John Baxter's biography "Fellini" is exhaustive, but perhaps moves in the opposite direction of Kezich's job, if the above review is on the mark. It's hard to think of the man in the adorative light which some of us on this forum (myself included) sometimes dress him up in after having read Baxter's book. Criterion did choose to excerpt it, though, for their Juliet of the Spirits booklet. Definitely worth checking out. Filmography included, but I'm not sure it's as thorough as the one in...Dylan wrote:I haven't read it yet, but Tullio Kezich's biography looks very good, too.
Hollis Alpert's "Fellini: A Biography". It's good, but seemed to me a tad more of a puff job than the Baxter. Is the truth somewhere inbetwixt? Dunno. My copy is a first edition from '86; perhaps the revised edition from '96 is better? It probably just adds a post-Fellini postscript. Contains a detailed filmography, though, including his script work from the 40's, even uncredited and unproduced works.
"Fellini on Fellini" is another must-have; it's still floating around on Amazon and such places. It's full of his own writings. Criterion excerpted his "My Rimini" for their new Amarcord booklet. One piece details some of his favourite writers, most of which he adopted after his first masterpieces were made (post La Dolce Vita at least).
Not exactly in the same vein, Taschen has a lovely coffee table book called, surprise: Fellini. For some reason, Taschen decided to get the decidedly un-Fellini-friendly Chris Wiegand to write the text of the thing, otherwise filled with gorgeous photos, most of which were totally new to me.
I second Dylan's nod towards "I, Fellini". Great book.
