Tag: Federico Fellini
I’m always on the lookout for rare footage of clowns from the early days of film, so I was excited to see an 1899 clip of Footit & Chocolat surface, even if it is only 42 seconds. (Thanks to Pat Cashin for the link!) Here’s how I began my section on this legendary clown duo in my book Clowns:
Federico Fellini’s 1954 Academy-Award-winning, neo-realist film, La Strada, starring Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina (Fellini’s wife), is one of my all-time favorites. The brutal depiction of a marginal showman’s life, the stunning black & white cinematography, and the compelling acting of Quinn, Masina, and of Richard Basehart in the role of “the fool” all hold up very well indeed nearly a half century later. The clown’s power to satirize —and the limits of that power — struck a strong chord with me then that still rings true today. And according to our good friend Wikipedia, the movie was a source of inspiration for Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee.”
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My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin