This major artistic biography of Federico Fellini shows how his
exuberant imagination has been shaped by popular culture, literature,
and his encounter with the ideas of C. G. Jung, especially Jungian dream
interpretation. Covering Fellini's entire career, the book links his
mature accomplishments to his first employment as a cartoonist, gagman,
and sketch-artist during the Fascist era and his development as a
leading neo-realist scriptwriter. Peter Bondanella thoroughly explores
key Fellinian themes to reveal the director's growth not only as an
artistic master of the visual image but also as an astute interpreter of
culture and politics. Throughout the book Bondanella draws on a new
archive of several dozen manuscripts, obtained from Fellini and his
scriptwriters. These previously unexamined documents allow a
comprehensive treatment of Fellini's important part in the rise of
Italian neorealism and the even more decisive role that he played in the
evolution of Italian cinema beyond neorealism in the 1950s. By probing
Fellini's recurring themes, Bondanella reinterprets the visual qualities
of the director's body of work--and also discloses in the films a
critical and intellectual vitality often hidden by Fellini's reputation
as a storyteller and entertainer. After two chapters on Fellini's
precinematic career, the book covers all the films to date in analytical
chapters arranged by topic: Fellini and his growth beyond his neorealist
apprenticeship, dreams and metacinema, literature and cinema, Fellini
and politics, Fellini and the image of women, and La voce della luna and
the cinema of poetry.
