Fellini screenwriter Pinelli dead at 100

The name Tullio Pinelli may not ring much of a bell even among the most ardent of cinephiles, but that’s only because screenwriters are rarely afforded the same respect as auteurs. And how could any writer hope to emerge from a shadow as long as Federico Fellini’s? But Pinelli, who passed away Saturday in Rome at age 100, was responsible for co-writing several of Fellini’s best films, including I Vitelloni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Nights Of Cabiria, Juliet Of The Spirits, and 8 ½. Pinelli didn’t start writing until his late 30s, when he and Fellini met a newspaper stand and had similar ideas about infusing a new energy and sense of possibility into the grim neo-realism that had dominated the country’s cinema. Pinelli’s work was said to have provided dramatic terra firma for Fellini’s famed flights of fancy. The two collaborated until the director’s last film, The Voice Of The Moon, in 1990, resuming their partnership in the '80s after a split over the direction of Juliet Of The Spirits. A full obituary can be found here.