Who is Fellini? In the book Fellini, Fellini says that “critics have accused him of being a charlatan, hypocrite, clown, and devil, and hailed him as a magician, poet, genius, and prophet” (Fellini, back cover). The film La Dolce Vita represents more than a significant step in the evolution of Fellini’s cinematic style. It reminds us of movies in the United States like Gone with the Wind, Casablanca or The Godfather. Why? Because La Dolce Vita “transcended its meaning as a work of art and came to be considered a milestone that also pointed to important changes in Italian society” (Bondanella, 65). He received the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Its commercial success represents the triumph of “serious art cinema at the box office” (65). This film grossed more than 2.2 billion lire in just a few years at a time when tickets in Italy cost only between five hundred and one thousand lire.
This article will explore Fellini’s influence on pop culture, the influence of Christianity on Fellini, and how La Dolce Vita, perhaps his greatest work, marked his own personal departure into obscurity.
Fellini’s influence on filmmakers
There are many legendary filmmakers influenced by Fellini. Among the names are the following: Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica, David Lynch, Girish Kasaravalli, David Cronenberg and of course Martin Scorsese. The latest examples are the short film Paparazzi by Lady Ga Ga and the feature film / musical Nine.
John Baxter, author of Fellini, points out how Woody Allen in his film Stardust Memories and Arthur Penn in his film Mickey One were influenced by Fellini’s constant vacillation between reality and the world of dreams (Baxter, 195). Stardust Memories is considered one of the best Woody Allen films. It is filmed in black and white, reminiscent of Fellini’s 8.5. The story parodies Fellini’s film in the sense that it is about a famous filmmaker who is inundated with fans who want him to make another hit like La Dolce Vita. Mickey One is a surreal film about the Kafkaesque paranoia that ultimately turned this film into a cult classic. Like Fellini, director Author Penn ignored the usual conventions of storytelling.
It is about a comedian named Mickey, who mixes with the mob. Throughout the movie, Mickey avoids his performances because he doesn’t want to be attacked by the mob. He finally decides to stop hiding and run. He does his act. Meanwhile, a mute mime-like character known as The Artist keeps popping up everywhere. In the end, The Artist launches a machine called “Yes”.
Before director Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman made Batman and a plethora of other award-winning films, they made a little movie called Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. At this point, no one really knew Burton and Elfman. This story was about a boy named Pee-wee on a national hunt for his bicycle. In the midst of this 1985 comedy, Burton and Elfman decided to pay homage to Fellini by musically inspired by his composer Nino Rota. The film’s soundtrack was a key element in the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Burton went on to direct hit movies like Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, and Batman. Elfman went on to compose music for movies and shows like: The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives and Batman. Burton and Elfman continue to work together and are inspired by Fellini. Interestingly, Fellini has admitted to being inspired by faith.
The influence of Christianity on Fellini
We can see the Christian influence on Fellini in La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and all his previous films. For example, in 8½ Guido represents a character that reflects Fellini’s own confusion. This film was his response to the success of La Dolce Vita. Guido’s search for a kind of personal liberation was similar to his. He was trying to get rid of his double-minded upbringing. Although Fellini grew up in a Christian environment, Christians represented corruption in society. This contributed to their confusion. While the Christians represented corruption, the atheistic communists represented the people who were trying to liberate their country.
Alpert, author of Fellini, drew more parallels between Fellini and Guido’s character in 8 ½. Like Fellini, Guido “was a victim of medieval Catholicism which tends to humiliate a man rather than restore him to his divine greatness” (Alpert, 178). The only time Fellini felt the spiritual grace mentioned in the Bible was when he was making a movie. He said that on a film set “he feels reborn” (Alpert, 178).
Fellini was known for exploring Christianity in his films. Before La Dolce Vita, Fellini designed what Bondanella, author of Italian Cinema, called a trilogy about conversion. This trilogy was made up of: La Strada, La scam and Cabiria Nights (Bondanella, 231). With La Dolce Vita, Fellini uses the city of Rome as a metaphor for Western culture. This is “seen from a double perspective: before the advent of Christianity” (232). Most people don’t know that the original title of La Dolce Vita was 2000 years after Jesus Christ. But they settled on the ironic title of “the sweet life” which shows that this life is not sweet at all.
The theme of La Dolce Vita is that this way of life is a facade and a masquerade. This topic was encoded in a comment made by a copycat. After an all-night game that’s pretty Felliniesque, the copycat says, “I was all made up, but now I look awful” (Bondanella, 233). This cultural confusion finds its visual parallel in the most famous image in the film: the opening shot. This shot shows a helicopter carrying the statue of Christ with his “blessing on the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct” (233).
