Cinecittà Studios ( pronounced [ˌtʃinetʃitˈta] ; Italian for Cinema City Studios ) is a large film studio in Rome , Italy . With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe , and is considered the hub of Italian cinema . The studios were constructed during the Fascist era as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry.
120-494: Filmmakers such as Federico Fellini , Roberto Rossellini , Luchino Visconti , Sergio Leone , Bernardo Bertolucci , Francis Ford Coppola , Martin Scorsese , and Mel Gibson have worked at Cinecittà. More than 3,000 movies have been filmed there, of which 90 received an Academy Award nomination and 47 of these won it. In the 1950s, the number of international productions being made there led to Rome being dubbed " Hollywood on
240-407: A docufiction both for cinema and television, based on his childhood memories of the circus and a "coherent theory of clowning." As he saw it, the clown "was always the caricature of a well-established, ordered, peaceful society. But today all is temporary, disordered, grotesque. Who can still laugh at clowns?... All the world plays a clown now." In March 1971, Fellini began production on Roma ,
360-500: A miniseries , but the network made it a full-fledged series. In 2002, HBO and the BBC agreed to co-produce the series, committing a US$ 100–110 million ( £ 62.7 million) budget to the production of twelve 1-hour episodes, with HBO contributing $ 85 million, and the BBC contributing $ 15 million. The BBC contributed £800,000 to every episode of Rome in its first season. Rome
480-635: A pair of Roman soldiers mentioned in Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico . The fictional Vorenus and Pullo manage to witness and often influence many of the historical events presented in the series, although some dramatic license is taken. The first season depicts Julius Caesar's civil war of 49 BC against the traditionalist conservative faction in the Roman Senate (the Optimates ), his rise to dictatorship over Rome, and his fall, spanning
600-463: A "prime example of historical misinformation", and called actor Ciarán Hinds ( Julius Caesar ) a "parody". The paper also called the relationship between Atia of the Julii ( Polly Walker ) and Mark Antony ( James Purefoy ) "ridiculous". The second series was never broadcast at all on analog TV; however, starting from October 2009, digital-only channel Rai 4 broadcast the original uncut version of
720-434: A "public sinner", for La Dolce Vita , Fellini responded with The Temptations of Doctor Antonio , a segment in the omnibus Boccaccio '70 . His second colour film, it was the sole project green-lighted at Federiz. Infused with the surrealistic satire that characterized the young Fellini's work at Marc'Aurelio , the film ridiculed a crusader against vice, interpreted by Peppino De Filippo , who goes insane trying to censor
840-580: A 74-page booklet in ten chapters describing the absurd adventures of Pasqualino, an alter ego. Writing for radio while attempting to avoid the draft, Fellini met his future wife Giulietta Masina in a studio office at the Italian public radio broadcaster EIAR in the autumn of 1942. Well-paid as the voice of Pallina in Fellini's radio serial, Cico and Pallina , Masina was also well known for her musical-comedy broadcasts which cheered an audience depressed by
960-649: A B and commented on the "spectacular" clothing design. Michael Ventre from Variety magazine was positive towards the series and was intrigued by the "complex" character of Atia of the Julii . James Poniewozik from Time magazine commented on the "slow start" but further stated that the series "draws you" to the ancient city of Rome. Empire magazine reviewer Helen O'Hara said: "Not as good-looking as Gladiator , perhaps, but richer in (reasonably accurate) history and texture", and gave season 1 of Rome four out of five stars. Robert Bianco from USA Today called season 2 "the fall of Rome ", commenting that season 2
1080-411: A billboard of Anita Ekberg espousing the virtues of milk. In an October 1960 letter to his colleague Brunello Rondi, Fellini first outlined his film ideas about a man suffering creative block: "Well then – a guy (a writer? any kind of professional man? a theatrical producer?) has to interrupt the usual rhythm of his life for two weeks because of a not-too-serious disease. It's a warning bell: something
1200-507: A brief period of therapy with Freudian psychoanalyst Emilio Servadio. Fellini cast American actor Broderick Crawford to interpret the role of an aging swindler in Il Bidone . Based partly on stories told to him by a petty thief during production of La Strada , Fellini developed the script into a con man's slow descent. To incarnate the role's "intense, tragic face", Fellini's first choice had been Humphrey Bogart , but after learning of
1320-458: A butcher on the streets of Rome was in fact a real-life butcher. In a separate move, the BBC also decided to re-edit the first three episodes (all directed by Michael Apted) into two episodes. The BBC claimed that this was because the British audience were more familiar with the history of Rome than their American counterparts and so much of the history was unnecessary; however, Apted claims that
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#17327839518081440-557: A comedy directed by Mario Monicelli with Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini . For Eduardo De Filippo , he co-wrote the script of Fortunella . The Hollywood on the Tiber phenomenon of 1958 in which American studios profited from the cheap studio labour available in Rome provided the backdrop for photojournalists to steal shots of celebrities on the via Veneto. The scandal provoked by Turkish dancer Haish Nana's improvised striptease at
1560-596: A comedy writer on Mario Mattoli 's Il pirata sono io ( The Pirate's Dream ). Progressing rapidly to numerous collaborations on films at Cinecittà , his circle of professional acquaintances widened to include novelist Vitaliano Brancati and scriptwriter Piero Tellini. In the wake of Mussolini's declaration of war against France and Britain on 10 June 1940, Fellini discovered Kafka 's The Metamorphosis , Gogol , John Steinbeck and William Faulkner along with French films by Marcel Carné , René Clair , and Julien Duvivier . In 1941 he published Il mio amico Pasqualino ,
1680-498: A consequence, Jung's seminal ideas on the anima and the animus , the role of archetypes and the collective unconscious directly influenced such films as 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 (1963), Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Fellini Satyricon (1969), Casanova (1976), and City of Women (1980). Other key influences on his work include Luis Buñuel , Charlie Chaplin , Sergei Eisenstein , Buster Keaton , Laurel and Hardy ,
