Brunello Rondi to work with Federico Fellini as artistic director on "La Strada" (1954) and "Nights of Cabiria" (1957). His most prized collaborations were on the film scripts of "La Dolce Vita" (1960), "8½" (1963), "Juliet of the Spirits" (1964), "Orchestra Rehearsal" (1978), and "City of Women" (1980), all co-written and directed by Fellini. On the writing of "La Dolce Vita", Rondi helped build up the character of Steiner, the intellectual who kills his wife and children. As a Fellini intimate, Rondi also played a crucial role in the early stages of "8½". In a letter dated October 1960, Fellini outlined his
La vita agra La vita agra La vita agra, known in English-speaking countries as It's a Hard Life, is a novel by Luciano Bianciardi published in 1962 by Rizzoli. It became a best-seller in Italy and it is considered one of the most important novels in contemporary Italian literature. In 1962, when the novel was released it was praised by the public and the critics. It became a best-seller and was translated into English, French, German and Spanish. Italo Calvino wrote a review in which he regarded the novel positively and compared it to other works of the so-called "letteratura industriale" (Industrial literature),