Visconti vs Fellini:
Italian Standoff

Synopsis

The two greatest names in Italian cinema had absolutely nothing in common and cordially detested one another for over twenty years, mutually ‘stealing’ actors, musicians and technicians from each other… Between Visconti, the Milanese aristocrat, and Fellini, from the middle-classes of Rimini, the clash was inevitable : a battle of imaginary worlds, of two talents, two cultures, and two egos…

Everything opposed them. Fellini would have sold his soul to be blessed with the critical consideration that Visconti saw merely as his due. Mastroianni said : « Visconti is the professor everyone dreams of and Fellini, the ideal friend. » Orson Welles thought that « Visconti filmed fishermen like divas’, while « Fellini danced with his cameras ».

The film takes an unprecedented appraisal of the two men’s rivalry, with testimony from those who worked with the two ‘sacred giants’ of Italian film : Claudia Cardinale, Moraldo Rossi, Gianfranco Angelucci, Enrico Medioli, John Baxter…