Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 1, 1993 TAG: 9311010008
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME LENGTH: Medium
Fellini had been in a coma at a Rome hospital since suffering a heart attack and developing respiratory problems Oct. 17. He suffered a stroke in August.
His wife, actress Giulietta Masina, learned of his death from television, the ANSA news agency reported. She had been too distraught to remain by his bedside. Saturday was their 50th wedding anniversary.
Fellini, known as "Il Mago," the magician, won a special Oscar in March for lifetime achievement. Others in the pantheon of directors so honored include Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.
"I can say that I like getting the [career] Oscar, especially because it comes from the Americans," Fellini said. "However, in all sincerity, in my work, I did nothing but enjoy myself."
Italy and the film world mourned the death of the man Premier Carlo Ciampi called the country's "great national poet."
"A great light has gone out, and now we are all in the dark," said actress Sophia Loren. "The world will be much sadder without his imagination."
Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini's best-known leading man and perhaps his alter ego in some films, had little to say in his grief: "More reflection is needed to understand how great the man was."
Fellini won Oscars for "La Strada" (1954), "Nights of Cabiria" (1957), "8 1/2" (1963) and "Amarcord" (1973).
Perhaps his most famous film was "La Dolce Vita" in 1959. The movie, with its sexy scene of Anita Ekberg coaxing Mastroianni into the Trevi Fountain, brought him the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the condemnation of the Vatican, which branded the film "obscene."
Feminists called him a dirty old man. He was accused of running out of ideas and having nothing to say, of favoring the grotesque and of being obscure and indulgent.
In all, Fellini directed 20 feature films. They were shaped by dreams, myths and women - sometimes grotesque, almost always sensuous. He reveled in spectacle, be it circus scenes, amusement parks, even bishops staging a fashion show of religious vestments.
His characters were often earthy and fantastic; Fellini liked to say his favorite way of casting was to ride the Rome subway.
"To me faces are more important than anything else . . . even more than acting ability," said Fellini, who boasted he had "more faces on file than the FBI."
His style gave rise to the adjective "felliniesque." The invented name of a Fellini character in "La Dolce Vita" brought "paparazzo" into the vocabulary, and the movie's title itself came to be used to describe the free and easy life.
Fellini spent his youth hanging around movie houses and actors, and maintained that when he was 12 he ran away from home to join the circus.
After World War II, he opened a cartoon shop in Rome where he drew sketches of tourists and U.S. soldiers.
That was how he met Roberto Rossellini, who offered him the chance to work as a screenwriter and assistant director for several films and to act.
Fellini made his directing debut with "Lo Sceicco Bianco" (The White Sheik) in 1952. It pleased the critics more than the public. In 1959 Fellini completed "La Dolce Vita," a scathing indictment of moral corruption and social alienation.
Ups and downs typified Fellini's career: "Fellini Satyricon" led critics to wonder if the director's growing taste for the grotesque had overcome his art. But the faith of his fans was restored with "Amarcord," another film that deals with Fellini's personal experiences, especially childhood memories.
Asked once why he had never made genre films, Fellini laughed and replied: "I have made all my films in the felliniesque genre."
by CNB