Federico Fellini And Giulietta Masina

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Discuss the working collaboration between any one director and any one actor, with close reference to at least two films. The main protagonist of one of the characters' turning point scene in Federico Fellini's Il Bidone (1955) is not the character himself, but his wife Iris, played by Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife. In the scene, all the main characters are at a New Years Eve party in the house of a wealthy friend and, after a few embarrassing episodes, they are about to go home when the host stops one of them accusing him of stealing a golden cigarette case. Picasso and his wife Iris are not involved in the quarrel, but the camera often pauses on them, showing while they watch the scene in silence. Iris is on the left of the frame, on the front, and the audience watches her happiness turning into embarrassment, shame and disappointment towards her husband. After they leave the party, she starts crying at Picasso's poor excuses and tells him she is fed up with his lies and secretive life. Later in the film we find out that because of her unhappiness Picasso will leave his friends and “job” as a con-man. “Masina's lines of dialogue are minimal. For the most part, she merely listens and reacts, but with Fellini's connivance, Masina "steals" the scene”.[1] Fellini's skilfully places the silent Masina at the centre of the action, SFRUTTANDO her ability as an actress and her expressive face, which the actress said is the reason why “I can hide nothing. I exalt feelings. I make them explode"[2]. This scene is one of the many examples of the successful working relationship between Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, who created together some of the most unforgettable film characters of all time. Federico Fellini has often been described as relying mostly on improvisation during the shooting of his films, and even if many of his friends and collaborators have
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