Enjoyed Obfuscation

One of the recurring themes in Bert Cardullo's edited book of interviews with filmmaker Federico Fellini is fantasy versus reality. Not only is this a topic for the journalists and scholars who admired the director, but it is also an interesting problem for those who knew the man himself. In the opening pages, Cardullo explain, "I was going to begin this introduction with some facts about Federico Fellini's life. But any such account must be approximate."

For Fellini enjoyed obfuscation. Fellini's friends and enemies knew him as a person who stretched or ignored the truth. Knowing this, the reader must approach cautiously. Yet this is part of the fun especially given the way Fellini felt about interviewers. At times, the man's feelings were quite apparent. At other times, they were subtler. In the end, the reader discovers not only a talented filmmaker, but also a complicated individual who could sometimes leave journalists wondering why they had bothered to ask questions at all.

The talks span the years 1957 to 1994, the last being published after Fellini's 1993 death. Throughout the interviews, several themes emerge including Fellini's love of performing. While he was not best known as a performer per se, he was at one time with the circus—if we can believe him. He made a point of discussing the ways in which filmmaking brought so many professions together. "A film director is a painter, a journalist, a sculptor, an actor," he said in 1985. While Fellini had many professions open to him, he chose movie making because he enjoyed uniting many different elements. This was a topic he enjoyed discussing.

Another theme was Fellini's view of reality. For the director, reality was more of a spirit than "The Truth." He was more interested in who was seeing a certain event than with the event itself. He offered this explanation: "neorealism means looking at reality with an honest eye," and he pointed out that "anything man has inside him" was reality for him (12).

The journalists discovered—sometimes to their chagrin—that Fellini had little to say about his photodramas once they were completed and released. He claimed that he never saw them once they were finished and referred to his films as "strangers" were "realized, identified, materialized move away again to the distance, without even saying good-by" (133). Once finished with a project, he was ready to move on to the next, ever restless for work and impatient with producers who stood in the way. Even in questioning him on the meanings of his films, the writers got little help. "Generally symbols should not be explained," he declared to Liselotte Millauer (184) and Toni Maraini reminded her readers of Fellini's point blank announcement: "My films are not for understanding. They are for seeing"(157). While the director was open to talking about the interpretations of his films and offered some insight into them, he always wished for the audience to come away from his works with their own analysis and often found questions about the meanings of his movies tedious.

Fellini also discussed his views of women (who are fascinating simply because they are women), religion (specifically the Catholic Church) and the cinema (a total art, as he saw it). In addition, his nervousness about interviews is apparent here. Fellini said that he did not trust himself, "even if I've had the feeling that journalists asked me stupid questions." This never made the interviewers' jobs easy. One such person, Charles Thomas Samuels, found himself in a sparring match with the director. This in and of itself makes this interview a highlight in the book. Fellini harangued Samuels; Samuels stood his ground and in the end, they came to a respectful understanding.

If a reader is looking for the definitive biography of Federico Fellini or an in depth analysis of his films, he will not find it here. Yet this compilation of interviews is valuable and enlightening. Reading them gives everyone a delightful journey into...