Cinematography is a rather complicated type of art. The film is the imaginary reality, which is created to give people some useful information, to give food for thoughts or just to entertain. The film industry is very popular among people. People watch films for different purposes, the main of which is to relax, to leave reality, and to dip into the new reality created by the film.
We are going to present Fellini’s films and his view that human experience is, fundamentally and inherently, a complex blend of dream, imagination, and fact. Federico Fellini was born on January 20, 1920, in Italy. He was fond of painting in his childhood and when he was 17 he started to write film scripts.
Fellini starts his career in cinema as an assistant and scriptwriter in Rossellini’s film “Paisa”. Fellini was influenced by Rossellini’s views, outlook and as a result, it influenced his future works. He creates the film “Variety Lights” (1950) with Alberto Lattuada.
The other films which should be mentioned, if we have decided to analyze Fellini’s works, are “The Road”, “Nights of Cabiria”, “The Sweet Life”, “Fellini’s Casanova”. These films Of Federico Fellini received Oscars in different periods of his career.
The first film “The White Sheik” was not very popular. His biggest success was with the film “La Strada” (1954). Fellini received “Oscar” with this film as the best foreign film and some other prizes. This film brought Fellini world glory. The last Fellini’s films did not have big success: he was reproached in reiteration of himself, in tiredness. But he continued to shoot films despite the critics. Only now we may say that his last films are a heritage of that big cinematography style, which must have gone with the death of Federico Fellini.
The relationship between reality and illusion is a central issue in Fellini’s films. We are going to discuss two of Fellini’s films and to understand how the films (“The White Sheik” and “8 ½”) present Fellini’s view that human experience is, fundamentally and inherently, a complex blend of dream, imagination, and fact.
“The White Sheik” is Fellini’s first personal film. It was written for Michelangelo Antonioni, but he refused to shoot the film with a script from Fellini, so Fellini shoots the film by himself. The film did not have success, maybe because of unpopular actor Alberto Sordi.
The film is about two young newlyweds, Wanda (Brunella Bovo) and Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste) who went on their honeymoon to Rome from a provincial town. Husband is trying to his seriousness and importance, and his wife, very calm and dreaming person, who is fond of cinematography.
When the husband turns asleep, his wife runs away to the movie set where her favorite actor, the White Shake is shooting. She adores him, she is fond of him, and she is creasy about him. He seems so ideal on the screen, but in reality, he turns to be different from what she expected to see. And she decides to come back to her husband.
While the wife is absent, her husband tries to do all he can to hide the disappearance of his wife. He organizes an affair with a prostitute and her friend. All these scenes have a very humorous effect.
The film “The White Sheik” is a portrayal of adventures of “small” people, who are presented with rare charm, humor, and love, which soften the satiric view on all these love affairs.
Reality and illusion are closely interconnected in this film. Every episode of the film makes it clear to us where the reality is and where the illusion is. But there are some episodes, where even the audience may have different opinions. As an example, we are going to take the episode when the husband the next day recollects in his memory his previous night’s behavior. The question is whether he tells the truth or not. The right answer is not given. It is due to people choosing what they want to percept, whether reality or illusion, the assessment of the situation depends only on people’s perception.
Any episode in any film may be either reality or an illusion, everything depends on how people percept it. It may be said that perception is reality. There is a series of perceptions in the film. The perception of Wanda about her hero, the White Sheik, then it comes to the perception of Ivan Cavalli about the fact of his wife’s slipping out of him, and the last is the perception of Ivan Cavalli’s family about the disappearance of Ivan’s wife. Of course, such construction of perceptions may be recognized only with the help of humorous and fantastic imagery.
The audience hears that “life is a dream” several times during the film. We want to ask a question, whether a dream is the same as an illusion or a perception? The film presents the viewer with the episodes, where the illusion, the dream is more desirable than reality. And it is often so in real life. People think about illusion, they want it to come true and when it does not happen they create their illusion of life, which does not exist in reality. And only our perception makes it real.
As it was said above, the film was not popular when it first appeared, but now the perception of this film has changed. People realized that the film was shot by an outstanding director, Federico Fellini, and the film is a view with this thought and is considered from this point of view. The film was created by the master so it cannot be ignored or spoiled by disgusting critiques.