1800-525: A decade. In February 1950, Paisà received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay by Rossellini, Sergio Amidei , and Fellini. After travelling to Paris for a script conference with Rossellini on Europa '51 , Fellini began production on The White Sheik in September 1951, his first solo-directed feature. Starring Alberto Sordi in the title role, the film is a revised version of a treatment first written by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1949 and based on
1920-471: A living. The crisis came to a head in April when, sitting in his Cinecittà office, he began a letter to Rizzoli confessing he had "lost his film" and had to abandon the project. Interrupted by the chief machinist requesting he celebrate the launch of 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 , Fellini put aside the letter and went on the set. Raising a toast to the crew, he "felt overwhelmed by shame… I was in a no exit situation. I
2040-473: A mental institution, the character is a combination of La Strada ' s Gelsomina, Pinocchio , and Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi . Fellini improvised as he filmed, using as a guide a rough treatment written with Pinelli. Despite its modest critical and commercial success in Italy, and its warm reception by French critics, it failed to interest North American distributors. Rome (TV series) Rome
2160-469: A nature reserve and a wellness center. 41°51′7″N 12°34′38″E / 41.85194°N 12.57722°E / 41.85194; 12.57722 Federico Fellini Federico Fellini Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI ( Italian: [fedeˈriːko felˈliːni] ; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He
2280-447: A new Fellini, no longer just a screenwriter, working and sketching at his desk, but a filmmaker out in the field". The apolitical Fellini was finally freed of the draft when an Allied air raid over Bologna destroyed his medical records. Fellini and Giulietta hid in her aunt's apartment until Mussolini's fall on 25 July 1943. After dating for nine months, the couple were married on 30 October 1943. Several months later, Masina fell down
2400-523: A nightclub captured Fellini's imagination: he decided to end his latest script-in-progress, Moraldo in the City , with an all-night "orgy" at a seaside villa. Pierluigi Praturlon 's photos of Anita Ekberg after an evening spent with the actress in a Rome night club provided further inspiration for Fellini and his screenwriters. Changing the title of the screenplay to La Dolce Vita , Fellini soon clashed with his producer on casting: The director insisted on
2520-603: A period of six months between January and June 1973, Fellini shot the Oscar -winning Amarcord . Loosely based on the director's 1968 autobiographical essay My Rimini , the film depicts the adolescent Titta and his friends working out their sexual frustrations against the religious and Fascist backdrop of a provincial town in Italy during the 1930s. Produced by Franco Cristaldi , the seriocomic movie became Fellini's second biggest commercial success after La Dolce Vita . Circular in form, Amarcord avoids plot and linear narrative in
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#17327839518082640-556: A production designer who has won three Academy Awards . Visitors enter Cinecittà World through the jaws of the Temple of Moloch, seen in Cabiria , a silent movie filmed in Turin in 1914. The theme park also features a recreation of 1920s-era Manhattan as envisioned by Ferretti. Cinecittà World expects to have 1.5 million visitors annually. Expansion plans for the theme park include
2760-490: A seemingly random collection of episodes informed by the director's memories and impressions of Rome. The "diverse sequences," writes Fellini scholar Peter Bondanella , "are held together only by the fact that they all ultimately originate from the director's fertile imagination." The film's opening scene anticipates Amarcord while its most surreal sequence involves an ecclesiastical fashion show in which nuns and priests roller skate past shipwrecks of cobwebbed skeletons. Over
2880-400: A short edit of season 1 episode 7. From that, Beal began writing a demo score. Based on head writer Bruno Heller 's desired gritty pre-Christian feel for the series, and HBO's interest in a non-modern sound, Beal chose to compose and record with live instruments from across the ancient Roman world. For each episode, Beal had about two weeks to work: in the first, he composed for – and recorded –
3000-834: A small town on the Adriatic Sea . On 25 January, at the San Nicolò church he was baptized Federico Domenico Marcello Fellini. His father, Urbano Fellini (1894–1956), born to a family of Romagnol peasants and small landholders from Gambettola , moved to Rome in 1915 as a baker apprenticed to the Pantanella pasta factory. His mother, Ida Barbiani (1896–1984), came from a bourgeois Catholic family of Roman merchants . Despite her family's vehement disapproval, she had eloped with Urbano in 1917 to live at his parents' home in Gambettola. A civil marriage followed in 1918 with
3120-426: A treatment based on a film adaptation of Mario Tobino 's novel, The Free Women of Magliano . Set in a mental institution for women, the project was abandoned when financial backers considered the subject had no potential. While preparing Nights of Cabiria in spring 1956, Fellini learned of his father's death by cardiac arrest at the age of sixty-two. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring Giulietta Masina,
3240-434: A way similar to The Clowns and Roma . The director's overriding concern with developing a poetic form of cinema was first outlined in a 1965 interview he gave to The New Yorker journalist Lillian Ross : "I am trying to free my work from certain constrictions – a story with a beginning, a development, an ending. It should be more like a poem with metre and cadence." Organized by his publisher Diogenes Verlag in 1982,
3360-564: Is an American-British historical drama television series released in 2005–2007 and created by John Milius , William J. MacDonald , and Bruno Heller . The series is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome 's transition from Republic to Empire . The series features a sprawling cast of characters , many based on real figures from historical records, but the lead protagonists are ultimately two soldiers named Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo , who find their lives intertwined with key historical events. An international co-production between
3480-464: Is blocking up his system." Unclear about the script, its title, and his protagonist's profession, he scouted locations throughout Italy "looking for the film", in the hope of resolving his confusion. Flaiano suggested La bella confusione (literally The Beautiful Confusion ) as the movie's title. Under pressure from his producers, Fellini finally settled on 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 , a self-referential title referring principally (but not exclusively) to
