Federico & Marcello: The Ringleader and His Alter-ego

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It has been 26 years since the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni left this world, but people's longing for him has never ceased. In 2014, the Cannes Film Festival designed its official poster based on his iconic image in ; ten years later, a film titled Marcello Mio, filled with adorable tributes to Mastroianni, premiered in the main competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, once again evoking memories of the golden age of European cinema he represented.

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The European cinema masters who collaborated with Mastroianni could form a basketball team: Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, Roman Polanski, Theo Angelopoulos, Louis Malle, Manoel de Oliveira, Raúl Ruiz... But undoubtedly, the most significant collaboration in his career was with the Italian director Federico Fellini. La Dolce Vita, 8½, City of Women, and Ginger & Fred are Fellini's fantasy roles that brought the most dazzling colors to Mastroianni's acting career, and it was Mastroianni's elegance that provided Fellini's films with incomparable grace.

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"An Unexceptional Face"

If we crudely divide Fellini's directing career into two phases, La Dolce Vita is undoubtedly a watershed. Before this film, Fellini was the director from Rimini, making some tragic-comedies with the flavor of ordinary life. After this, he became a national treasure of Italy, a maestro combining box office success and artistic achievement. In other words, these two phases can also be called the pre-Mastroianni period and the Mastroianni period, as La Dolce Vita was also the first collaboration between Fellini and Mastroianni.

Before La Dolce Vita, Fellini achieved his initial career success with The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, and La Strada, and his partnership with his wife Giulietta Masina had begun to be embraced by the audience. However, Fellini's ambition was not satisfied. He wanted to make a real blockbuster, and a blockbuster should have a big star. Mastroianni was precisely the star Fellini sought. By this time, Mastroianni had already made dozens of films and had just starred in Luchino Visconti's White Nights, he was on his way of becoming a matinee idol in Italy.

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Since both Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina had studied at the University of Rome and had collaborated in theater, Fellini was already acquainted with this star but had never worked with him. When La Dolce Vita was greenlit by the studio, Fellini immediately called Mastroianni and invited him to his residence. Like all stars, Mastroianni brought his lawyer to the meeting. Fellini's statement left Mastroianni astonished:

"I chose you because you have an unexceptional face. That's exactly what I need, an ordinary, expressionless face."

Although Mastroianni was perplexed, he regained interest in the film when he learned that the role was initially intended for Paul Newman. Indeed, for Fellini, a superstar like Newman did not fit the character of a reporter from the countryside in La Dolce Vita. In contrast, Mastroianni's touch of Italian local flavor might be a better choice.

Ordinary people can also have their romantic and beautiful sides, and stars can also be ordinary people. Fellini clearly meant no disrespect. To prepare for the film, Fellini made Mastroianni lose ten kilos and tried every means to make him more debonair. False eyebrows were used, makeup made his complexion paler, and dark circles were added.

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The female lead was played by Swedish actress Anita Ekberg. She was the voluptuous and sexy woman that Fellini liked, but she wasn't Mastroianni's type; he preferred slimmer girls. After filming La Dolce Vita, Fellini and Mastroianni maintained a close yet distant relationship. They had no private contact but were always ready to collaborate when needed. Mastroianni once said that when filming Fellini's movies, he wouldn't read the script all at once but would read it as he filmed because he needed enough curiosity for the future shoots, a curiosity that Fellini appreciated.

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Becoming Fellini

In a documented conversation, director Peter Bogdanovich asked his peer and idol, Orson Welles: "Would you have liked more if Fellini himself had played the lead role? I can't see Mastroianni as a director." Indeed, if Welles or Truffaut had directed , they might have either starred themselves or chosen someone of similar age and experience, like in The Other Side of the Wind and Day for Night.

But Fellini did not pursue such "authenticity." He gave Mastroianni his hat and cane, turning him into another version of himself, demonstrating nearly every move of the character Guido. As described in a famous behind-the-scenes photo, Mastroianni looks into a mirror, but the face in the mirror is Fellini's, accurately representing their real relationship in .

