¶ … renowned film makers of this century Federico Fellini. Fellinni was born in Rimini on 20 January 1920. He was the son of Ida Barbiani who was of Roman origin and his father was Urbano who was a travelling salesman. Even while he was in high school, Fellini became famous as a caricature artist and this helped him get the job of a film promotional artist at the Fulgor cinema. His directorial career was dotted with many accolades, several Oscar winning movies and almost all his films were critically acclaimed. The more famous films that were directed by Fellini were La strada - which won an Oscar and was among the first films in a series of films that sealed his place amidst the greatest of the film makers. Other famous films by the director were Le notti di Cabiria- an Oscar winning film, La dolce vita- won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, 81/2-an Oscar winning film, Fellini Satyricon, Fellini Roma, Amarcord), Il Casanova, Prova d'orchestra, Ginger e Fred and Intervista.

The three films that would be critically discussed here are la Strada or The Road, Il Bedone or The Swindler and Le Notti di Cabiria or Nights of Cabiria.

La Strada

This film deals with the inner self and is one of the masterpieces of Fellini. The film relates the strive between the heart and the mind of the soul and the tug of war in a person about the actions and their consequences when one performs the actions according to either what the heart or the mind says. In this film the conflict is seen when Zampano buys a female assistant, Gelsomina, for himself from a family that is poor and living in abject poverty. Zampano is essentially cruel and a strong man who travels along with a carnival. Gelsomina is to serve Zampano as his clown, cook and concubine. Zampano teaches her to conduct simple routines while they travel from one village to another to take part in carnivals and acting clowns to make money. Zampano is cruel and abusive and often beats up the girl for failing to say the introductory lines correctly. The abusive nature of Zampano, though torments the girl for a while, she gets back to her happy ways that she knows soon after and tries to forget the ugly things of life and takes the most pleasure of the simple things that life has to offer to her. Despite the hardships the girl is acutely devoted to Zampano.

The context of the film is set in the rural life of Europe where there is life and happiness amidst of all the troubles of life. This is what Fellini most wanted to convey. After the great depression of the 1930s and the destructive second world war, life was slowly returning back to normal and but was not easy. Fellini tried to portray the eternal truth of life that life is not always a bed of roses and perhaps there are more thorns than there are roses in life.

However Fellini, in this film also brings out a silver lining when he takes the duo to a small time circus where the due is to perform. Here again Fellini throws up another truth of life, uncertainty. When one nearly accepts fate and resigns to live the life offered to him or her, fate often intervenes to present a second chance. The girl, tormented and abused by Zampano, meets a clown who is very different to her master.

They both strike a good relationship and when the clown asks her to leave Zampano and join him on the road in a manner similar t that of Zampano, the clown is astonished to find out that the girl was peculiarly dedicated to her hard master. The clown advises the girl, somewhat ruefully, to wait for her beastly strong man and her master. The clown epitomizes the scene by telling her that perhaps her purpose of being in the world was to serve Zampano. Later in the film, Zampano meets the clown and ends up accidently killing him. While the girl whims and begs for mercy to spare the clown, Zampano does not pay any heed to her please. He leaves and deserts the girl as the strong man later gets a pang of conscience and he lets the girl go. During the end of the film, when the strongman accidently come sot know of the

A strong man, who always listened to his mind and not to his heart ultimately learns the greatest lessons of his life after he starts listening to his heart. This film is thus a classic disposition by Fellini about the constant conflict of the soul between the heart and the mind.
Il Bidone

This is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Fellini and is the second of the trilogy of Fellini. This film has an acute concern for the loneliness and the detachment of an individual from the society and even from his family due to the evil ways of he leads his life.

In this film, the main character is a swindler who is a fat, middle aged small time thief and imposter. He spend his life and earns his living by concocting small and petty people and digs small sums of money from the victims who are poor and mostly ignorant. One of his favorite attempts in the film of duping unsuspecting people is to pose as a Roman Catholic monsignor and swindle peasant farmers. He along with his fellow thugs tries to dig out buried treasures which are the last resort and a lifetime of saving for a poor a farmer family.

Another of his regular cheating technique is to cheat on gas stations by pretending to be out of funds and getting loans of money. He even leaves behind stolen overcoats as collateral security at the gas stations never to return again.

But the thug's life is dramatically changed when he meets his teenage daughter on a street and during the interaction with her he feels remorse and realizes the fallacy of his life and the disgusting and neglectful way of life he had led. While he tries to get back to a normal life, he is recognized by one of the victims he had cheated and is put to jail.

In this film, the second in the trilogy of Felinni in the mid-1950s, portrays the socio cultural situation of the time and also deals with inner human feelings. In this film, the inner conflict between a man's redemption from a life of crime and the urge to get back to it due to financial problems and not knowing any other trade that can help provide the education fees for his teen aged daughter, the main character is torn between these two options. The decision to be taken is hard and this situation where the heart and the mind show two different oaths is the central focus of the film. The hero of the film also has been detached from society and family and eventually when he tries to get back to a normal life, the loneliness and the helplessness also adds to the mental conflict between the mind and the heart. While on one hand the character wants to get back to normal life and spend time and look after his teen aged daughter, on the other hand, he finds that being away from society for so long has left him lonely and with no other means but to get back to his old ways. This film is a master piece that seeks to establish the goodness over evil and ultimately intends to portray the triumph of the human soul.

Le Notti di Cabiria

The last of the trilogy by Fellini, this film is based on the life, exploits, fun, hardships, humiliation, betrayal and the subsequent discovery of peace and happiness of an aging prostitute in Rome. In the film, the prostitute uses her toughness to ward off police raids and confront the other more aggressive prostitutes. She also uses her strong personality to ensure that she is not tossed around by her clients.

But the catch in the film comes when Fellini, while portraying this strong side of her character in the film, also depicts her to be weak and shows the viewer that the aging prostitute s not everything about money and strength and she's not just looking for some quick money. Like any other human being, this prostitute craves to be loved and to be taken care of. As a lifetime of struggle and attempts to find this love, she is taken by her job to many potential clients or lovers. The film also shows how this prostitute, who manages to take a one month break from her profession after she falls in love, is betrayed by her lover and has to get back to her profession as the…