On the last night before his death, Federico Fellini was still connected to the woman who had been present in his life for half a century. On October 30, 1993, the director and Giulietta Masina celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The next day, Fellini died in Rome at the age of 73. Masina outlived him by only a few months.
Their relationship began in 1942 on Italian radio. Fellini wrote lyrics and Masina voiced a character in a radio show. They married in 1943 and gradually built one of the most famous partnerships in the history of Italian cinema.
Giulia Masina – the love that remains
Mazzina is not only Fellini's wife, but also his most important actress. She plays Gelsomina in “The Road“, Cabiria in “The Nights of Cabiria“, Juliet in “Juliet and the Ghosts“ and the aging television star in “Ginger and Fred“.
In “The Road“ and “The Nights of Cabiria“, Masina creates images of lonely women who retain their capacity for love despite humiliation and loss. For her role in “The Nights of Cabiria“ she won the Best Actress award at Cannes in 1957. Fellini transformed her fragility, silence and almost clownish facial expressions into his own unique cinematic language.
On the day of their 50th wedding anniversary, Masina said of her husband:
„50 years ago I knew that this man was for me. Now I have no choice but to follow him.“The words quoted by the „Guardian“ took on a tragic meaning after Fellini's death.
Sandra Milo – passion between reality and fiction
Sandra Milo met Fellini in Fregene. He chose her for the role of Carla – the mistress of the director Guido in “8½“. The 1963 film is both an autobiographical play and a fantasy about a man torn between wife, mistress, memories and desires.
Milo returned to Fellini in “Juliet and the Ghosts“ from 1965. There she played Susie - a sensual and liberated neighbor who appears as the opposite of Masina's heroine. Thus the two characters find themselves set against each other not only in the film, but also in the mythology surrounding the director.
Milo later described her relationship with Fellini as a 17-year secret love story. In her book “Dear Federico“ she presents the relationship as the great passion of her life. The story remains controversial, however: biographer John Baxter has described it as largely fictional, and Milo later admitted that the book contained a great deal of fiction. In an interview quoted by the Guardian, she said that she loved him "truly, madly, deeply and stupidly".
Fellini also wanted Milo to star in "Amarcord" in 1973. She refused over her husband's objections, and the director admitted that it left him with a "melancholy feeling". This separation ended one of his strongest creative and personal attachments.
Anita Ekberg - the image of unattainable desire
Anita Ekberg was not a proven lover of Fellini, but she remained one of his most powerful screen obsessions. As Silvia in “La Dolce Vita“ she enters the “Di Trevi“ fountain and transforms Rome into a scene of seduction. Her image becomes a symbol of the woman who is both a real star and a fantasy.
Fellini and Ekberg worked together again in “Interview“ in 1987, where the director reunited the actress and Marcello Mastroianni with the past of “La Dolce Vita“. Ekberg herself denies having had an intimate relationship with Fellini and speaks of a deep friendship that aroused Masina's jealousy.
There are other stories of love affairs surrounding Fellini, including Anna Giovannini's claims of a long-standing secret affair. They have not been independently confirmed and remain part of the legend surrounding the director. One thing is certain: in his cinema, love is rarely just romance. It is memory, guilt, desire, fear and most of all the material from which Fellini builds his dreams.
Sources: washingtonpost.com, theguardian.com, latimes.com