Well, who’d have thought it? Admittedly, Federico Fellini was well known as a ladies’ man but feminist academic Germaine Greer does not immediately spring to mind when one imagines his partners. And yet why not? Perhaps it was inevitable that two of the most unconventional people of their time should have been attracted to each other.
Writing in yesterday’s Guardian, Greer recalls meeting Fellini in 1975, when someone suggested her for a part in Casanova. It was fifteen years after La Dolce Vita and five years after the publication of The Female Eunuch. Greer, then aged 36, arrived at Cinecittà perspiring in the summer heat. She was wearing a flimsy dress and no underwear. Fellini at 55 was fascinated and asked her to read the script with a view to playing Madame Chatelet .
Writing in yesterday’s Guardian, Greer recalls meeting Fellini in 1975, when someone suggested her for a part in Casanova. It was fifteen years after La Dolce Vita and five years after the publication of The Female Eunuch. Greer, then aged 36, arrived at Cinecittà perspiring in the summer heat. She was wearing a flimsy dress and no underwear. Fellini at 55 was fascinated and asked her to read the script with a view to playing Madame Chatelet .
The two began to discuss the script and Fellini went to see Greer at her Italian home, packing his pyjamas in an overnight bag. They continued to talk about the script and Fellini, already suffering from a heart condition, made his own supper of a plain risotto. They went to bed but throughout the night Fellini made calls to his wife, the actress Giulietta Masina.
Days later Fellini gave Greer a present of electric light for her tiny house, sending his own workmen around to do the wiring. They did not see one another often, largely because of Greer’s work commitments, but they continued to discuss his films and Greer seems to have acted as a sounding board for the director. She has never forgotten him and calls him “a many-sided genius”.
6 comments:
Fascinating! Somehow it's hard to imagine those two people, with such a different philosophy, having a friendship...I wrote a comment in the magazine. It's an interesting, colourful publication. And your articles, on various subjects, truly add to its value. Thanks!
Hi, Claudia. I wondered if that was you. Thank you for commenting over there and for this vote of confidence. It means a lot.
PS: I went to a talk by Greer at the Cheltenham Lit Festival in the UK a couple of years ago. She spoke about her book, "Shakespeare's Wife". I found her fascinating, "softer" than her media image and charismatic.
Stranissimo! An intriguing story - curious to picture that scene...
Me too, amethyst.
Greer certainly is a multi-layered character. Greer has always been capable of stirring up varied emotions in others...and continues to do so. She certainly isn't a boring person...hate her or love her!
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