Federico Fellini (1920-1993) started his career in film as a writer, coming to prominence during the post-Second World War neorealist movement in Italian cinema with contributions to the screenplays of Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946). Having also gained experience as an assistant director on these two films, his first directorial credit was shared with Alberto Lattuada in 1950’s Luci del varietà (Variety Lights). As he began his solo career, Fellini left his neorealist roots behind and forged a more picaresque style that nonetheless retained great compassion and empathy for his characters. Inspired by his experiences with psychoanalysis, his work became more lushly visual as he explored aspects of memory and sexuality, giving full rein to his imaginative flights of fantasy. Fellini’s body of work is one that remains hugely influential, even as his name has become an adjective for describing a certain style of filmmaking. International directors as varied as Stanley Kubrick and Spike Lee have cited his work as an inspiration, not to mention the generations of Italian filmmakers from Bernardo Bertolucci to Paolo Sorrentino in whose work his influence is readily apparent. This opportunity to savour these feasts for the senses on the big screen is one not to be missed.
Notes by Kevin Coyne.
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