This is FRESH AIR. This year marks the centennial of the birth of Italian film director Federico Fellini, who was born on January 20, 1920. To celebrate the occasion, the Italian government has packaged a worldwide traveling retrospective of his films, Federico Fellini at 100.

Its first stop in the U.S. began yesterday at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Our critic-at-large John Powers has been watching Fellini films of late and says there never was a filmmaker quite like him.