it was not just as a passenger but to travel in his mind with all the other people that would later form players that he would drop off into one of his films. He recorded his dreams in notebooks and they formed the raw material of his films. Giulietta Masina, star of La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, he met when she was an acting student and appeared in one of his early radio shows. They were married for over fifty years until his death. No documentary would do justice to the man without highlighting the importance of the great actor Marcello Mastroianni who featured in both Fellini and Scola’s films. It was Fellini who first starred Mastroianni in the classic La Dolce Vita. It was to be the defining film for both the director and actor. It encapsulated Fellini’s *philosophy to living and enjoying ‘the sweet life’. Three years later in 1963 he had Mastroianni as a filmmaker in one of the most influential films to come out of Italy – 8½. City of Women and Ginger & Fred, which had Marcello imitating Fred Astaire and Giulietta Masina as Ginger Rogers reprising their old act for television, was a delightfully tender and romantic movie, unlike anything that Fellini had ever done. Scola directed Mastroianni in nine films from 1970 to 1989; A Special Day and Splendor, MbM’s particular favourites. So much material at hand for Scola to make his homage to his friend and impossible to include it all, but for the cinephiles that this film was made for, they will be able to fill in the gaps of any clips of Fellini’s films that did not make the final cut and they will not be disappointed. How Strange to be Named Federico! was not surprisingly one of the hottest tickets at this year’s Cinema – Made in Italy film festival. *”Put yourself into life and never lose your openness, your childish enthusiasm throughout the journey that is life, and things will come your way”.
Federico Fellini 23