Where To Go - 21 February 2022 - discovered by Francesca Morelli

The Fellini Museum in Rimini

Rimini, world famous seaside resort has another attraction since last summer. In addition to parks, monuments from Roman times and the Renaissance, the Fellini Museum has opened its doors.

Piazza Malatesta in summer 2021

Museo Fellini ©Lorenzo Burland

Rimini is the hometown of the brilliant Italian film director Federico Fellini, who was born there on January 20, 1920, and died in Rome in 1993. Now an elaborate new museum dedicated to his genius has opened. It has been included in the list of major national cultural heritage projects by the Ministry of Culture. In the city, the museum extends over 3 premises: Castel Sismondo, Palazzo del Fulgor and Piazza Malatesta. 

The museum was inaugurated on August 19, 2021 and since then it has enjoyed a large influx of visitors.

The Fellini Museum does not want to be a shrine to his memory, but seeks to enhance the cultural heritage of one of the most famous directors in the history of cinema, who was born in Rimini in 1920. 

The Fellini Museum

The project of dedicating a museum to his person was conceived with the intention of restoring and interpreting his work as a key to the link between tradition and the present, and to show the beauty that emanates from his thought and his art, a source of inspiration and universal wealth.

The three axes of the museum are: Castel Sismondo, the 15th-century fortress that Filippo Brunelleschi helped design; here the Fellini Museum is housed on two floors. One of the first rooms is dedicated to Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, star of "La Strada" (1956) and "Nights of Cabiria" (1957), for which Fellini received an Oscar.

Castel Sismondo, room dedicated to Fellini's wife, actress Giulietta Masina

Museo Fellini ©Lorenzo Burland

The Palazzo del Fulgor, an 18th century building whose first floor houses the Fulgor, the legendary cinema immortalized in the film Amarcord and now rebuilt with a set designed by three-time Oscar winner Dante Ferretti; it is said that it was in this cinema that Fellini discovered his love of film.

The museum also takes place in Piazza Malatesta, an urban area with green spaces and performance venues.

Visitors to all 3 locations can expect high-tech multimedia exhibits with video projections, photos, touch screens and audiovisual effects that introduce the director's work, his aesthetics and frequent collaborators, as well as Marcello Mastroianni. The exhibition is accompanied by original sets, clothing, objects and photographs by Danilo Donati and Nino Rota's notebooks. Among them are also elaborate costumes, for example from his 1972 film "Roma", or a gigantic plush sculpture by the actress Anita Ekkberg, on which you can sit down to watch scenes from "la Dolce Vita".

Castel Sismondo, exhibition scene from "Dolce Vita"

Museo Fellini ©Lorenzo Burland

Castel Sismondo, sculpture dedicated to actress Anita Ekberg

Museo Fellini ©Lorenzo Burland

Castel Sismondo, film costumes

Museo Fellini ©Lorenzo Burland

The Fellini Museum is part of a wider action for the infrastructural rehabilitation of the city of Rimini and its historical center, which has already seen the restoration of the Galli Theater and the Palazzi dell'Arte di Rimini.

For many years a Fellini homage had been missing in the city of Rimini, so there were only public squares and streets named after Fellini. Now after decades of preparation, the visions and realizations have exceeded everyone's expectations. The face of the city has been changed and the Fellini Museum could have the same importance for Rimini as the Guggenheim Museum had for Bilbao.

According to the New York Times, the Fellini Museum project took off in early 2018 when the Italian Ministry of Culture allocated 12 million euros for the museum. Scheduled to open in 2020, which would have been the 100th anniversary of his birth, it had to be postponed because of Corona.

fellinimuseum.it

+39 0541 704494  - museofellini@comune.rimini.it

Facebook: @FelliniMuseum Instagram: @fellinimuseum 

21. February 2022, by Francesca Morelli