Federico Fellini

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Say Italian director and you think Fellini - such was the scope of his impact, not only on Italian cinema but on the perception of Italy to the rest of the world.

WHAT SORT OF FILMS IS HE FAMOUS FOR?
Fellini cut his teeth as a cameraman on Rossellini's neo-realist classic Rome, Open City, writing and shooting the film on the heels of the Nazi retreat in 1945. But it is La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life), a dissection of Italy's consumer boom bohemian values (shot with such style and verve that ironically it came to popularise the notion of the 'sweet life' and post-war Italian cool) that immortalised Fellini as a master on the world stage.

WHEN WAS HE WORKING?
Fellini earned pocket money drawing cartoons of actors for his local cinema after he left school. He started his career as an un-credited 'gagman' in 1939 on a film called Lo Vedi Come Sei (See It As You Are). Luci Della Varietà (1950) saw his first directing credit. His swansong film was Ginger And Fred in 1985, though his official bow came in 1990 with Voices Of The Moon.

WHO DID HE WORK WITH?
Most famously and most memorably with the epitome of Italian sophistication, actor Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, but his wife Giulietta Masina was a constant companion throughout, starring in La Strada, Nights Of Cabiria, The White Sheikh, 8 1/2, Julie Of The Spirits and Ginger and Fred. Aside from these two, the most frequently published images seem to be of Anthony Quinn's circus strongman Zampano and the unforgettable Anita Ekberg dancing in the Trevi fountain in La Dolce Vita.

WHO DID HE SLEEP WITH?
He married Giulietta Masina in 1943 and they remained together until his death. "We had the advantage, Federico and me, of being married young, so we became formed together" she said.

WHAT DO THEY TELL YOU AT FILM SCHOOL?
That Fellini is the king of style and (if you attend a crap school) that his films are charming anachronisms. Actually, Fellinis films used this so-called style for a purpose - to make his often difficult subject matter palatable.