"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life."
-Federico Fellini

No director captured "the infinite passion of life" as flamboyantly as Federico Fellini, the Italian director whose career spanned the birth of neorealism in the '40s and the rise of a more personal approach to filmmaking in the '60s. Indeed, his personal vision was so emphatic that critics created the term "Felliniesque" to describe his trademark mixture of decadence and eccentricity. Yet under all the Felliniesque glitter lay the passionate heart of a confirmed humanist, which may explain why his films have survived the test of time while others who merely exploited the changing values of the '50s and '60s have faded from memory.

Fellini was a small-town boy, born to middle-class parents in Rimini, Italy, who ran away to join the circus at an early age. As a young adult, he set off for a different circus, Rome, in 1938, hoping to become a journalist. But his writing and the cartoon caricatures he created led him in a different direction, first to the theatre and radio and then into film. A friendship with actor Aldo Fabrizi brought him the chance to tour with his troupe in a variety of odd jobs, an experience he would draw on for his first directorial effort, Variety Lights (1950). When some of his short stories were adapted for the radio, he met the radio plays' leading lady, Giulietta Masina, whom he would marry and groom to be one of his greatest stars.

Although Fellini had contributed gags to some films made in the early '40s, he first became seriously involved in film-making when director Roberto Rossellini approached him to help write the script for Open City, the 1945 film that would make Italian neorealism an international sensation. While Rossellini took ill while directing his next film, Paisan (1946), Fellini directed some scenes for him. That experience convinced him to move into directing.

His first film was a collaboration with director Alberto Lattuada, who liked Fellini's script for Variety Lights enough to let him direct the actors while Lattuada handled the camera work. From the beginning, Fellini drew heavily on his own life and dreams, using his experience touring with Fabrizi's troupe as the basis for his first directorial effort. He became sole director with his second film, The White Sheik (1952), after refusing to let anyone else direct his script about a honeymooning couple whose relationship is complicated by the wife's infatuation with a comic-strip character. For this film, he drew on his early experiences writing for "fotoromanzi," which used photos of actors instead of drawings for its comic-book like narratives.

Fellini had featured his wife in supporting roles in his first two films. For La Strada (1954), he promoted her to leading lady and scored an international sensation. As Gelsomina, a childlike waif sold into marriage with a traveling strong man (Anthony Quinn), she became the perfect embodiment of the innocence of the human spirit. With a popular score by Nino Rota, who would work with Fellini through the rest of his career, La Strada was an international hit that brought Fellini the first of his four Oscars® for Best Foreign Language Film. He repeated that success a year later with Le Notti de Cabiria, in which Masina played a romantic prostitute. That film would also inspire the hit Broadway musical Sweet Charity.

The director moved into truly Felliniesque territory with his next film, La Dolce Vita (1960). In their first of several films together, Marcello Mastroianni served as Fellini's on-screen representation, a journalist both repelled and attracted by the decadence of Roman life. The identification between actor and character would deepen with Fellini's masterpiece, 8 1/2 (1963). This time, Mastroianni was a film director desperately trying to come up with an idea for his next movie while juggling relations with his wife (Anouk Aimee), his mistress (Sandro Milo) and an innocent young actress (Claudia Cardinale). The film brought Fellini his third Oscar® and inspired another hit Broadway musical, Nine, along with imitations by U.S. directors Woody Allen (Stardust Memories, 1980), Paul Mazursky (Alex in Wonderland, 1970) and Bob Fosse (All That Jazz, 1979).

Fellini then presented the flip side of 8 1/2 with Juliet of the Spirits (1965), with Masina starring as a housewife at a loss over how to deal with her husband's infidelity. It was to be his last unqualified critical success. With later films (Fellini Satyricon in 1969, The Clowns in 1971, Fellini's Roma in 1972), critics thought he had allowed his personal vision to overpower his ability to reach an audience. Only Amarcord (1974), a series of reminiscences based on his youth in Rimini, brought a return to his earlier successes. The picture brought him his fourth Academy Award®. After that, his films scored a series of mixed successes. His last, La Voce della Luna (1989), has yet to find a U.S. distributor. Nonetheless, Fellini had one final triumph -- a special Oscar® presented to him in 1992.

by Frank Miller