Portrait red, Catalano's gaze on Fellini

ROME - For the centenary of Federico Fellini's birth, the great director ideally returns to 'his' Cinecittà, through sixty images of the photographic and multimedia exhibition, inside the historic Theater 1.

An unprecedented journey that tells the elective relationship between the genius of our cinema and Elisabetta Catalano, international photographer and queen of photographic portrait.

The exhibition, PORTRAIT RED ELISABETTA CATALANO WATCH FEDERICO FELLINI, which will last until March 21, was created by the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà with the contribution of DG Cinema and Audiovisual and curated by Aldo E. Ponis with the artistic direction of Emanuele Cappelli.

Lastly, texts, scientific and iconographic research are curated by Laura Cherubini and Raffaele Simongini, while obviously the images are all from the Elisabetta Catalano Archive.

Certainly not by chance Fellini, who had a proverbial obsession with the human face, even in its strongest characters, loved to be photographed by Elisabetta Catalano throughout his life, between 1963 and the last years, establishing with she an elective affinity based on clicks.

An affinity with this very beautiful woman who was able like him to grasp the soul of a character (of a person) with a quick camera movement.

In addition to the sixty images, video projections, objects, and a fairly faithful set-up of a large photographic studio of the time, there are also the art backdrops that the photographer used as a background for her portraits.

And it must be said that the Fellini that comes out of it is in some ways unprecedented, to be discovered, taken as he is in completely impromptu attitudes.

Says the curator Aldo Pomis: "This is a winning bet for all of us. A difficult exhibition to carry out anyway (it had to open in December) after all that happened with the pandemic. We actually wanted to set up the two-person exhibition who started two different paths starting from '8 and a half' and continuing throughout their lives. Two artists who had a lot in common because they both worked on portraits and on the expression of faces. Fellini - continues Pomis - relied on her and he recognized her for doing her same job with the actors. The 'red' of the title, finally, refers to the red pen she used to mark the auditions. Those marked in red, only very few, were those worthy of publication ".