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In his autobiography, Fellini characterized Mastroianni as such: he wasn't another Fellini but an actor who could fully comply with Fellini's demands, a versatile performer who could tackle anything. Fellini trusted Mastroianni more than he trusted himself.

In , Mastroianni played a director deeply entangled in a creative block. In the initial script, Fellini spent a lot of time considering the protagonist Guido's profession, eventually deciding on making him a director. Mastroianni's appearance transformed from the charm and vitality in La Dolce Vita to the fatigue and slight aging in .

It was Mastroianni's performance that set the two characters apart. Mastroianni absorbed Fellini's directions, playing a director always fleeing, a state of constant absence that, combined with Mastroianni's actor identity, made it impossible to read any real information from his handsome face. This ambiguity, compared to The Other Side of the Wind and Day for Night, gave a more mystical and surreal charm, making it another pinnacle in Fellini's career.

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The Long Farewell

After two successful collaborations, Fellini and Mastroianni did not work together on feature films for nearly twenty years. Their only collaborations were in the (semi-)documentaries Roma and Fellini: A Director's Notebook, where Mastroianni played exaggerated versions of himself.

In the 1980s, Fellini and Mastroianni collaborated three times: City of Women (1980), Ginger & Fred (1986), and Intervista (1987).

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City of Women expands the famous dream sequence in , telling the story of Snàporaz, played by Mastroianni, who wanders into a hotel filled entirely with women, experiencing a dreamlike and bizarre journey, both mysterious and full of desire.

While filming this movie, Fellini nicknamed Mastroianni "Old Snàporaz," a nickname Mastroianni disliked mainly due to the word "old."

The film received considerable criticism upon release, labeled as "misogynic." But Fellini regarded the film as "bold, honest, and humorous," while Mastroianni said, "Fellini and I share the same interests; we like women and delicious cheese more than politics."

Ginger & Fred is a commemorative film and the only collaboration between Fellini's two muses, Masina and Mastroianni, also Masina's last appearance in a Fellini film. Masina and Mastroianni played two dancers nicknamed "Ginger and Fred," paying tribute to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. They danced together in their youth but were separated by time, reuniting in old age for a TV dance performance.

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During the filming, Fellini again required Mastroianni to resemble him in appearance. Fellini, balding in middle age, wanted Mastroianni, who had a beautiful head of hair, to thin his hair considerably, creating a bald look and dyeing it completely white. He also gave him his own hat, which made Mastroianni very embarrassed. During the filming and promotion of the film, Mastroianni, whose hair hadn't fully grown back, always wore a hat and refused to take it off, even during meals. There were even rumors that Mastroianni kept his hat on while making love. People in Rome said, "Poor Mastroianni, he's aged so much overnight," and it was the first time Mastroianni knew the feeling of being pitied.

In addition to the hair, Fellini also asked him to dance poorly in the film, partly due to the character's needs and partly because he feared Mastroianni dancing too well would embarrass Masina, who wasn't a great dancer. This request somewhat troubled Mastroianni, who wanted to showcase his dance skills.

As a child, Fellini loved a comic called "Mandrake the Magician" and always wanted to make a movie about it. It wasn't until Intervista that he fulfilled this dream, dressing Mastroianni in the magician's costume. In this TV film commemorating the 50th anniversary of Cinecittà, Mastroianni played himself again, filled with nostalgia and joy.

Fellini picked up Mastroianni from the studio, telling him, "Don't smoke," a phrase he often said because, after quitting smoking, Fellini didn't like anyone smoking around him, while Mastroianni was a heavy smoker.

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The car took them to Anita Ekberg's residence. Since La Dolce Vita, she had settled in Rome, loved Italian cuisine, and gained some weight, while Mastroianni remained as handsome as ever.

Wearing the magician's costume, Mastroianni conjured a curtain, and he and Anita danced behind it, the camera cutting back to their dance in La Dolce Vita, as if from another world. It was not only their reunion but also Fellini's final farewell to them. In 1993 and 1994, Fellini and Masina passed away one after another. Two years later, Mastroianni also left us for another world.

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