Società: Rigatoni Barilla
    The maître of a restaurant of the "Alta Società" proposes the most sophisticated dishes of the menu, but the elegant lady interrupts the endless list of the waiter exclaiming: "Rigatoni". The unforgettable Barilla spot shot by Federico Fellini. (youtube)
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    Che bel paesaggio: Bitter Campari
    "In just one minute," writes Tullio Kezich in Federico Fellini: His Life and Work, "Fellini gives us a chapter of the story of the battle between men and women, and makes reference to the neurosis of TV, insinuates that we're disparaging the miraculous gifts of nature and history, and offers the hope that there might be a screen that will bring the joy back. The little tale is as quick as a train and has a remarkably light touch." (open culture)
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    Fortunella
    A poor girl is convinced she is the daughter of a prince. (imdb)
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    Cameriera bella presenza offresi...
    Housemaid Maria has been engaged to Berto for 15 years. Berto doesn't have a steady job so he's waiting for his Uncle Matteo's death, when he will come into an inheritance. In the meantime Maria goes on with her work, first in the house of an unfaithful wife, then for an actor and his wife on the verge of divorce, and last for Rafael, who wants to marry her. At last Uncle Matteo dies.
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