The Journey of G. Mastorna: The Film Fellini Didn't Make

by Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini’s script for perhaps the most famous unmade film in Italian cinema, The Journey of G. Mastorna (1965/6), is published here for the first time in full English translation. It offers the reader a remarkable insight into Fellini’s creative process and his fascination with human mortality and the great mystery of death. Written in collaboration with Dino Buzzati, Brunello Rondi, and Bernardino Zapponi, the project was ultimately abandoned for a number of reasons, including Fellini’s near death, although it continued to inhabit his creative imagination and the landscape of his films for the rest of his career.



Marcus Perryman has written two supporting essays which discuss the reasons why the film was never made, compare it to the two other films in the trilogy La Dolce Vita and 8½, and analyze the script in the light of It’s a Wonderful Life and Fredric Brown’s sci-fi novel What Mad Universe. In doing so he opens up an entire world of connections to Fellini’s other films, writers and collaborators. It should be essential reading for students and academics studying Fellini’s work.

226 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2013

About the author

Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film ​8 1⁄2 as the 10th-greatest film.

Reviews

[Arturo Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fellini incontra Kafka in un vicenda surreale tra vita e aldilà. Scorrevole, non tra i migliori lavori del regista.

[Nerdanel · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia relata la aventura emprendida por Guido Mastorna, un violoncelista que parte en avión hacia un concierto en Florencia que se ve interrumpido cuando una falla en el avión los obliga a aterrizar de emergencia en lo que parece ser un poblado nórdico.

La llegada a ese misterioso lugar repleto de habitantes enigmáticos (prostitutas, amantes de serpientes, trasvestis, El Papa) da inicio a lo Felliniano; lo que en primer instancia parece ser un breve contratiempo, con el avance del relato se va convirtiendo en una búsqueda para al final pasar a ser un descubrimiento, tanto de su entorno como de sí mismo.

La realidad tiene espacio en el mundo de Fellini, y ella indica que el avión en el que se encontraba Mastorna tuvo consecuencias fatales.

Ahora el protagonista se encuentra rodeado (¿en el limbo?) de inquietantes figuras entre las que se distinguen su familia, amigos y miedos propios que le plantan cara justo cuando se encuentra en el estado más vulnerable.

Libro muy diferente a cuantos haya leído, pero que nos arroja un poco de luz al "universo Fellini".