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“Marcello Mastroianni was known, all around the world, as the Latin lover, the Italian seducer, especially after he starred in La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini’s masterpiece,” says Fabrizio Corallo, the director of the new documentary Ciao Marcello, Mastroianni l’antidivo. “Mastroianni did not like this image. He didn’t want to be seen as an icon, as a sex symbol. He didn’t care much about his public persona; what did matter to him was his personal life. So, I tried to build an intimate portrait of this unique actor.”

Corallo is a journalist and an expert on the history of Italian cinema. For state broadcaster Rai he has made a number of documentaries about the great personalities of Italian cinema: Dino Risi, Vittorio Gassman, Virna Lisi, Ennio Flaiano and Giuliano Montaldo, among others.

Ciao Marcello, which was co-written with Silvia Scola, the daughter of Italian filmmaker Ettore Scola,...

Scola comes out of retirement for first film in 10 years, How Strange to be Called Federico!.

Italian director Ettore Scola has unveiled more details of his upcoming tribute to his friend and fellow filmmaker Federico Fellini, which is due for release in Italy this autumn to mark the 20th anniversary of the La Dolce Vita director’s death.

Entitled How Strange to be Called Federico!, the hybrid work combining archive footage and re-enactments of Scola’s memories of Fellini is currently in post-production.

The original Italian title - Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico! - is an allusion to a line in a poem by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

“I don’t know what will come out of this. I am as curious as you are to discover it. The intentions and emotions are all there but it’s not ready yet,” Scola told a packed news conference in Rome’s Cinecittà film studios on Tuesday.

The $2.6m (€2m...

ROME -- Seven films, including Warner Bros. Pictures' Batman Begins, will make their European bows at the 51st Taormina Film Festival, which kicks off Saturday in Sicily and runs through June 18. Six other features set for either their European or world premieres in Taormina's Ancient Theater were announced Monday night at a news conference in Rome. The premieres include Do You Like Hitchcock? by Dario Argento, Le Couperet by Costa-Gavras, Schatten Der Zeit by German director Florian Gallenberger, The Shadow Dancer by Brad Mirman, Incautos by Spanish director Miguel Bardem, The Games of Their Lives by American director David Anspaugh and a documentary about Italian screenwriter Sergio Amidei by Italian directors Ettore and Silvia Scola.