Description
Book SynopsisThis major artistic biography of Federico Fellini shows how his exuberant imagination has been shaped by popular culture, literature, and his encounter with the ideas of C. G. Jung, especially Jungian dream interpretation. Covering Fellini''s entire career, the book links his mature accomplishments to his first employment as a cartoonist, gagman, and sketch-artist during the Fascist era and his development as a leading neo-realist scriptwriter. Peter Bondanella thoroughly explores key Fellinian themes to reveal the director''s growth not only as an artistic master of the visual image but also as an astute interpreter of culture and politics. Throughout the book Bondanella draws on a new archive of several dozen manuscripts, obtained from Fellini and his scriptwriters. These previously unexamined documents allow a comprehensive treatment of Fellini''s important part in the rise of Italian neorealism and the even more decisive role that he played in the evolution of Italian cinema bey
Trade Review
Winner of the 1992 Book Award of the Agnelli Foundation's Conference Group on Italian Politics and Society One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1992 "Offers rare insight into the life and times of one of the screen's most imaginative auteurs... Like its subject's best efforts, the book is as entertaining as it is enriching."--Variety "Peter Bondanella, an esteemed scholar of Italian film, has committed an act of daring. It's the best kind of daring - unselfconscious and authentic... Courageous in ideational independence, he is equally steadfast in his enterprise - to understand and explicate and important artist's process. He does this to an impressive degree, not with clinical smugness but with relish and respect. His book is a loving and helpful tribute."--The New Republic
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsCh. 1Origins: Journalism and the Comic Strips3Ch. 2Neorealist Apprenticeship: Fellini as Scriptwriter30Ch. 3Beyond Neorealism: Character and Narrative Form in Early Fellini from Luci Del Varieta to La Dolce Vita68Ch. 4Dreams and Metacinema: Le Tentazioni Del Dottor Antonio, 8 1/2, Block-Notes Di Un Regista, I Clowns, Roma, E La Nave Va, Ginger E Fred, and Intervista150Ch. 5Literature and Cinema: Toby Dammit and Fellini Satyricon227Appendixes to Chapter Five253Ch. 6Fellini and Politics: Amarcord and Prova d'Orchestra262Ch. 7"The Great Fabricator and Dissolver of Clouds": Sexuality and the Image of Women in Giulietta Degli Spiriti, Casanova, and La Citta Delle Donne292Ch. 8La voce della luna and the Cinema of Poetry327A Fellini Filmography335Selected Bibliography345Index361
