Ranking the 10 greatest Federico Fellini films
A source of inspiration for the contemporary greats of filmmaking, such as Tim Burton and David Lynch, Federico Fellini is evidence for the claim that film can be and, more importantly, is art. Known for his distinctive fantasy style and deep colour, the filmmaker is considered one of the greatest at his craft.
Fellini’s movies have featured in several lists of the greatest films of all time. Their subject matter and aesthetic value generate emotional experiences for audiences, bringing dreams and surrealism to the surface.
All walks of life are explored in Fellini’s work. Artists struggle. Men and women attempt to understand one another. Landmarks are celebrated. Dreams are sought after passionately. Love and tragedy are brought together in union.
A watch of the Italian director’s work is a rollercoaster that honours filmmaking as art and history as insight. Here are his ten best films to gain that same experience.
Federico Fellini’s 10 greatest films:
10. City of Women/La città delle donne (1980)
Fellini’s 20th feature follows a businessman who is trapped at a hotel, where a group of women pose a threat. It explores gendered spaces and societal attitudes toward women.
City of Women exemplifies the director’s taste for dreamlike and stylistic imagery to create artistic cinema. There is a psychoanalytical framework around the film, as Fellini presents sexual imagery. This can be found in the phallic objects and experimentation with the ego and male gaze.
9. Fellini’s Casanova/Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976)
This 1970s historical piece is an adaptation of Giacomo Casanova’s autobiography. Donald Sutherland portrays the writer as he lives a libertine lifestyle of erotic antics. He also attempts to have a relationship with the love of his life, Henriette (Tina Aumont).
The mise-en-scene is employed to carry Fellini’s vision of beauty, with the costumes and settings representing the era’s aesthetics. Fellini’s vision of Casanova’s life is a critique of the protagonist’s masculinity. This highlights the director’s ability to gel art and intellect.
8. Ginger and Fred/Ginger e Fred (1986)
This film references the American dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Roberts, as two impersonators reunite after their retirement. Their performance is well received and extends their fame for another short fire round.
Fellini channelled his beliefs into his film by structuring it as a satire on mainstream television. This makes it one of the few times he expressed any social-political agenda during his career. The love story between the two protagonists provides contrast and demonstrates sentiment.
7. Roma (1972)
Fellini writes a love letter to his home city through this ‘plotless’ yet insightful portrait of Rome. Peter Gonzales portrays a young Fellini as he engages on two separate journeys to the city, one for pleasure and the other for his art.
Despite being initially classified as an eventless visual collection with no causation, Fellini devises thematic connections using imagery. He contrasts Roman life during the Fascist era with the early 1970s. The film experiments with the innovative concept of having a location as its focus rather than people or events.
6. Juliet of the Spirits/Giulietta degli spiriti (1965)
A woman called Giulietta (Giulietta Masina) grows suspicious of her husband after a series of questionable behaviours. A seance with her friends connects Giulietta with spirits and her troubled past, helping her find some answers.
Fellini’s first coloured feature uses memories and visions to tell its story. His camerawork penetrates dream landscapes and accentuates emotional expression. A surrealist tone paints Fellini’s visuals and proposes questions of complete happiness by breaking the wall between reality and illusion.
5. I Vitelloni (1953)
Fellini presents the journey to success in this comedy drama. Five young men living in Italy attempt to navigate their lives from mundane drifting to riveting success. Each man has his own individual ambitions and experiences crucial, pivotal moments together.
I Vitelloni’s autographical tones helped establish Fellini’s artistic identity. His ability to mirror societal developments in the film established his vision and skills as a creator. His characters exemplify carelessness masked as liberation, still being able to draw audiences in using charm. The story is a sentimental melting pot of family bonds, desperation feeding ambition, and masculine presentations of emotions.
4. Amarcord (1973)
This award-winning film tells a semi-autobiographical tale of youth in Fascist Italy. An adolescent boy clashes with authorial figures, shares laughs with friends and engages with various characters.
Despite being a story about childhood nostalgia, Fellini’s film is brutally honest about the situation in 1930s Italy. It manages to balance cheer with tragedy in an objective and authentic presentation. The characters feel human rather than fictional, as their struggles are explored in a captivating manner thanks to the cinematography.
3. La Strada (1954)
Translated to English as ‘The Road‘, this drama shares the experience of Gelsomina (Giuletta Masina). She is ‘bought’ from her mother by Anthony Quinn’s Zampano to be taken on a road journey. The girl’s strong-mindedness clashes with the man’s ferocious force during their travels.
Fellini handles the uncomfortable subject matter delicately. He presents the backdrop of post-war life using stylised black and white photography. The two central characters demonstrate stubbornness, fear, and perspective. A melodramatic rollercoaster, La Strada is controversial by today’s standards. However, its creative power is undeniable.
2. La Dolce Vita (1960)
La Dolce Vita’s plot is structured as an episodic journey of a journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) in search of love in Rome. This is shown through 12 distinct parts, with the journalist’s journey taking place over seven days and seven nights.
Cited as a masterpiece, this film is held responsible for a groundbreaking progression for Italian cinema. Critic Robert Richardson suggests one can interpret the film as ‘an aesthetic of disparity’, meaning conventional plot structure and character development is abandoned. There is a clear presence of the protagonist’s struggle between the career of reporting on self-indulgent aristocrat society and writing more artistic prose.
1. Federico Fellini’s 8½ (1963)
Fellini’s surrealist comedy-drama is a metafictional exploration of creative stifle. A director is struggling to make an epic drama. His quest for creation is negotiated by doctors telling him to rest for his own wellbeing. Under pressure, he reverts to childhood fantasies.
8½ is a cathartic representation for every artist who feels blocked from their creativity and potential. It’s bizarre in its subject matter about a film that the audience can watch. This compromises reality and fiction as strict binaries, echoing the director’s struggle as he is forced to choose between the two. The symbolism of mirrors shows reflections which embody the inner conflict, and dream sequences translate thematic values. Considered one of the greatest films given to the medium, 8½ is unmissable for film or art fans.
