Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini called himself a "born liar" - if so, then one could only wish to be blessed by many more creative and imaginative liars of his type, and far fewer arid and boring truth-sayers. Born in Rimini in 1920, Fellini grew up observing the gossipy, bawdy life of his town, and the absurdities of an Italy under the dual auspices of Mussolini and Pope Pius XII. From 1939 on, Fellini came to Rome, and made a living writing articles for the satirical weekly Marc’Aurelio. In 1942 he met and married Giulietta Masina, who would remain his wife, muse, and leading actress in many of his films for the rest of his life. His film-making career started in 1950, co-directing Variety Lights with Alberto Lattuada. From here onwards, Fellini's career and range of storytelling devices grew rapidly. Starting out as a neorealist, in a period that included masterpieces such as La Strada (1954), with its tale of a strangely matched couple of street performers, by 1960 Fellini had expanded his lexicon beyond that of the traditional neorealist canon. Heralding this new phase: La Dolce Vita, which also introduced a new word to the language via the persona of "il signore Paparazzo," a relentlessly intrusive society gossip photographer. The later films delve deeper into the world of the collective unconscious, intermingled with Fellini's incessantly inventive construction of his "memories." The actor Marcello Mastroianni frequently appears as a stand-in for Fellini in many of these films, from the creatively blocked director in 8 1/2 (1963) to the somewhat perplexed visitor to the surreal City of Women (1980). History - national and personal, real and imagined - makes an appearance throughout these films, culminating in Amarcord (1973), where the Rimini of Fellini's childhood is lovingly and seductively reimagined. In 1993 a heart attack claimed the life of Federico Fellini; the people that had most crucially accompanied him in the telling of his stories followed not long after, Giulietta Masina in 1994, and Marcello Mastroianni in 1996, as if they had become vanishing figments of the filmmaker's imagination.
