Rare to see docu-portraits as subtle and beautifully written as this with no commentary, no pedagogy, no made for TV cliches and no interviewer-critic constantly cutting in. This is a unique, challenging portrait of Fellini using generous film clips from 8 1/2 as its narrative column with a masterclass in aesthetics conducted by the master himself. Definitely not Fellini 101. No Masina and no Mastroianni (we've got Tatò's 3-hr film on the latter) and yet their absences are remarkably present throughout, like felliniesque ghosts trapped in a gorgeous suite of film clips. This is truly creative filmmaking built on a bedrock of nostalgia, melancholy, lies, modernist thinking and the Maestro's pathetic search for the Ideal Woman. Very briefly, the "story" is told in images that take us to Fellini's childhhood farm in Gambettola and up to the snow-covered mountain spring of La Strada which then flows through Chianciano and the volcanic thermal waters used for healing (the spa Fellini re-invented in 8 1/2) and on down the Tiber to flow out into the sea. At one point, a superb clip from 8 1/2 shows Guido/Mastroianni/Fellini asking Claudia/Ideal Woman if she could give up everything and start all over again in the knowledge that love was worth a lifetime's fidelity. She doesn't really answer the question and he requests that she "drive on pass the spring - I can hear it now." The image of the spring -Fellini's metaphor for health both artistic and mental - works beautifully in this film. Would that I had more time to develop the subtle meanings developed throughout. Definitely made for mature audiences ready to sit still and listen and look. An extraordinarily controlled piece of film. For me, this is cinematic artistry well worth the price of admission. Thank you, Damiano.
Review of Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