3600-474: Is not memory that dominates my films. To say that my films are autobiographical is an overly facile liquidation, a hasty classification. It seems to me that I have invented almost everything: childhood, character, nostalgias, dreams, memories, for the pleasure of being able to recount them. In 1937, Fellini opened Febo, a portrait shop in Rimini, with the painter Demos Bonini. His first humorous article appeared in
3720-437: Is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound , which lists his 1963 film 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 as the 10th-greatest film. Fellini's best-known films include I vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960), 8½ (1963), Juliet of
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3840-540: Is soon demolished by his wife's obsession with the White Sheik. Highlighting the music of Nino Rota , the film was selected at Cannes (among the films in competition was Orson Welles 's Othello ) and then retracted. Screened at the 13th Venice International Film Festival , it was razzed by critics in "the atmosphere of a soccer match". One reviewer declared that Fellini had "not the slightest aptitude for cinema direction". In 1953, I Vitelloni found favour with
3960-554: Is the largest co-produced series with the American film market in the BBC's history . The series also marked the first series on which HBO and the BBC worked together as co-producers, although the two companies had worked together in other roles in earlier series, including Band of Brothers and The Gathering Storm . Tranter from the BBC has said this about the development of Rome : "It felt like something that could have been developed by us, and HBO felt like natural partners for
4080-575: Is there. I would love to round that show off". In an April 2009 interview with the Associated Press , actor Kevin McKidd stated the Rome film was "in development", and Lucius Vorenus would likely be a part of it. McKidd said in a later 2009 interview, "There is a script that is being shopped and it's supposedly very good, I haven't seen it, but I am definitely going to be a part of the movie... He
4200-450: Is very much alive, so that should be a fun story to tell." In March 2010, Entertainment Weekly stated that Heller had completed the script for Morning Light Productions, the film's financiers, and was now awaiting a director and a studio, since HBO Films "won't be involved". However, in a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly , Heller indicated the project had stalled – "I'm not holding my breath." Rome: The Complete First Season
4320-753: The Avanguardista , the compulsory Fascist youth group for males. He visited Rome with his parents for the first time in 1933, the year of the maiden voyage of the transatlantic ocean liner SS Rex (which is shown in Amarcord ). The sea creature found on the beach at the end of La Dolce Vita (1960) has its basis in a giant fish marooned on a Rimini beach during a storm in 1934. Although Fellini adapted key events from his childhood and adolescence in films such as I Vitelloni (1953), 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 (1963), and Amarcord (1973), he insisted that such autobiographical memories were inventions: It
4440-400: The I Ching and keep a record of his dreams. What Fellini formerly accepted as "his extrasensory perceptions" were now interpreted as psychic manifestations of the unconscious. Bernhard's focus on Jungian depth psychology proved to be the single greatest influence on Fellini's mature style and marked the turning point in his work from neorealism to filmmaking that was "primarily oneiric". As
4560-527: The 30th Academy Awards and brought Masina the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance. With Pinelli, he developed Journey with Anita for Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck . An "invention born out of intimate truth", the script was based on Fellini's return to Rimini with a mistress to attend his father's funeral. Due to Loren's unavailability, the project was shelved and resurrected twenty-five years later as Lovers and Liars (1981),
4680-514: The Marx Brothers , and Roberto Rossellini . Exploiting La Dolce Vita ' s success, financier Angelo Rizzoli set up Federiz in 1960, an independent film company, for Fellini and production manager Clemente Fracassi to discover and produce new talent. Despite the best intentions, their overcautious editorial and business skills forced the company to close down soon after cancelling Pasolini's project, Accattone (1961). Condemned as
4800-702: The Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita in 1960, two times the Moscow International Film Festival in 1963 and 1987, and the Career Golden Lion at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival in 1985. In Sight & Sound ' s 2002 list of the greatest directors of all time, Fellini was ranked 2nd in the directors' poll and 7th in the critics' poll. Fellini was born on 20 January 1920, to middle-class parents in Rimini , then
4920-471: The Sapienza University of Rome to please his parents. Biographer Hollis Alpert reports that "there is no record of his ever having attended a class". Installed in a family pensione , he met another lifelong friend, the painter Rinaldo Geleng. Desperately poor, they unsuccessfully joined forces to draw sketches of restaurant and café patrons. Fellini eventually found work as a cub reporter on
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5040-693: The Western Allies during the bombing of Rome in World War II . Following the war, between 1945 and 1947, the studios of Cinecittà were used as a displaced persons ' camp for a period of about two years, following German occupation and Allied bombing that destroyed parts of the studio. An estimated 3,000 refugees lived there, divided into two camps: an Italian camp housing Italians as well as displaced people from Italian Libya and Dalmatia, and an international camp, including refugees from Yugoslavia, Poland, Egypt, Iran, and China. After rebuilding in
5160-496: The fotoromanzi , the photographed cartoon strip romances popular in Italy at the time. Producer Carlo Ponti commissioned Fellini and Tullio Pinelli to write the script but Antonioni rejected the story they developed. With Ennio Flaiano , they re-worked the material into a light-hearted satire about newlywed couple Ivan and Wanda Cavalli ( Leopoldo Trieste , Brunella Bovo) in Rome to visit the Pope. Ivan's prissy mask of respectability
5280-455: The "Postcards to Our Readers" section of Milan's Domenica del Corriere . Deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to Florence in 1938, where he published his first cartoon in the weekly 420 . According to a biographer, Fellini found school "exasperating" and, in one year, had 67 absences. Failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in 1939. In September 1939, he enrolled in law school at
