His reputation now suffers from what the historian E.P. His maximalist showmanship - nobody ever left a Fellini film grumbling about the small portions - has fallen out of fashion.
Lavishly Italianate in his earthiness, Fellini was cinema's great laureate of the id.īut over the years his reputation has dipped badly, especially among critics. Their panache inspired generations of directors, from Martin Scorsese and Wong Kar-wai to Woody Allen and Guillermo del Toro. La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8½, Roma, Amarcord - these weren't merely films that all serious filmgoers raced off to see. Back then, he was an international brand name, and aside from Hitchcock, probably the most famous director in the world. The first foreign filmmaker I ever heard of was Federico Fellini. Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni and Swedish actor Anita Ekberg hold hands in a scene from Federico Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita.Īmerican International Pictures/Getty Images
