In the 1940's Fellini had been selling
cariatures to Allied soldiers from his shop "The Funny Face Shop"
on Via Nazionale in Rome. Here we see him with Enrici De Seta around 1943.
It is here that he first met many contemporary Italian film makers such as Roberto Rossellini.
Life in the film industry was hard - Cinecitta studios had been bombed and production had come to a standstill, nevertheless slowly but surely the industry began to recover.
Fellini found himself increasingly involved in film and the media, for example writing scripts for film and radio and helping with shooting for Rosellini.
Fellini was nominated for oscars for his scriptwriting talents on Rosselini's incredible Roma citta aperta (1945) and Paisa (1946).
These films were part of a major post-war film movement in Italy called neorealism. often using non-actors to play roles similar to their own life role within the films. Other key directors of the movement include Vittorio De Sica (for example his superb film ladri di biciclette), Luchino Visconti and many more. These neo realist directors were to inspire a generation of Italian film directors, such as Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Pier Paulo Pasolini to develop their own new film styles.
Here we can see Fellini
having fun with Roberto Rosselini (father of Isabella and husband of Ingrid
Bergman) and with an (as yet) dark haired young lady with whom fellini worked
at a radio station.
She was called Giulietta Massina and was to become the love of Fellini's life, and to star in some of his key films.
Our virtual Via Veneto time machine can only travel as far forward as early 1963, so we will just look at the first eight and a half films by Fellini. Elsewhere there are many other virtual resources on these films, so if you want more information you could try looking there too.
Still, if you are
happy to remain in conversation on the Via
Veneto, lets have another coffee and talk about some of Fellini's
early films as a director in his own right.
Last updated 9th of February 1999
