ITALY – 1987 – DCP – color – 112’

Direction: Federico Fellini
Screenplay: Federico Fellini in collaborazione con Gianfranco Angelucci
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli
Editing: Nino Baragli
Set design: Danilo Donati
Music: Nicola Piovani
Costumes: Danilo Donati
Cast: Federico Fellini (himself), Sergio Rubini (Sergio, the journalist), Antonella Ponziani (Antonella), Maurizio Mein (assistant director), Paola Liguori (the diva), Lara Wendel (the bride), Antonio Cantafora (the groom), Nadia Ottaviani (the vestal virgin), Anita Ekberg (herself), Marcello Mastroianni (himself), Tonino Delli Colli (himself), Christian Borromeo (Christian), Adriana Facchetti (Sergio’s chaperone), Ettore Geri (construction foreman),Eva Grimaldi (aspiring actress), Armando Marra (the famous director), Pietro Notarianni (himself/party official), Patrizia Sacchi, Mario Miyakawa, Antonello Zanini, Maria Teresa Battaglia, Germana Dominici, Pio di Savoia, Clarita Ziniti Gatto, Francesca Reggiani, Umberto Conte, Alessandro Marino, Roberta Carlucci, Paolo Fiorino
Producer: Ibrahim Moussa
Production: Aljosha Productions, Fernlyn, Cinecittà, Rai 1

SYNOPSIS

Federico Fellini, once again, finds himself in the magical enclosure of Cinecittà Studios. While preparing to shoot an adaptation of Kafka’s L’Amérique, the maestro agrees to be interviewed at the Studios, where he arrived as a naïve and be wildered reporter in 1940 to make a “piece” about a diva of the time. It is a good opportunity to revive those years and that world, so colorful and noisy –the world of entertainment – through a journey into memory that’s tinged with nostalgia. Now those times are gone, the tram connecting Termini to Cinecittà no longer exists, Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni see themselves again in the famous fountain scene of The Sweet Life, while the stages appear menacingly surrounded by concrete barracks. Yet, all the people of Cinema are still there, noisy, tenacious but also cheerful, to work with Fellini and for Cinema

CRITICAL NOTE
“The «little film» Interview pretends to give an answer to the eternal questions of fellinology. Awarded at Cannes, although out of competition, triumphant in Moscow, acclaimed in Locarno, Montreal and everywhere, Intervista confirms its author’s ambiguous availability for unarmed confessions and shameless lies, amusing chronicles and réverie without a net. Filmed on reality, the film ends up being one of the freest fantasies to spring from its author’s mind – who, even as an interpreter of himself, appears natural to the limits of total reinvention.” (Tullio Kezich, Panorama, 1987)

AWARDS
1987 Cannes FF – Out of Competition: 40th Anniversary Prize (unanimously)
1987 Moscow IFF: Best Film
1988 Golden Globes, Italy: Best Film