5400-484: The "most lavish dramatic series yet" released by HBO. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the first season has an approval rating of 83% based on 36 reviews, with an average score of 8.62/10; the critical consensus reads: " Rome builds slowly, but a laborious start delivers rich rewards in the form of decadent sets, delicious drama and a surprising amount of intimacy". The second season has an approval rating of 89% based on 28 reviews, with an average score of 8.05/10;
5520-416: The BBC". On 20 April 2006, Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO announced the development of a second season for Rome . The filmmakers stressed that they wanted to portray Rome as a gritty and realistic city as opposed to what they call the "Hollyrome" presentation that audiences are used to from other films, with "cleanliness and marble and togas that looked pressed." Between March 2004 and May 2005 Rome
5640-586: The Book VI of his television series Kaamelott set in Ancient Rome . More recently, Paolo Sorrentino 's series The Young Pope and The New Pope were almost entirely shot at Cinecittà, including reconstruction of the interiors of the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica . The 2019 film The Two Popes sections of which were also shot at Cinecittà, again utilised a reconstruction of
5760-593: The Carlo Tonini public school two years later. An attentive student, he spent his leisure time drawing, staging puppet shows and reading Il corriere dei piccoli , the popular children's magazine that reproduced traditional American cartoons by Winsor McCay , George McManus and Frederick Burr Opper . (Opper's Happy Hooligan would provide the visual inspiration for Gelsomina in Fellini's 1954 film La Strada ; McCay's Little Nemo would directly influence his 1980 film City of Women .) In 1926, he discovered
5880-732: The Christian Democrats demanded tolerance for the film's controversial themes. The Vatican 's official press organ, L'Osservatore Romano , lobbied for censorship while the Board of Roman Parish Priests and the Genealogical Board of Italian Nobility attacked the film. In one documented instance involving favourable reviews written by the Jesuits of San Fedele, defending La Dolce Vita had severe consequences. In competition at Cannes alongside Antonioni's L'Avventura ,
6000-637: The Cinecittà lot and surroundings. The historic part that houses the sets of classics such as Ben-Hur was not damaged; however, a good portion of the original sets from the HBO/BBC series Rome was destroyed. In July 2012, another fire damaged Teatro 5, the vast studio where Fellini filmed La Dolce Vita and Satyricon (1969). A third fire in August 2022 destroyed part of a partially dismantled set depicting Renaissance-era Florence and disrupted filming of
6120-606: The Desert , 1942), directed by Osvaldo Valenti and Gino Talamo. Fellini welcomed the assignment as it allowed him "to secure another extension on his draft order". Responsible for emergency re-writing, he also directed the film's first scenes. When Tripoli fell under siege by British forces, he and his colleagues made a narrow escape by boarding a German military plane flying to Sicily . His African adventure, later published in Marc'Aurelio as "The First Flight", marked "the emergence of
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#17327839518086240-599: The Italian version of Big Brother , where the Big Brother house is built on Cinecittà's premises. The complex also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 . In addition, the BBC / HBO series Rome was filmed there from 2004 to 2007, the show being widely acclaimed for its sets and designs. BBC Wales reused some of these sets for an episode of the 2008 series of Doctor Who set in ancient Pompeii , and Alexandre Astier reused this set for
6360-402: The Julii was nominated in the category " Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama ". The series was also nominated for three Satellite Awards , two for season 1 and the last for season 2. The pilot episode "The Stolen Eagle" won a Visual Effects Society (VES) award in the category "Outstanding Visual Effects – Broadcast Series". Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominated
6480-527: The Sistine Chapel. In 2009 the studio announced that they intended to create a theme park. The movie-themed amusement park, Cinecittà World , opened in July 2014. The € 250 million theme park is located approximately 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Cinecittà studios, on the site of a former movie studio built by Dino De Laurentiis in the 1960s. Cinecittà World was designed by Dante Ferretti ,
6600-511: The Spirits (1965), Fellini Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), and Fellini's Casanova (1976). Fellini was nominated for 17 Academy Awards over the course of his career, winning a total of four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film (the most for any director in the history of the award). He received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Fellini also won
6720-476: The Spirits (1965), depicting Giulietta Masina as Juliet, a housewife who rightly suspects her husband's infidelity and succumbs to the voices of spirits summoned during a séance at her home. Her sexually voracious next door neighbor Suzy ( Sandra Milo ) introduces Juliet to a world of uninhibited sensuality, but Juliet is haunted by childhood memories of her Catholic guilt and a teenaged friend who committed suicide. Complex and filled with psychological symbolism,
6840-590: The Tiber ." The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini , his son Vittorio , and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi under the slogan " Il cinema è l'arma più forte " ("Cinema is the most powerful weapon"). The purpose was not only for propaganda, but also to support the recovering Italian feature film industry, which had reached its low point in 1931. Mussolini himself inaugurated the studios on 21 April 1937. Post-production units and sets were constructed and heavily used initially. Early films such as Scipio Africanus (1937) and The Iron Crown (1941) showcased
6960-577: The US from 14 January 2007 to 25 March 2007. The series was launched in the United States on 25 August 2005, at Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles. HBO broadcast the series pilot " The Stolen Eagle " four days later. According to the Nielsen ratings system , the pilot broadcast was seen by 3.8 million viewers and achieved a 9.1 household rating for Sunday primetime. HBO re-aired the pilot 11 times in
