While being educated at religious boarding schools as a child, Fellini developed a love for drawing and staging puppet shows, while also becoming fascinated with the circuses and vaudeville performers his town attracted. 20, 1920 in Rimini, Italy, a resort city on the Adriatic Sea, Fellini was raised by his father, Urbano, a baker who became a coffee and specialty groceries salesman, and his mother, Ida, who came from a prominent family that disapproved of her marriage.

Despite slipping into mediocrity later in life, Fellini nonetheless remained a filmmaking giant whose influence crossed generations all over the world.īorn on Jan. He had one final brush with greatness in directing 'Amarcord' (1974), his most accessible film, before struggling for the rest of his career to find financial backing for his movies. But as time passed and his films became more surreal, Fellini was tagged as being self-indulgent and saw his stature diminish, particularly after the explicit 'Fellini Satyricon' (1969), which polarized critics and audiences.

Fellini hit a third master stroke with the highly personal '8 1/2' (1963), a seamless blend of artifice and autobiography that put on full display the extent of his profound artistry. Following a pair of lesser works, Fellini reached the height of his talents and popularity with 'La Dolce Vita' (1960), a wild satirical look at decadent Italian life that raised the ire of those it parodied while earning the adulation of critics, filmmakers and art house filmgoers. In a few short years, he directed his first masterpiece, 'La Strada' (1954), a tragically poignant tale that earned him international acclaim and award recognition. As an emerging figure of the Italian Neorealism movement, Fellini started as a screenwriter before making his feature debut with the bittersweet 'Variety Lights' (1950). Often called the most influential director of the 20th century, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini was a master of the surreal, using striking images, autobiographical detail and disjointed narratives to create poetic films that impressed audiences across the world.

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