Federico Fellini Leopardi. Fellini improvised as he filmed, using as a guide a rough treatment written with Pinelli. Despite its modest critical and commercial success in Italy, and its warm reception by French critics, it failed to interest North American distributors. Fellini won the "Praemium Imperiale", the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the visual arts, awarded by the Japan Art Association in 1990. In July 1991 and April 1992, Fellini worked in close collaboration with Canadian filmmaker Damian Pettigrew to establish "the longest and most detailed conversations ever recorded on film". Described as the "Maestro's spiritual testament” by his biographer Tullio
Federico Fellini system." Unclear about the script, its title, and his protagonist's profession, he scouted locations throughout Italy “looking for the film” in the hope of resolving his confusion. Flaiano suggested "La bella confusione" (literally "The Beautiful Confusion") as the movie's title. Under pressure from his producers, Fellini finally settled on "8½", a self-referential title referring principally (but not exclusively) to the number of films he had directed up to that time. Giving the order to start production in spring 1962, Fellini signed deals with his producer Rizzoli, fixed dates, had sets constructed, cast Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, and Sandra Milo in lead