7080-570: The United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, the series was filmed in various locations, but most notably in the Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy. The show, consisting of two seasons for a total of 22 episodes, aired on HBO , and BBC Two from 28 August 2005 to 25 March 2007, and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray . Rome received largely positive reviews and had a high number of viewers. It received substantial media attention from
7200-561: The actor to play the role of Father Giuseppe Morosini , the parish priest executed by the SS on 4 April 1944. In 1947, Fellini and Sergio Amidei received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Rome, Open City . Working as both screenwriter and assistant director on Rossellini's Paisà ( Paisan ) in 1946, Fellini was entrusted to film the Sicilian scenes in Maiori . In February 1948, he
7320-478: The actor's lung cancer, chose Crawford after seeing his face on the theatrical poster of All the King's Men (1949). The film shoot was wrought with difficulties stemming from Crawford's alcoholism. Savaged by critics at the 16th Venice International Film Festival , the film did miserably at the box office and did not receive international distribution until 1964. During the autumn, Fellini researched and developed
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#17327839518087440-552: The category "Excellence in Production Design – Single-Camera Television Series" for the pilot episode "The Stolen Eagle". Michael Apted won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in the category "Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Night" for "The Stolen Eagle". The series itself was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category " Best Television Series – Drama ", and Polly Walker who portrayed Atia of
7560-401: The critical consensus reads: "Pulp meets prestige in Rome ’s sensational second season – though its style sometimes outweighs its substance". Capping its successful first season, Rome won four Emmy Awards out of eight nominations in 2006, for the episodes " Caesarion ", " Triumph ", " Kalends of February " and " Stealing from Saturn ". The series also won an Art Directors Guild (ADG) in
7680-558: The critics and public. Winning the Silver Lion Award in Venice, it secured Fellini his first international distributor. Fellini directed La Strada based on a script completed in 1952 with Pinelli and Flaiano. It starred his wife Giulietta Masina , Anthony Quinn , and Richard Basehart . During the last three weeks of shooting, Fellini experienced the first signs of severe clinical depression. Aided by his wife, he undertook
7800-452: The dailies Il Piccolo and Il Popolo di Roma , but quit after a short stint, bored by the local court news assignments. Four months after publishing his first article in Marc'Aurelio , the highly influential biweekly humour magazine, he joined the editorial board, achieving success with a regular column titled But Are You Listening? . Described as "the determining moment in Fellini's life",
7920-476: The feasibility of a film. After first meeting Castaneda in Rome in October 1984, Fellini drafted a treatment with Pinelli titled Viaggio a Tulun . Producer Alberto Grimaldi , prepared to buy film rights to all of Castaneda's work, then paid for pre-production research taking Fellini and his entourage from Rome to Los Angeles and the jungles of Mexico in October 1985. When Castaneda inexplicably disappeared and
8040-595: The film is set to a jaunty score by Nino Rota . To help promote Satyricon in the United States, Fellini flew to Los Angeles in January 1970 for interviews with Dick Cavett and David Frost . He also met with film director Paul Mazursky who wanted to cast him in a starring role alongside Donald Sutherland in his new film, Alex in Wonderland . In February, Fellini scouted locations in Paris for The Clowns ,
8160-473: The film took its inspiration from news reports of a woman's severed head retrieved in a lake and stories by Wanda, a shantytown prostitute Fellini met on the set of Il Bidone . Pier Paolo Pasolini was hired to translate Flaiano and Pinelli's dialogue into Roman dialect and to supervise researches in the vice-afflicted suburbs of Rome. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at
8280-485: The film won the Palme d'Or awarded by presiding juror Georges Simenon . The Belgian writer was promptly "hissed at" by the disapproving festival crowd. A major discovery for Fellini after his Italian neorealism period (1950–1959) was the work of Carl Jung . After meeting Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Ernst Bernhard in early 1960, he read Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963) and experimented with LSD . Bernhard also recommended that Fellini consult
8400-583: The first episode attracting 1.5 million viewers. The final episode aired 25 March 2007 in the US, garnering 2.4 million viewers. In total, HBO spent about $ 10 million US$ to promote Rome . HBO enlisted the Mozilla Firefox web browser in its marketing campaign for the series by designing a downloadable custom Rome Firefox theme . BBC Two premiered Rome in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2005, attracting 6.6 million viewers (27%); viewing figures declined in future episodes, with
8520-696: The first major exhibition of 63 drawings by Fellini was held in Paris , Brussels , and the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York . A gifted caricaturist, he found much of the inspiration for his sketches from his own dreams while the films-in-progress both originated from and stimulated drawings for characters, decor, costumes and set designs. Under the title, I disegni di Fellini (Fellini's Designs), he published 350 drawings executed in pencil, watercolours, and felt pens. On 6 September 1985 Fellini
8640-409: The first series and went on to broadcast the second series unaltered as well. HBO chairman Chris Albrecht announced in a July 2006 news conference that season two of Rome would be its last, citing the fact that the series (called "notoriously expensive" by Broadcasting & Cable ) had been developed under a two-year contract with the BBC that would have been difficult for the BBC to extend due to
8760-426: The first time he visited Cinecittà in 1939 with present-day footage of himself at work on a screen adaptation of Franz Kafka 's Amerika . A meditation on the nature of memory and film production, it won the special 40th Anniversary Prize at Cannes and the 15th Moscow International Film Festival Golden Prize. In Brussels later that year, a panel of thirty professionals from eighteen European countries named Fellini
8880-454: The historical background. But all that's happened as far as the viewer is concerned is that it has made Rome hard to follow. Apted also said that he only learned of the edits by accident, "...a couple of weeks ago when one of the actors told me". Since then, the original uncut Season 1 episodes aired on UKTV Drama, coincident with the UK broadcast of Season 2 on BBC Two. The Italian broadcast of
