Vincenzo Mollica. Fellini: Words and Drawings.

Trans. Nina Marino. Welland, Ontario: Editions Soleil, 2001.

It is perhaps unfair that books on Federico Fellini published in the English-speaking world so far outnumber those of his colleagues like Vittorio De Sica or even Roberto Rossellini. However when a book is published that affords such insights into Fellini's personality and the sources of his creativity, it should be celebrated by Italian studies scholars and made known to the public.

Vincenzo Mollica is the arts and entertainment correspondent for RAI television. His interviews and movie news often appear at the close of national news broadcasts. Over the years he has been an affable and ubiquitous figure in the Italian entertainment industry. Mollica has also been active in Italian comic book genre having edited an anthology of the work of Andrea Pazienza. This book makes use of the access and the friendship that Mollica enjoyed with Fellini. In the latter years of Fellini's career Mollica even become somewhat of a regular figure in Fellini's parade of characters with a role in Mild Manara's comic book version of Fellini's script Viaggio a Tulum.

With this volume Mollica offers material to an English speaking public that is beyond the scope of the expected academic study or coffee table book of film stills. The book relates Fellini's comments on a number of topics that provide insight into his creative genius. These interview excerpts are accompanied by beautifully reproduced drawings and comics in vibrant colors by Fellini himself and others including Mild Manara. There is a transcription of Fellini's meeting with Italian pop star and songwriter Lucid Dalla, a recounting of his love of Neapolitan songs and the plans for a never completed music video with Paul McCartney. There is also a section on Fellini's admiration for the comedic genius of Toto and excerpts from FeUini's comments with his encounters with Peanuts creator Charles Schultz, Walt Disney, and Charlie Chaplin. For this reviewer the most interesting anecdote in the book is when Fellini explained his reticence to put the expected intertext "the end" after the concluding scenes of his films. Fellini's explains that the lives and experiences of his characters continued after the films end which is an indication of his artistic qualities and the essence of his cinema.

Above all, the book focuses on Fellini's interest and reactions to the comic arts. The comics have yet to achieve the academic acceptance that film has recently enjoyed as a subject matter for respectful study. Perhaps this book can begin to change this situation in Italian studies especially given the influence the comic arts had on a director of the stature of Fellini. Mollica includes the backdrops of Fellini's collaboration with Mild Manara on a comic book version of Fellini's script Viaggio a Tulam and his unfinished film Il viaggio di G. Mastorna. Because of his own expertise and interest in comics Mollica serves as an excellent guide through Fellini's interest in this form of artistic expression in a book that is an invaluable and delightful addition to the literature on Fellini.

CARLO CELLI

Bowling Green State University