Hacking the Afterlife with Fellini, Giulietta, Marcello & Fiammetta

I had the impression that the great director Federico Fellini stopped by my place a few days ago — so I invited him to come by our class.

Fred and Giulietta

I had studied his films in college, and later when living in Rome there were sightings of him all over the city. Later, I met a number of people who worked with him, including the Roman actress Fiammetta Baralla, the aunt of a fellow film school student Luca Bentivoglio. I got to know Fiammetta well, and her dog Romeo who was famous in her home town of Roma.

Me and Luana near Via Veneto
As a result, I felt fairly confident that we could chat with Fellini, because Fiammetta knew him, worked with him — and I am a fan of his work, his wife’s work — Giulietta Masina — and her work with Anthony Quinn. Some years later I worked with one of his sons Francesco. Once Francesco told me that his dad loved our film “Cannes Man.” (For the record, Anthony Quinn was Mexican American as he mentions)