"Film-making is a very suggestive art form. It's hypnotic, and extremely effective in terms of persuasion. It's a remarkable and quite magical weapon, because it can hypnotize and compel. (...) You can practically control people's heartbeats and how their lungs breathe with a film, so it can change even more profound rhythms on the level of imagination and emotion."
FEDERICO FELLINI is the name of a master filmmaker (20 January 1920 - 31 October 1993), who went outside of any conventional norms to create his own style of expression in film, which continues to influence, inspire, enlighten, and transform viewers on profound levels.
One soon forgets that the early films are black and white, or subtitled from Italian - and are transported into a world of magic and wonder. Unlike many films, there is almost no element of predictability in Fellini's movies - and one soon learns to view them as if watching a film of a hallucinatory collection of dreams, thoughts, memories, and ideas projected before you.
Almost instantaneously the viewer is drawn into an alternate reality, which often feels so deeply immersive that the films can almost seem to become part of your own experiences in life - shaping themselves into your own memories as if you had personally and directly lived them through firsthand experience. You begin to feel acquainted to each different character - whether they are a major or minor role - and the films truly work as a form of teleportation into a myriad of stimulating imagery, emotions, experiences, and awakenings.
Jeremy Garner's "Divine Union" journals, speak in depth about Fellini's cursed and unmade film: "The Journey of G. Mastorna" - which carries a truly eerie and uncanny back story. This has rightfully been called the "most famous unmade film in Italian cinema " for good reason.
There are deeper analysis's of Fellini's mind which are too vast to go into on this page, found in the aforementioned book, but Jeremy also writes in the book that: "I consider Fellini to be one of the most enlightened artists that I have ever been exposed to – and I respect and admire him on multiple levels – especially for his ability to live his art, even when he is off the set. Every word he ever said, every gesture he made – it all has a deeper and more intricate meaning – he speaks from an awakened state of mind, but he does it in such a humble way that it gives the impression to those who may not know otherwise, that he doesn’t know what he knows. He speaks so softly and without trying to draw too much attention to his points, that one might think he is merely speaking a casual opinion about something, without realizing he is making an artistic statement in almost everything he ever spoke. For example, there is a scene in a documentary where he casually says, with only the mere slightest grin: “Last night, I met a man who I believe was a sailor on leave. He went around with a pair of women’s shoes tucked into his back pockets. He stopped me – he was American – and he said ‘Fellini, I didn’t like your film. I don’t believe for a moment that life is as strange as you depict it.”"
Though Fellini is most well known for his film: "8 1/2", which is truly worthy of its recognition - one of his greatest achievements, whether recognized or not, would undoubtedly have to be his 1980 film: City of Women.
This is a film which takes the viewer on a greatly unpredictable roller-coaster of events, from one strange dreamlike scene to the next - creating unforgettable experiences/memories in the viewer which will challenge and question all of your perceptions, while forming ambient landscapes (as well as soundscapes) in the mind, to guide one into tangible nostalgic realms wherein you might escape into indescribable layers of depth, and feel truly less alone.
All the while, there are deep questions on society, human nature, and on the subconscious.
This movie is just one of many masterpieces he has worked on, such as "Juliet of the Spirits" - another grand example of one of the greatest uses of color, style, set design, storytelling, and the merging of many worlds into one whole, that the world of film has ever witnessed.
One cannot easily describe a Fellini film, they must be experienced on multiple layers to be comprehended - but the viewer should surrender to their journey, allowing them to unfold - placing trust in the director who is a true master at his craft, and of all he conveyed in love.
01. Variety Lights (1950) 02. The White Sheik (1952) 03. I vitelloni (1953)
1/4 segment: Marriage Agency (1953)
04. La Strada (1954) 05. The Swindlers (1955) 06. Nights of Cabiria (1957) 07. La Dolce Vita (1960)
1/4 segment: The Temptation of Dr Antonio (1962)
08. 81/2 (1963) 09. Juliet of the Spirits (1965) 10. Spirits of the Dead (1968) 11. Fellini: A Director's Notebook (1969) 12. Fellini Satyricon (1969) 13. I Clowns (1970) 14. Roma (1972) 15. Amarcord (1973) 16. Fellini's Casanova (1976) 17. Orchestra Rehearsal (1978) 18. City of Women (1980) 19. And the Ship Sails On... (1983) 20. Ginger and Fred (1986) 21. Intervista (1987) 22. The Voice of the Moon (1990)
