Italian Cinema Today

  Ettore Scola on the set of 'How Strange to Be Named Federico' A sentimental portrait for a friend, Ettore Scola’s 2013 “Che strano chiamarsi Federico” (“How Strange to Be Named Federico”) is both a tribute to Federico Fellini and a reflection on friendship, and an artist’s passion for filmmaking.  Scola created a personal and imaginative film that moves between documentary, fiction, memory, and fantasy, bringing to life important moments he shared with Fellini during their decades-long friendship as well as highlights from Fellini’s own life and career while showing how deeply Fellini influenced Scola himself. The result is an inviting, nostalgic, and at times playful portrait of one of Italy and the world’s most beloved filmmakers. The film opens on the beach where a figure depicting Fellini sits in a director’s chair and watches performers audition for him. The beach is likely symbolic of Fellini’s roots in the seaside town of Rimini and his beach-going days on the c...

One hundred years after his birth,  Federico Fellini  is more relevant than ever with new facts about his life and filmmaking still being uncovered. Towards the end of 1958,  Fellini went through a complicated professional period and found himself in a deep depression. Despite having already won two Oscars for "La Strada" and "Le Notti di Cabiria," which starred his wife and muse Giulietta Masina , he could not find a producer interested in his new project: a story he wrote along with colleagues Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. The project was titled, "La Dolce Vita."  One producer, Giuseppe Amato, believed in the script and that's all it took to create the immortal masterpiece. Now, a new  documentary-drama sheds light on the iconic film that was almost never made.  Through  re-enactment, clips from the film, and archival images,  "The truth about La Dolce Vita" by Giuseppe Pedersoli  reveals the correspondence between Fellini and ...

Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita Watching an old movie today, Love in the City , I rediscovered the work of Arturo Zavattini. Born in 1930, Zavattini is known for his work as a photographer, cinematographer and director of photography. His father, Cesare Zavattini was one of Federico Fellini's longtime collaborators, so Arturo practically grew up on film sets. He worked as an assistant and camera operator on famous Italian films such as Il Bidone , La Dolce Vita and  Divorce Italian Style . He also worked as an ethnographic photographer, accompanying anthropologist Ernesto de Martino on his infamous expedition to Lucania in 1952, which would later inspire Luigi Di Gianni's debut documentary, Magia Lucana . Matera Being a teenager in Rome during the post-war years, Zavattini was very influenced by the neorealism film movement and that influence was always apparent during the multi-decade span of his career.  His images taken in Rome, Naples and othe...

A scene from Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories" Tonight I watched the film, "Woody Allen: A Documentary." I was not expecting a connection to Italian cinema but since one usually ends up presenting itself, tonight was no different.  A scene from Federico Fellini's "8 1/2" The documentary brought up the similarities between Allen’s "Stardust Memories" and Federico Fellini’s "8 ½ ." These are films that I saw 20+ years ago when I was young and exploring the masters of cinema. I found both films fascinating but I believe that I was too young to understand the complexities of them. My memory recalls their visual aspects- the zany characters and faces and a strong sense of the surreal. In "Woody Allen: A Documentary," Allen talks about the impact that Fellini had on his career. Although I've seen just about every film that Allen has made, I didn’t realize how strongly Fellini influenced his work. Afte...

Founded in 1984, Italiaidea is a school dedicated to teaching the language of Italy within the borders of Italy. Appropriately enough, it is located in the heart of Rome's bustling center near the Spanish Steps and the Fountain of Trevi. What makes this school unique and of interest to me is their collaboration with the film industry and the professors' interest in using cinema as a tool to teach language. While in Rome recently, I stopped by the school and talked with two of the directors, Caroline Ciampaglia and Chiara Crippa. I was impressed by their enthusiasm for Italian cinema and their involvement in bringing some of the biggest names in the business into their classrooms to teach students about Italian cinema and culture.  Another impressive quality about this language school is its accessibility to those who just want to study Italian without earning a degree. The school collaborates with major universities like Cornell, De Paul and the University of ...