9000-422: The instruments he performed on the soundtrack. In the second week, he incorporated producer's notes, and orchestrated and recorded the other live instrumental sections. Rome' s first season originally aired on HBO in the United States between 28 August and 20 November 2005, subsequently being broadcast on the United Kingdom's BBC Two between 2 November 2005 and 4 January 2006. The second season aired on HBO in
9120-399: The maestro's cinema. Nominated for four Oscars, 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 won awards for best foreign language film and best costume design in black-and-white. In California for the ceremony, Fellini toured Disneyland with Walt Disney the day after. Increasingly attracted to parapsychology , Fellini met the Turin antiquarian Gustavo Rol in 1963. Rol, a former banker, introduced him to
9240-609: The magazine gave him steady employment between 1939 and 1942, when he interacted with writers, gagmen, and scriptwriters. These encounters eventually led to opportunities in show business and cinema. Among his collaborators on the magazine's editorial board were the future director Ettore Scola , Marxist theorist and scriptwriter Cesare Zavattini , and Bernardino Zapponi , a future Fellini screenwriter. Conducting interviews for CineMagazzino also proved congenial: when asked to interview Aldo Fabrizi , Italy's most popular variety performer, he established such immediate personal rapport with
9360-457: The man that they collaborated professionally. Specializing in humorous monologues, Fabrizi commissioned material from his young protégé. Retained on business in Rimini, Urbano sent his wife and family to Rome in 1940 to share an apartment with his son. Fellini and Ruggero Maccari, also on the staff of Marc'Aurelio , began writing radio sketches and gags for films. Not yet twenty and with Fabrizi's help, Fellini obtained his first screen credit as
9480-528: The most expensive in the history of television. Funding was generously employed to recreate an impressively detailed set featuring a number of Roman Villas, the Forum, and a vast slum area of the ancient city of Rome. A significant part of this set was later destroyed by a fire that burned down a portion of the Cinecittà Studios in 2007. According to HBO, the fire started after they had finished filming
9600-541: The number of films he had directed up to that time. Giving the order to start production in spring 1962, Fellini signed deals with his producer Rizzoli, fixed dates, had sets constructed, cast Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée , and Sandra Milo in lead roles, and did screen tests at the Scalera Studios in Rome. He hired cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo , among key personnel. But apart from naming his hero Guido Anselmi, he still couldn't decide what his character did for
9720-468: The period from Caesar's death in 44 BC to the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra in 30 B.C. after their defeat at the Battle of Actium . Thirty-eight actors are credited in the show's opening credits when they appear, with only Kevin McKidd , Ray Stevenson , Polly Walker , Kerry Condon and James Purefoy appearing in every episode. William J. MacDonald and John Milius pitched the idea to HBO as
9840-458: The perspective of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo , and while they were real people who were briefly mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico , almost all of their adventures in the series are fictional. Co-creator Bruno Heller has said, "We try to balance between what people expect from previous portrayals and a naturalistic approach ... This series is much more about how
9960-401: The postwar recession drawing caricatures of American soldiers. He became involved with Italian Neorealism when Roberto Rossellini , at work on Stories of Yesteryear (later Rome, Open City ), met Fellini in his shop, and proposed he contribute gags and dialogue for the script. Aware of Fellini's reputation as Aldo Fabrizi's "creative muse", Rossellini also requested that he try to convince
10080-610: The postwar years by MGM's Henry Henigson for Quo Vadis , the studios were used once again for their post-production facilities. Cinecittà, described as Hollywood on the Tiber , was the location for several large American film productions , like Roman Holiday (1953), Beat the Devil (1953), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Ben-Hur (1959), and some low-budget action pictures starring Lex Barker . Barker also featured in Federico Fellini 's La Dolce Vita (1960) and
10200-598: The project fell through, Fellini's mystico-shamanic adventures were scripted with Pinelli and serialized in Corriere della Sera in May 1986. A barely veiled satirical interpretation of Castaneda's work, Viaggio a Tulun was published in 1989 as a graphic novel with artwork by Milo Manara and as Trip to Tulum in America in 1990. For Intervista , produced by Ibrahim Moussa and RAI Television, Fellini intercut memories of
10320-407: The psychology of the characters affects history than simply following the history as we know it". Series Historical Consultant Jonathan Stamp also notes that the show aims for "authenticity" rather than "accuracy": We did everything we could to make these episodes historically authentic, which meant researching and incorporating every kind of detail we could about the way our characters behaved,
10440-436: The purpose was to boost the ratings by increasing the prominence of the scenes of sex and violence. In an interview with The Times , Apted said: I'm really pissed off with the BBC for bringing down my first three episodes to two and, in doing so, taking out much of the vital politics. What also makes me very grumpy is that I was told that the cuts had been introduced by the BBC because they thought British viewers already knew
10560-484: The reality of my unreal environment. I was an instrument in a virtual world that constantly renewed its own meaningless image in a living world that was itself perceived outside of nature. And since the appearance of things was no longer definitive but limitless, this paradisiacal awareness freed me from the reality external to my self. The fire and the rose, as it were, became one. Fellini's hallucinatory insights were given full flower in his first colour feature Juliet of
10680-416: The relatively unknown Mastroianni while De Laurentiis wanted Paul Newman as a hedge on his investment. Reaching an impasse, De Laurentiis sold the rights to publishing mogul Angelo Rizzoli . Shooting began on 16 March 1959 with Anita Ekberg climbing the stairs to the cupola of Saint Peter's in a mammoth décor constructed at Cinecittà . The statue of Christ flown by helicopter over Rome to St. Peter's Square
