Tullio Pinelli


Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita and .

Biography

Born in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, Pinelli began his career as a civil lawyer but spent his free time working in the theatre as a playwright. He was descended from a long line of Italian patriots; his great-uncle General Ferdinando Pinelli quashed the bandit revolt in Calabria following Italian unification.
He met Fellini in a Rome kiosk in 1946 while they were reading opposite pages of the same newspaper. "Meeting each other", explained Pinelli, "was a creative lightning bolt. We spoke the same language from the start... We were fantasizing about a screenplay that would be the exact opposite of what was fashionable then: the story of a very shy and modest office worker who discovered he can fly; so he flaps his arms and escapes out the window. It certainly wasn't Italian neorealism. But the idea never went anywhere either." The anecdote about flying presages the opening scene of in which the protagonist, a prominent film director, who dreams of escape by flying out of his car caught in a traffic jam.
Pinelli died at the age of 100 on 7 March 2009 in Rome. He was married to the French-born actress Madeleine Lebeau, who had roles in and Casablanca.

Selected filmography