The Cinema of Federico Fellini / Edition 1

by Peter Bondanella

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691008752
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/05/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Ch. 1 Origins: Journalism and the Comic Strips

Ch. 2 Neorealist Apprenticeship: Fellini as Scriptwriter

Ch. 3 Beyond Neorealism: Character and Narrative Form in Early Fellini from Luci Del Varieta to La Dolce Vita

Ch. 4 Dreams and Metacinema: Le Tentazioni Del Dottor Antonio, 8 1/2, Block-Notes Di Un Regista, I Clowns, Roma, E La Nave Va, Ginger E Fred, and Intervista

Ch. 5 Literature and Cinema: Toby Dammit and Fellini Satyricon

Appendixes to Chapter Five

Ch. 6 Fellini and Politics: Amarcord and Prova d'Orchestra

Ch. 7 "The Great Fabricator and Dissolver of Clouds": Sexuality and the Image of Women in Giulietta Degli Spiriti, Casanova, and La Citta Delle Donne

Ch. 8 La voce della luna and the Cinema of Poetry

A Fellini Filmography

Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Offers rare insight into the life and times of one of the screen's most imaginative auteurs. . . . Like its subject's best efforts, the book is as entertaining as it is enriching."

Variety

"Peter Bondanella, an esteemed scholar of Italian film, has committed an act of daring. It's the best kind of daring - unselfconscious and authentic. . . Courageous in ideational independence, he is equally steadfast in his enterprise - to understand and explicate and important artist's process. He does this to an impressive degree, not with clinical smugness but with relish and respect. His book is a loving and helpful tribute."

The New Republic

"Winner of the 1992 Book Award of the Agnelli Foundation's Conference Group on Italian Politics and Society"

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1992

From the Publisher

Bondanella (Italian and film studies, Indiana Univ.) is a well-published authority on Italian films and Federico Fellini. Here he presents a complex, academic analysis of the director's entire oeuvre , drawing on newly available archival material. Fellini's reputation as a somewhat arrogant, dictatorial genius is further reinforced. Particularly interesting are the examinations of the significant influence of psychologist Carl Jung's writings on Fellini's artistic development and the enduring relevance of Fellini's early career as a cartoonist. This demanding study is recommended for subject collections. The best introductory volume is still Stuart Rosenthal's The Cinema of Federico Fellini ( LJ 12/15/76), but it is out of print.--Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno

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