Tullio Pinelli

Tullio Pinelli (24 June 1908 – 7 March 2009) was an Italian screenwriter known for his work on the Federico Fellini films I Vitelloni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.

Biography Born in Turin, Pinelli began his career as a civil lawyer but spent his free time working in the theatre as a playwright. He was descended from a long line of Italian patriots; his great-uncle General Ferdinando Pinelli quashed the bandit revolt in Calabria following Italian unification.

He met Fellini in a Rome kiosk in 1946 while they were reading opposite pages of the same newspaper. "Meeting each other", explained Pinelli, "was a creative lightning bolt. We spoke the same language from the start... We were fantasizing about a screenplay that would be the exact opposite of what was fashionable then: the story of a very shy and modest office worker who discovered he can fly; so he flaps his arms and escapes out the window. It certainly wasn't Italian neorealism. But the idea never went anywhere either." The anecdote about flying presages the opening scene of 8½ (1963) in which the protagonist, a prominent film director, who dreams of escape by flying out of his car caught in a traffic jam.

Pinelli died at the age of 100 on 7 March 2009 in Rome. He was married (from 1988) to the French-born actress Madeleine Lebeau, who had roles in 8½ and Casablanca (1942).

Selected filmography His Young Wife (1945) The Adulteress (1946) The Bandit (1946) Bullet for Stefano (1947) The Opium Den (1947) L'amore (1948) Without Pity (1948) The Earth Cries Out (1948) In the Name of the Law (1949) The Mill on the Po (1949) Path of Hope (1950) Variety Lights (1950) Four Ways Out (1951) Cameriera bella presenza offresi... (1951) The Bandit of Tacca Del Lupo (1952) The White Sheik (1952) Pietà per chi cade (1953) I Vitelloni (1953) Love in the City (1953) Symphony of Love (1954) The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954) La Strada (1954) Il bidone (1955) The Wolves (1956) Nights of Cabiria (1957) Fortunella, (1958) Herod the Great (1958) La Dolce Vita (1960) Adua and Her Friends (1960) Boccaccio '70 (1962) Careless (1962) The Steppe (1962) 8½ (1963) The Three Faces (1965) The Gaucho (1965) Juliet of the Spirits (1965) Francesco di Assisi (1966) The Climax (1967) Check to the Queen (1969) Galileo (1969) Sweet Charity (1969) Serafino (1969) How, When and with Whom (1969) Help Me, My Love (1969) A Pocketful of Chestnuts (1970) The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) Alfredo Alfredo (1972) Amore e ginnastica (1973) My Friends (1975) Down the Ancient Staircase (1975) Lovers and Liars (1979) Il Marchese del Grillo (1981) All My Friends Part 2 (1982) Amici miei - Atto III (1985) Ginger and Fred (1986) Let's Hope It's a Girl (1986) Mano rubata (1989) The Voice of the Moon (1990)