Fellini: ordinare il caos

July 21 - ROME: Feltrinelli Bookshop, Piazza Pio XI, 6:30 PM July 28 - SABAUDIA: Palazzo Mazzoni, 7:00 PM July 30 - VALENTANO: Piazza della Vittoria, 7:30 PM How Federico Fellini transformed creative block, chaos, and personal crisis into 8 1/2: the most autobiographical and inimitable film of Italian cinema. Buy "Making Films Is Hell": https://bit.ly/InfernoUTET Before 8 1/2, Fellini wasn't the universally beloved genius. La Strada had divided critics, La Dolce Vita had been criticized at its Milan premiere. But the Palme d'Or at Cannes created something worse than failure: immense pressure. Fellini no longer knew what to do. The film born from this block is also the film of the block: a director who doesn't know what to shoot, surrounded by producers, actors, former lovers, and figures from the past. To get there, Fellini took years, changing the subject several times—first a writer in crisis, then a theater impresario—and writing the screenplay as a team of four, including Flaiano, Pinelli, and Rondi. At one point, he sent a letter to producer Angelo Rizzoli to say he was giving up. The letter still exists. Then he went down in the elevator, sat at the production party with a glass of sparkling wine, felt like "a man with a hammer tied to his thigh"—and there, in that moment, he saw the film in his head. On set, Fellini had the actors count instead of their lines. He literally hunted for faces in the streets. Sandra Milo recruited her by showing up at her house in the middle of the night with the entire crew. Mastroianni played Guido Anselmi, copying Fellini's tics, voice, and movements. Gianni Di Venanzo invented a new black and white—overexposed, almost burned in the spa scenes—to separate reality, dream, and memory without intertitles. There are three endings. Only one is the one we know. And Ennio Flaiano will discover on the plane to the Oscars that he's flying economy, while Fellini is in first class. They will never work together again. ─────────────────────────────── 🔔 Subscribe to never miss the next videos ─────────────────────────────── Storyline on IG: https://bit.ly/StorylineIG Storyline on TikTok: https://bit.ly/StorylineTK #8EMezzo #Fellini #ItalianCinema #Mastroianni #ItalianFilm #Storyline #FilmAnalysis #History 0:00 Introduction 0:45 Fellini before 8 1/2: La Strada and La Dolce Vita 1:39 The Palme d'Or and creative block 3:23 The film that can't be born 4:07 How 8 1/2 takes shape 6:16 The ensemble screenplay: Flaiano, Pinelli, Rondi 7:39 Boccaccio 70: the pause in the middle of preparation 9:13 The letter to Rizzoli: Fellini wants to give up everything 10:08 The little party and the viewing in the elevator 11:09 Fellini's method on set 12:18 Actors count instead of acting 14:06 Hunting for faces in the streets 18:00 Angelo Rizzoli: the producer who understood nothing 19:52 Laurence Olivier says no, he's coming Mastroianni 9:39 PM The relationship between Mastroianni and Fellini 10:51 PM Sandra Milo: the audition at home in the middle of the night 12:46 PM Gianni Di Venanzo and modern black and white 10:30 PM Why not color (the lesson of Boccaccio 70) 10:42 PM The three endings of 8 1/2 10:34 PM The catwalk ending: how it came about by chance 10:26 PM The breakup with Flaiano 11:15 PM The flight to the Oscars: first class versus economy 11:55 PM The Oscars and the legacy of 8 1/2