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 a current which spread at the beginning of the Italian economic miracle, such as Paolo Volponi's "Memoriale" and Giovanni Arpino's "Una nuvola d'ira". He praised the all-encompassing language that succeeds masterfully in expressing and representing the industrial reality in a more complex way, even if he saw some weaknesses connected to the book's uncontainable autobiography that is limited, in his opinion, to a "private anarchist protest". The novel was also made into a 1964 film of the same name, directed by Carlo Lizzani and starring Ugo Tognazzi and Giovanna Ralli. La vita agra La vita agra, known in English-speaking countries