10800-427: The religious ceremony held at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome a year later. The couple settled in Rimini where Urbano became a traveling salesman and wholesale vendor . Fellini had two siblings, Riccardo (1921–1991), a documentary director for RAI Television, and Maria Maddalena (m. Fabbri; 1929–2002). In 1924, Fellini started primary school in an institute run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini, attending
10920-573: The role of a vagabond rogue mistaken by Magnani for a saint, Fellini had to bleach his black hair blond. In 1950 Fellini co-produced and co-directed with Alberto Lattuada Variety Lights ( Luci del varietà ), his first feature film. A backstage comedy set among the world of small-time travelling performers, it featured Giulietta Masina and Lattuada's wife, Carla Del Poggio . Its release to poor reviews and limited distribution proved disastrous for all concerned. The production company went bankrupt, leaving both Fellini and Lattuada with debts to pay for over
11040-462: The season finale only attracting 3 million viewers (13%). The first episode of the second season aired on BBC Two on 20 June 2007. A "sanitized" version of the first series of Rome – with toned-down nudity and violence – aired on Rai 2 in Italy, garnering only a meager 10% audience share. RAI also stated to have co-produced the show, whereas HBO listed only itself and BBC as co-producers. The Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera called it
11160-484: The second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There's certainly more than enough history to go around. In a February 2008 interview with Movieweb.com, actor Ray Stevenson stated that a Rome film was in development, with Heller working on a script. Heller confirmed in December that there was "talk of doing a movie version", adding that "It's moving along. It's not there until it
11280-466: The second season. A portion of the set was also used in late 2007 by the crew of the long-running BBC sci-fi drama series Doctor Who , for the fourth-season episode " The Fires of Pompeii ". Audio commentary on the Season 1 DVD indicates that many of the background performers used in the series were also their true professional counterparts. One example is that the actor shown in the series working as
11400-436: The seemingly chaotic, incessant improvisation on the set, Deena Boyer, the director's American press officer at the time, asked for a rationale. Fellini told her that he hoped to convey the three levels "on which our minds live: the past, the present, and the conditional — the realm of fantasy". After shooting wrapped on 14 October, Nino Rota composed various circus marches and fanfares that would later become signature tunes of
11520-455: The sequel to The Old Guard . Since the 1990s, films have included Anthony Minghella 's The English Patient (1996) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Martin Scorsese 's Gangs of New York (2002), Wes Anderson 's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Mel Gibson ’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). Cinecittà also hosts TV productions, such as Grande Fratello ,
11640-561: The series for the Royal Television Society (RTS) award in the category "Best Visual Effects – Digital Effects". For season 2 (2007) Alik Sakharov won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series , for the episode " Passover ". The series' major details are generally historically accurate, but many of the minor details were dramatized. The show is generally told from
11760-499: The series for the category "Best Writing – New Television Series" in 2005. The series was also nominated for four British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA), three in season 1 (2006) and one in season 2 (2008). In 2005, the series was nominated for a Cinema Audio Society Award (CAS) in the category "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series" for the episode " The Spoils ". The British award ceremony nominated
11880-498: The series was also marred by controversy. Strong language was removed in the Italian dubbing process; as for the more explicit sex scenes and disturbing violence, they were replaced by "safe" alternative versions shot during production especially for the Italian market. Rai 4 began showing the "complete version" of the series on Italian TV in September 2009. Composer Jeff Beal was invited to audition for Rome after he completed work on HBO 's Carnivàle . The producers sent him
12000-584: The series' cost. Of the storyline, co-creator Heller said: I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end. The second was going to end with the death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the Messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into
12120-517: The stairs and suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a son, Pierfederico, on 22 March 1945, but the child died of encephalitis 11 days later on 2 April 1945. Masina and Fellini had no other children. The tragedy had enduring emotional and artistic repercussions. After the Allied liberation of Rome on 4 June 1944, Fellini and Enrico De Seta opened the Funny Face Shop where they survived
12240-403: The start, becoming a ratings success for HBO and the BBC (although the numbers declined considerably in the second season) and being honoured with numerous awards , including four Emmy Awards , seven Primetime Emmy Awards , and a Visual Effects Society Award . The series ran for two seasons out of the planned five due to high production cost; much of the material for the third and fourth seasons
12360-476: The studios were for many years closely associated with Fellini. In the same period, the studios were used for further international productions such as Francis of Assisi (1961), Cleopatra (1963), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Fellini's Casanova (1976), La Traviata (1982) and many other productions. It hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 . This
12480-400: The technological advancement of the studios. Seven thousand people were involved in the filming of the battle scene from Scipio Africanus , and live elephants were brought in as a part of the re-enactment of the Battle of Zama . During World War II it became a German army barracks and was stripped of all electrical equipment with its sound stages smashed and gutted. The studios were bombed by
12600-447: The time from the end of his Gallic Wars (52 BC or 701 ab urbe condita ) until his assassination on 15 March 44 BC (the infamous Ides of March ). Against the backdrop of these cataclysmic events, we also see the early years of the young Octavian, who is destined to become Augustus , the first Emperor of Rome. The second season chronicles the power struggle between Octavian and Mark Antony following Caesar's assassination, spanning
