Editing Federico Fellini (section)

===Beyond neorealism (1954–1960)===
[[File:Cinecittà - Teatro 5.jpg|thumb|[[Cinecittà]] – Teatro 5, Fellini's favorite studio<ref>{{cite web|title=Our flexible giant.|url=http://www.cinecittastudios.it/en/events/special-events/teatro-5|publisher=Cinecittà Studios|access-date=20 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054032/http://www.cinecittastudios.it/en/events/special-events/teatro-5|archive-date=21 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

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.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=158}} Aided by his wife, he undertook a brief period of therapy with Freudian psychoanalyst Emilio Servadio.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=158}}

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]],{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=167}} but after learning of the actor's lung cancer, chose Crawford after seeing his face on the theatrical poster of ''[[All the King's Men (1949 film)|All the King's Men]]'' (1949).{{sfn|Fava|Viganò|1995|p=79}} The film shoot was wrought with difficulties stemming from Crawford's alcoholism.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|pp=168–169}} 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 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.{{sfn|Liehm|1984|p=236}}
[[File:Federico Fellini 56.jpg|thumb|Fellini during the filming of ''[[Nights of Cabiria]]'', 1956]]
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, 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]]''.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=177}} [[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 the [[30th Academy Awards]] and brought Masina the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her performance.<ref>[[1957 Cannes Film Festival|Cannes Film Festival]]: Best Actress, Giulietta Masina; OCIC Award – Special Mention, Federico Fellini; 1957. {{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3550/year/1957.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Nights of Cabiria |access-date=2 August 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=189}} Due to Loren's unavailability, the project was shelved and resurrected twenty-five years later as ''[[Lovers and Liars]]'' (1981), a comedy directed by [[Mario Monicelli]] with [[Goldie Hawn]] and [[Giancarlo Giannini]]. For [[Eduardo De Filippo]], he co-wrote the script of ''[[Fortunella (film)|Fortunella]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://movieplayer.it/film/fortunella_21090/cast/|title=Cast del fil fortunella (1958)|access-date=21 November 2022|language=it}}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Alpert|1988|p=122}} The scandal provoked by Turkish dancer Haish Nana's improvised striptease at 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spaziodi.it/magazine/n0210/vdb.asp?tag=FOTO&id=425|title=Pierluigi Praturlon – Il fotografo che riprese la dolce vita del cinema italiano|access-date=21 November 2022|language=it}}</ref>

Changing the title of the screenplay to ''[[La Dolce Vita]]'', Fellini soon clashed with his producer on casting: The director insisted on 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]] 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,{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=208}} 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 the Christian Democrats demanded tolerance for the film's controversial themes.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=209}} The [[Holy See|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.{{sfn|Kezich|2006|p=210}} In competition at Cannes alongside Antonioni's ''[[L'Avventura]]'', the film won the [[Cannes Film Festival|Palme d'Or]] awarded by presiding juror [[Georges Simenon]]. The Belgian writer was promptly "hissed at" by the disapproving festival crowd.{{sfn|Alpert|1988|p=145}}