Lucca Film Festival Opens Exhibition on Sordi and Fellini

The 2020 Lucca Film Festival has inaugurated a pre-opening exhibition titled 'Alberto Sordi, Fellini e i Vitelloni: 100 anni insieme' at the limonaia of Palazzo Pfanner, running until October 15. The show celebrates the centenary of both Italian cinema giants, Alberto Sordi and Federico Fellini, featuring original posters, paintings, sketches, photobusts, books, set photos, and vinyl soundtracks from the private collection of Alessandro Orsucci. Orsucci, who has collected over 600 pieces related to Sordi over nearly thirty years, stated that he conceived the idea with festival president Nicola Borrelli. The exhibition highlights Sordi's career from his first film appearance in 1937's 'Scipione l'africano' to 1998's 'Incontri Proibiti', with key works like 'La grande guerra', 'Una vita difficile', 'Un americano a Roma', and 'Il Marchese del Grillo'—the latter filmed at Palazzo Pfanner itself. Central to the show is 'I vitelloni', released on September 17, 1953, whose screenplay by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, and Tullio Pinelli was Oscar-nominated in 1958 and won the Silver Lion at the 14th Venice International Film Festival. The term 'vitelloni' refers to idlers in Pescara dialect. The exhibition also includes a scene where Sordi's character mocks farmers. Actor Alberto Paradossi, who played Fellini in Luca Manfredi's film 'Permette? Alberto Sordi', attended the opening.