A lot of people don't know that Fellini used to be a cartoonist, and that he kept an extensive visual journal of his dreams during the period when he made his best films.
Fellini was being analyzed at the time, and a lot of his cartoons have psycho-analytic themes.
The analysis seemed to have served him well, if you can judge by his drawings. I love the way the woman above casually touches the Moon...or is the face above her head just someone she knows? Either way, it's a different approach than you see in most sketchbooks.
His analyst told him to keep a record of his dreams and you can buy it for the princely sum of $125. Man, books are expensive!
Fellini's analyst was a Jungian. Jungians believe that the unconscious is where our true psyche resides. According to Wikipedia, the unconscious expresses itself to us through dreams, which are an attempt of the mind to resolve contradictions between the narrow, literal conscious and the expansive, intuitive, creative unconscious. If troubled, we can only find peace by finding out what the unconscious mind has to teach us about the situation, and for that Jungians use dream analysis.
I'm not a Jungian myself, I just can't see much evidence to back it up, but I can imagine how persistent analysis of dreams could benefit an artist. In spite of my skepticism, if I ever entered analysis I'd probably do the same thing Fellini did , and try the Jungian method.
Look what it did for Fellini! Wouldn't you say that his brilliant "8 1/2" was one long stream of dream images held together by a flimsy plot? Don't get me wrong, I love plot and I love tight stories, but I also like the way plot and intuition come together in films like the ones Clampett made. There's room for both, don't you think?
I just thumbed through the Fellini book at the bookstore, and was amazed at how many of his dreams had to do with sex. That shouldn't have surprised me; I mean, he's a man after all. He seemed to be trying to come to terms with the strange, larger-than-life women around him. for Fellini they were big, gaudy, flamboyant creatures who were obsessed and manic about issues that men find puzzling and don't even understand. They were alternately mothering and sentimental, and scheming and flighty. We lust after them and they return the lust...or not. It depends on the mood they're in.
I wonder if analysis helped Fellini to come up with the unforgettable primal images in his films. I've seen lots of lovers-in-the-fountain scenes in movies, but none so memorable as the ones in "La Dolce Vita" (above and below).
Why is this beautiful girl with big breasts so attractive here, or have I just asked a stupid question? I think it has something to do with the large area between the breasts and face, and the contrast of the solid black gown. I wouldn't be surprised if Fellini drew these scenes before filming them. I saw several images in the book that could have been this woman, and a couple were surrounded by yellow marker auras that indicated that she radiated something intense.
The actress brings a lot to it. She's so mysterious, so languid, so living in the moment and aloof from anything but the water...and there's um...well, those big breasts!
I wonder if Fellini drew Mastriani's outfit in 8 1/2 and had the costume custom-made for the film. There's something iconic about it.
Olivier said he needed costume to get into a character. He hated rehearsals which weren't dress rehearsals. Is it costume that makes Mastriani so special in this film?
Was that hat (above) made from a drawing just for the film? That and the glasses make Mastriani one of the most remembered characters in the history of film. Did dream analysis somehow contribute to this?
Note: Thanks to Michael Sporn's July 2007 blog entry for some of the images used here.
