India Habitat Centre to hold a week long retrospective on Federico Fellini

India Habitat Centre is hosting a Federico Fellini retrospective in collaboration with the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre from October 23 – 31, 2021. Eight of Fellini’s films will be screened as part of the retrospective starting with Amarcord (1973), which tells the story about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in a village near the ancient walls of Rimini in 1930s Fascist Italy. Now, Rimini was where Fellini was born and the political turmoil during the rule of the Fascist regime in Italy also had a profound influence on Fellini's life and work. Like most Fellini films, Amarcord is autobiographical in nature at so many levels. In fact, the character of Titta is based on Fellini’s childhood friend from Rimini who went on to become a lawyer. The two remained good friends all their lives.

Fellini is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His humanistic work is usually replete with fantastical imagery that’s ingeniously employed to tell everyday stories of the common people and life in Italy. Amarcord is perhaps the last of Fellini's undisputed masterworks. Even though Fellini continued to make important films but Amarcord in many ways is the last of his films to receive universal acclaim. It is also the last Fellini film to win the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film. The film is particularly noted for its criticism of Fascism as well as the Catholic Church but its comical tone cuts Fellini the slack to unleash a strong critique.

Despite starting his film career as a screenwriter for the neorealistic Italian director Roberto Rossellini, Fellini soon succeeded in creating a distinct identity for herself with films like I Vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), Il Bidone (1955), and Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960), and 8 ½ (1963). Fellini’s films gave rise to the term ‘Felliniesque’ which has become synonymous with a sort of a superimposed dreamlike or hallucinatory imagery upon ordinary situations. Many contemporary filmmakers like Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica, and David Lynch have cited Fellini's influence on their work.

The second film in the retrospective is the romantic comedy The White Sheik, which will be screened on October 24. It follows Ivan and Wanda who visit Rome for their honeymoon. However, when Wanda suddenly disappears to find the White Sheik, the hero of a soap opera, Ivan struggles to hide it from his family who want to meet his missing bride.

I Vitelloni, the third film of the retrospective to be screened on October 27, is a character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy. The film is said to have inspired directors like Martin, Scorsese, George Lucas, Phillip Kaufman, Barry Levinson, Joel Schumacher, Juan Antonio Bardem, Marco Ferreri, and Lina Wertmüller, among others.

Il Bidone, the next film in the lineup, follows a group of swindlers who dress up as clerics and con poor farmers out of their savings. Il Bidone will be screened on the 28th of October followed by Nights of Cabiria on October 29 and La Dolce Vita on October 30. On the final day of the retrospective, two of Fellini’s most ambitious films will be screened: 8 ½ (1963) and Fellini Satyricon (1969).