“Life is a combination of magic and pasta,” observed iconic Italian film director Federico Fellini – perhaps an inadvertent but accurate summary of his aesthetic throughout his four decades of movie making. Uniquely blending gritty realism and lyrical fantasy, Fellini (1920-1993) created some of the most arresting visual images ever projected on the silver screen, inspiring a generation of directors like Woody Allen, Andy Warhol and Martin Scorsese as well as cinephiles around the world.

Joining Rome’s Cinecittà in 1940 – once Europe’s largest film studio – the Rimini-born director found his métier in the Eternal City. His screenplay for Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1946) was nominated for an Oscar. He followed this up with a succession of his own filmic masterpieces, garnering worldwide acclaim. Rome had become so integral to Fellini’s work it was inevitable that he treated it in a film.