People in this film are real, they are not made up, the feeling is also that they are not playing but live their life. There do not stand in for somebody else; this is what we mean when we say that they are real. The characters are symbolic images and it makes the film so effective. The film is very light and humorous, it allows us to relax and enjoy the film in a full volume.
The other film we are going to discuss is “8 ½” (1963). The title of the film is very easy to understand. Federico Fellini created 8 films of his own, and by “half” film he understands his common work with Alberto Lattuada’s “Variety Lights” (1950).
Fellini’s film “8 ½” is one of the best innovative films of the 60s of the XX century. The audience appears in the director’s laboratory, it is involved in the creative process, enters the endless game of imagination, where the reflection of reality means its transformation. This film is the embodiment of Federico Fellini’s visions, dreams, and desires on the screen.
The plot of the film dwells around the Italian director of the film, Guido Anselmi. He attempts to shoot a film about the rescue after nuclear catastrophe, starts to look for a cast, he even started to shoot. But the film stops, it is in the condition of vagueness.
The actors begin to fret, producers start to quarrel, the critiques go around Guido and constantly asking him what he is going to do. Guido does not want to devote anybody to his plans and he just turns to his own, personal, inner traveling to the recollections of his past. This past is not his but Fellini’s.
As Guido is the presentation of Fellini, so the dreams and the recollections of the past of Guido also belong to Fellini. Guido is not sure whether the theme of the film is appropriate, whether the actors fit; he is not sure what he shall start from in his film.
Guido turns to his childhood recollections and remembrances. He hopes that past will help him to find some answers to future actions. He is afraid that the present lack of ideas is not just the temporal accident, but the end: the end of ideas, the end of talent, the end of career, and the end of life. He is afraid that all he wants to reach is going to stop at the moment.
Not thinking about the end, Guido continues his work without any idea what he is doing: he invites his love and his wife, he brings a foreign actress without any idea who she is going to play. He is making some crazy actions without realizing their purposes.
This is an autobiographical story, Fellini shoots a film about himself. His hero, the director of the film, Guido, is the reflection of him on the screen. Guido, like Fellini, suffers from director’s block in his film, he cannot continue the work. He does all he can to continue the film shoot, but nothing helps. He recollects in his memory some episodes of his past which are frequently interconnected with reality.
The film is about straggle, which appears during the creative process. The film is about actors who should combine their working schedule, their working process with personal problems and relationships, with the attempt to find some real private happiness during some difficult episodes of life.
The film is the fusion of reality and dream, illusion. The most brilliant episodes, to our mind, are the recollections of Guido’s past. The episodes are so original and surprising that we suppose they cannot leave the viewers indifferent. The episodes we are talking about deal with Guido’s childhood times. He remembers the old house in the country in Romagna. The other episode is when he meets a woman on the beach in Rimini.
As we already mentioned, the film is a fusion, a mixture of dream (illusion) with reality, of art with real life. It is impossible to imagine the film without Fellini’s past recollections. This mixture of worlds, real and unreal, brings the film some vividness and completeness. The past remembrance gives the impression of improvisation in the film.
The film “8 ½” is so light, honest, and beautiful, and it appears the impression that it is that film which Guido wanted to create.
The whole film may be considered as an inner monologue. The stream of consciousness inside this inner monologue, which presents Fellini’s film, does not create any barriers between different realities in the film: the real reality, the reality of a dream, the reality of the past.
Reality and illusion are closely interconnected in the films of Federico Fellini. Every illusion is real in his films. We gave the analyses of two of Fellini’s films which prove our statement about the reality of illusions in his films, where perception plays not the last part. It was his innovation that was recognized and appreciated by critics. Federico Fellini is considered to be the master of his job.
It is impossible not to admire the works of Federica Fellini, his gift and talent, his desire to create something new and innovative. His films renewed the language of the cinema of that time and influenced the films of the several generations ahead. Federico Fellini is not alive anymore but his works are immortal. He made a great contribution to world cinematography.
At the very beginning of Fellini’s career, he was influenced by other directors’ works, and now his works influence the works of the whole generation of other inexperienced directors. Young and beginning directors take some inspiration, some ideas, experience, and desire to work from Fellini’s films. Federico Fellini is going to be an example for many generations. He was known as a master during his life and even after his death he continues to be idle of the cinematography not only in Italy but all over the world.