12720-411: The war. Giulietta is practical, and likes the fact that she earns a handsome fee for her radio work, whereas theater never pays well. And of course the fame counts for something too. Radio is a booming business and comedy reviews have a broad and devoted public. In November 1942, Fellini was sent to Libya , occupied by Fascist Italy, to work on the screenplay of I cavalieri del deserto ( Knights of
12840-523: The week following 28 August 2005 premiere, garnering a total viewership of 8.9 million for all 11 airings. After the broadcast of only three first-season episodes, HBO announced plans to produce a second season of Rome in 2006, for release in March 2007. HBO aired each episode multiple times a week, and by the end of the first season, the total weekly audience for all airings exceeded seven million viewers. The second season premiered in January 2007, with
12960-736: The world of Grand Guignol , the circus with Pierino the Clown and the movies. Guido Brignone 's Maciste all'inferno (1925, Maciste in Hell ), the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to Dante and the cinema throughout his entire career. Enrolled at the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in 1929, he made friends with Luigi Titta Benzi, later a prominent Rimini lawyer (and the model for young Titta in Amarcord (1973)). In Mussolini 's Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of
13080-450: The world of Spiritism and séances . In 1964, Fellini took LSD under the supervision of Emilio Servadio, his psychoanalyst during the 1954 production of La Strada . For years reserved about what actually occurred that Sunday afternoon, he admitted in 1992 that ... objects and their functions no longer had any significance. All I perceived was perception itself, the hell of forms and figures devoid of human emotion and detached from
13200-456: The world's best director and 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 the best European film of all time. In early 1989 Fellini began production on The Voice of the Moon , based on Ermanno Cavazzoni's novel, Il poema dei lunatici ( The Lunatics' Poem ). A small town was built at Empire Studios on the via Pontina outside Rome. Starring Roberto Benigni as Ivo Salvini, a madcap poetic figure newly released from
13320-475: Was a director who wanted to make a film he no longer remembers. And lo and behold, at that very moment everything fell into place. I got straight to the heart of the film. I would narrate everything that had been happening to me. I would make a film telling the story of a director who no longer knows what film he wanted to make". The self-mirroring structure makes the entire film inseparable from its reflecting construction. Shooting began on 9 May 1962. Perplexed by
13440-635: Was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 42nd Venice Film Festival. That same year, he became the first non-American to receive the Film Society of Lincoln Center 's annual award for cinematic achievement. Long fascinated by Carlos Castaneda 's The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge , Fellini accompanied the Peruvian author on a journey to the Yucatán to assess
13560-404: Was filmed in co-production with Rai Fiction in the Italian countryside on Cinecittà studios' six sound stages in Rome. A collection of massive sets in Cinecittà studios' back lots comprised an elaborate "period reconstruction" of sections of ancient Rome . It was a huge undertaking, with an international crew of 350, and more than 50 local Italian interns. The production is regarded as one of
13680-472: Was inspired by an actual media event on 1 May 1956, which Fellini had witnessed. La Dolce Vita broke all box office records. Despite scalpers selling tickets at 1000 lire, crowds queued in line for hours to see an "immoral movie" before the censors banned it. At an exclusive Milan screening on 5 February 1960, one outraged patron spat on Fellini while others hurled insults. Denounced in parliament by right-wing conservatives, undersecretary Domenico Magrì of
13800-529: Was introduced to Marcello Mastroianni , then a young theatre actor appearing in a play with Giulietta Masina. Establishing a close working relationship with Alberto Lattuada , Fellini co-wrote the director's Senza pietà ( Without Pity ) and Il mulino del Po ( The Mill on the Po ). Fellini also worked with Rossellini on the anthology film L'Amore (1948), co-writing the screenplay and in one segment titled, "The Miracle", acting opposite Anna Magnani . To play
13920-637: Was not as good as season 1 citing "off-key characterizations and plot absurdities". Linda Stasi from The New York Post called herself a "slave" to the show. Melanie McFarland from Seattle Post-Intelligencer called season 2 "at top of its form" and said it was as good as the former season. Historian Robin Lane Fox , writing in The Guardian , called the series "splendidly ambitious". Eric Neigher from Slant Magazine called season 1 of Rome "good art". Robert Abele from LA Weekly called it
14040-560: Was released as a six-disc Region 1 DVD box set in the United States in 2006, distributed by HBO Home Video. Featuring all 12 episodes, it included features such as episode commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage and making-of features. The set (without the episodic previews and recaps) was also released in Region 2, with the same title. Season 2 was released in North America in 2007 and soon after in Region 2. Rome: The Complete Series
14160-484: Was released in November 2009 on Blu-ray in North America. Rome garnered mostly positive reviews. Sean Woods from Rolling Stone called the series "masterful" and "epic", and gave the series 3.5 out of 4. Alessandra Stanley from The New York Times said: "But behind all that gritty squalor the glory that was Rome gets lost", while reviewing season 2 . Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gave season 2
14280-462: Was telescoped into the second season. Accordingly, the series has been praised for high detail of accuracy and scenery of its daily life, including both its Roman and Egyptian language used in the script. The series primarily chronicles the lives and deeds of the rich, powerful, and historically significant, but it also focuses on the lives, fortunes, families, and acquaintances of two common men: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, fictionalized versions of
14400-592: Was the 36th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on Stage 15. Due to the Gulf War and mounting tensions in Yugoslavia, RAI decided to move the contest from Sanremo to Rome which was perceived to be more secure. After a period of near- bankruptcy , the Italian Government privatized Cinecittà in 1997, selling an 80% stake. On August 9, 2007, a fire destroyed about 3,000 m (32,000 sq. ft.) of
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