John May, author of Nurturing Faith Through Fiction, considers this to be the most extraordinary indictment of modern society ever presented on screen. May calls this film “one of the greatest cinematographic creations of the religious imagination” (May, 79). He claims not to notice a figure of Christ, other than the figure of the statue of Christ at the beginning of the film. At the end of the film, when a big fish appears, “we can find a suitable reference for the big fish in the Book of Revelation when, after the sound of the seventh trumpet, the hideous beast from the sea appears, blaspheming God and his place. of residence: Revelation 13: 1 “(79).
Where May and I disagree is that May looks at the “opening and closing sequences that provide an astonishing biblical framework for the judgment” (79). While he notices a lack of grace, Fellini and I note that grace extends at the beginning with Christ and at the end with the representation of innocence that we find in Paola. Unfortunately, our main character, Marcello, chooses madness over hope.
Numerology
Some believe that this movie can be structured in seven episodes. And like the movie Seven, Fellini creates clear evocations corresponding to the Seven Hills of Rome, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Virtues, and the Seven Days of Creation. These are the seven “would” episodes:
1. Marcello’s evening with the heiress Maddalena.
2. His long and frustrating night with American actress Sylvia that ends at the Trevi Fountain at dawn
3. His relationship with the intellectual Steiner that is divided into three sequences: a) the meeting, b) the party, and c) the tragedy (what is love)
4. The false miracle
5. His father’s visit: inverted prodigal son or double prodigal son (as in Sling Blade)
6. The feast of the aristocrats
7. An “orgy” at the beach house – Like the ending of Easy Rider.
Then there is a pause between these seven episodes. There is the sequence of the restaurant with the angelic character named Paola.
John May would say that there is another spiritual numerology at play. There are literally 8 nights and nine mornings “which suggests that Fellini supplemented his biblical imagery with a structure taken from Italy’s greatest religious epic” (May, 79). The epic John May is referring to is Dante’s Inferno and the 9 circles of judgment in Hell. Every morning “the Eternal City of Rome becomes Dante’s City of Dis” (79). Marcello is Fellini’s modern man. His 9 offerings consist of the following: wealth, stardom, religion, art, family, tradition, love, sex and even grace in the form of the innocent girl. His return from grace marks his journey into darkness.
Fellini’s journey into darkness
Tullio Kezich, author of Fredrick Fellini, recounts the relationship between Fellini and Rossellini at the time this film was in production. When La Dolce Vita came out, Rossellini publicly criticized it. He said that Fellini “is going the wrong way and that someone should stop him” (Kezich, 93). Fellini began working with Rossellini, the father of neorealism. When Fellini finally reconnects with Rossellini, Fellini said that he thought Rossellini looked at him “as Socrates would have looked at his pupil Crito, if Crito had suddenly lost his mind” (93). Rossellini, in the box office sense, was wrong, but in a spiritual sense he couldn’t have been more correct.
Fellini regards this film as a confession of a man, Marcello. Many critics have concluded that Fellini is this man. Fellini says that the last scene symbolizes madness (Marcello) and hope (Paola).
Marcello’s theme line in the film is: “Yes, I am making a mistake, but we are all making a mistake.”
Jump from one pointless encounter to the next. The only real connection he makes in the movie is with Paola. The seven episodes could reflect Fellini’s attempts to find meaning in life. For example, Marcello wants to connect with his father (or God the father). But they continue to keep their distance and the father leaves.
When his friend, the family man from the barn, dies, the police rush into the apartment. Like Marcello, they are able to gather all kinds of information about death, but they don’t really understand the meaning of life. This movie could also have been titled “Sweet Death” at this time. Remember Steiner’s words that probably ring true for Fellini: “Salvation is not within four walls.” But where is it? Love …? When Marcello confesses his love to a woman, she cheats on him. Pleasure …? Marcello participates in a wild party and still feels empty. Without a doubt, Fellini has had the opportunity to participate himself in all these episodes. It seems that Fellini didn’t find the answer either.
At the end of the movie, Marcello runs to the beach and they pull a huge fish onto the shore. Could this symbolize the monstrous evil that will not leave Marcello / Fellini? The end has a witness, Paola, looking at Marcello but at the end the witness is looking at us, which begs the question: are we lost? Are we lavish? Have we found the meaning of life? Perhaps the meaning is in the foreground of the film: the shot of Jesus Christ.
Fellini admits that Marcello’s departure reflects his own spiritual journey. Shortly later in Fellini’s life, he goes a little crazy and experiments with LSD. Experimenting with the effects of LSD was all the rage at the time, and a scientist friend asked Fellini to test the hallucinogen under controlled conditions. The scientist and his colleagues were interested in what could happen to an artist like Fellini when he was under the influence of the drug. He consented because he did not want to “look like a coward” (Alpert, 179). It was during this time that his preoccupation with magic and the occult increased.
Conclution
Have you ever returned to innocence? Have you ever found the meaning of life? We will never know. But years later, when he was told he would die soon, he got into his car and made one last attempt to reunite with his love, his wife. Maybe she was his real Paola. And perhaps this means his return to innocence.