Federico Fellini with the project, "The Thousand Miles", based on various works of Fellini including his unpublished drawings and writings. General Federico Fellini Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked, in polls such as "Cahiers du cinéma" and "Sight & Sound", as some of the greatest films of all time. "Sight & Sound" lists his
Federico Fellini of celebrities on the via Veneto. The scandal provoked by Turkish dancer Haish Nana's improvised striptease at a nightclub captured Fellini's imagination: he decided to end his latest script-in-progress, "Moraldo in the City", with an all-night "orgy" at a seaside villa. Pierluigi Praturlon’s photos of Anita Ekberg wading fully dressed in the Trevi Fountain provided further inspiration for Fellini and his scriptwriters. Changing the title of the screenplay to "La Dolce Vita", Fellini soon clashed with his producer on casting: the director insisted on the relatively unknown Mastroianni while De Laurentiis wanted Paul Newman as a hedge on his investment.