Background
Descended from a long line of Italian patriots, his great-uncle General Ferdinando Pinelli quashed the bandit revolt in Calabria following Italian unification.
playwright screenwriter writer
Descended from a long line of Italian patriots, his great-uncle General Ferdinando Pinelli quashed the bandit revolt in Calabria following Italian unification.
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 first met Fellini in a Rome kiosk in 1947 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.
lieutenant certainly wasn"t Italian neorealism. But the idea never went anywhere either." The anecdote about flying presages the opening scene of 8½ (1963) in which the protagonist, a prominent film director, who dreams of escape by flying out of his car caught in a traffic jam.
Pinelli turned 100 on 24th June 2008.
Pinelli died on 7 March 2009 in Rome.
