Dozens of events are being held around the world and in Italy this year to honour Fellini and his timeless work.
The winner of a record four best foreign language film Oscars, he is renowned for films set in Rome such as La Dolce Vita (1960), and most of his films were shot in Cinecitta’s Studio 5 outside the Eternal City.
But his 1973 masterpiece Amarcord, a semi-autobiographical comedy about an adolescent boy growing up in 1930s fascist Italy, was set in Rimini, where he was born on January 20, 1920, and spent the first 19 years of his life.
Situated on the Adriatic coast, the city is marking the centenary with a special exhibition and is set to open a museum dedicated to Fellini, who died in the autumn of 1993, by the end of this year.
“Rimini is everywhere in Fellini’s cinema, the countryside in his films is Rimini’s countryside, the sea in all Fellini’s films is Rimini’s sea,” said Marco Leonetti of the Rimini Cinematheque, which helped organise the exhibition.
The exhibition showcases some of the more spectacular costumes from his films, as well as frequently erotic extracts from the sketchbooks of his dreams he created for his psychotherapist over a 30-year period.
‘Fellini 100. Immortal genius’ will run until March before travelling to Rome and on to international cities, including Los Angeles, Moscow and Berlin.
