Product Description

What sets this film apart from other portraits of Fellini is that director Damian Pettigrew -- who knew Fellini fairly well after meeting him in 1983 -- was afforded a lengthy, privileged, unprecedented access to the man himself. Laced with interviews and classic clips, the film literally retraces Fellini’s footsteps with actors Donald Sutherland and Terence Stamp each contributing valuable insight into the Maestro’s working methods and madness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31291 in DVD
• Brand: First Look Pictures
• Released on: 2003-12-02
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Italian, French
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 105 minutes

From The New Yorker
In this superb documentary fantasia, Fellini is seen directing an erotic scene from "Fellini Satyricon," shaping the performances of three beautiful young people with his hands, caressing the air as he croons instructions to first one and then another. His control of the scene is remarkable, but it makes one laugh, too, because in so much of the surrounding interview material, the director describes himself as a kind of medium through which a given movie passes, a mere craftsman in the service of reverie. His actual practice, as we can see from the many scenes of him at work, is consciously to shape every breath of air in his films, to dominate, terrify, seduce, and to dream and suffer for everyone. This Franco-Italian-Scottish co-production, directed by Damian Pettigrew, is an extraordinary piece of film in its own right. Pettigrew and his collaborators surround the interview material with a texture of film excerpts and freshly shot footage that has the density of one of the maestro's own movies, without the excess. In English and Italian. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker