I Vitelloni, 1977

Federico Fellini   Famous Artists

Federico Fellini (Rimini, 1920 - Rome, 1993) was a highly esteemed and influential Italian film director. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of the 20th century and in the history of cinema, directing iconic films such as La dolce vita, La Strada, Nighs of Cabiria or Armavord.

Marked by neorealism in the beginning, Fellini's work evolved, in the 1960s, toward a unique style, close to European modern cinema. His films are characterized by multiple themes and rich narratives, an intentional artificiality in directing, and no limits between dreams, imagination, hallucinations and reality.

Federico Fellini always doodled. When he arrived in Rome in 1939, he intended to become a cartoonist before discovering cinema. From Fellini's imagination and dreams emerge dwarves, clowns, polar bears, radioactive fish, and friends, including Visconti and Picasso, as well as apocalyptic nightmares of plane crashes, floods, and collapsing buildings. He also uses drawings for his films, to give indications to his collaborators, or to materialize his thoughts before they become moving images.

As he says himself: "for me it is a way to loook films in the eyes". His drawings are pre cinematographic visions through their spontaneity. The strength of his images in his movies is informed by the agressiveness of journalistic graphic images. His sketches are taken live at the instant he has the vision. If the script is the literary and verbal phase of the film, the drawings translate an expression, their general idea. They are indications to his collaborators such as set designers, make-up artists, costume designers.