{"id":656757,"date":"2026-10-16T17:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656757\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T17:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:32:09","slug":"martin-scorsese-recalls-last-conversation-with-fellini-in-new-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656757\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Scorsese Recalls Last Conversation With Fellini in New Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMartin Scorsese<\/a> recalls his last conversation with Federico Fellini<\/a> in \u201cThe Last Fellini,\u201d a new documentary about the final decade of the Italian auteur\u2019s life premiering at Rome Film Festival on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Last Fellini,\u201d which is produced by Italy\u2019s Atomic and RAI Cinema, has been picked up for international sales by PiperPlay.<\/p>\n

\n\tScorsese is well known to be huge Fellini fan and has cited \u201c8\u00bd\u201d as one of his all-time favorite films. His film foundation was also involved in restoring Fellini\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cLa Dolce Vita.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough much has been told about Fellini, the final chapter in his life remains largely unexplored. \u201cThe Last Fellini,\u201d which is directed by Gianluigi Attorre \u2014 and also features interviews with Roberto Benigni, composer Nicola Piovani, journalist Vincenzo Mollica, comic book artist Milo Manara and Fellini\u2019s inseparable secretary, Fiammetta Profili \u2014 looks at the iconic director\u2019s struggles during the 1980s and \u201990s when it became harder for him to find support for his projects.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cThe Last Fellini,\u201d he details how he and Fellini almost teamed up on what he affectionately calls a \u201ccrazy\u201d documentary series about different aspects of film production.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have one [segment] on the producer; we have one on the actor; we have one on the cameraman,\u201d the editor and so on, Scorsese recalls Fellini telling him.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a humorous twist, Fellini also told Scorsese that, for a producer, the most important role was that of the location manager.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, and why is that?’\u201d Scorsese remembers asking. \u201cHe said, \u2018Because when you go location scouting\u2019 \u2014 this was going to be in the script \u2014 \u2018Whether you are scouting through Rome or Parma or wherever, the location manager has to know of a location that\u2019s near the good restaurant, so you could stop and have lunch.\u2019 \u2026 So that\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScorsese laughs heartily retelling this anecdote in the doc.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plan was for the first one-hour segment of this Fellini documentary series to be on the actor. Scorsese, who had a deal with Universal at the time, had secured $1 million to finance it. But then Fellini became ill and died in October 1993.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the doc\u2019s narrative reaches 1993, his final year, it shows Fellini receiving an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in Los Angeles. The day after the ceremony, he had his last phone conversation with Scorsese, which he recalls in the below clip.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo I pick up the phone, and this time his voice was very weak, and he just said, \u2018Thank you, Martin. Thank you, thank you. You know, I\u2019ll see you soon. Yeah, I hope so.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScorsese then goes on to speculate on what Fellini was thanking him for, since they hadn\u2019t spoken directly about the fact that he had found the financing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure, but his voice was very weak,\u201d Scorsese reiterates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Scorsese recalls his last conversation with Federico Fellini in \u201cThe Last Fellini,\u201d a new documentary about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,256469,61,60,11723,270],"class_list":["post-656757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-federico-fellini","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-martin-scorsese","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}