Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini
Federico Felliniwas an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is recognized as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Some of his films are placed in polls such as in Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound as some of the greatest films of all time, with his 1963 film 8½ being listed as the 10th greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth20 January 1920
CityRimini, Italy
CountryItaly
I discovered that what's really important for a creator isn't what we vaguely define as inspiration or even what it is we want to say, recall, regret, or rebel against. No, what's important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It's not what we say but how we say it that matters.
All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.
The greatest danger for artists is total freedom.
All art is autobiographical.
I’m just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it recreates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, it’s far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. It’s not just an art form; it’s actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. It’s my way of telling a story.
We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony. We should learn to love each other so much to live outside of time... detached.
The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.
I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
An artist is a provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one. It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one. That is the realm of the artist.
What's important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It's not what we say but how we say it that matters.
I don’t like the idea of “understanding” a film. I don’t believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.
A sign of growing old is when interviewers start asking you,What would you do differently if you had your life to live over again? I give some sort of answer because I dont wish to be rude, but I dont tell them the image that comes into my mind because they would think it vain and frivolous, and no one wants to be a subject for ridicule. I see myself as a tall, skinny Fellini, vigorously lifting weights. Thats what I would do differently. I would lift weights.
When you live with another person for 50 years, all of your memories are invested in that person, like a bank account of shared memories. Its not that you refer to them constantly. In fact, for people who do not live in the past, you almost never say, Do you remember that night we...? But you dont have to. That is the best of all. You know that the other person does remember. Thus, the past is part of the present as long as the other person lives. It is better than any scrapbook, because you are both living scrapbooks.
A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.