Tullio Pinelli

Tullio Pinelli (24 June 1908 – 7 March 2009) was an Italian screenwriter known for his work on the Federico Fellini films I Vitelloni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.

Born in Turin, 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 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 died at the age of 100 on 7 March 2009 in Rome. He was married (from 1988) to the French-born actress Madeleine Lebeau, who had roles in 8½ and Casablanca (1942).

• His Young Wife (1945)

• The Adulteress (1946)

• The Bandit (1946)

• Bullet for Stefano (1947)

• The Opium Den (1947)

• L'amore (1948)

• Without Pity (1948)

• The Earth Cries Out (1948)

• In the Name of the Law (1949)

• The Mill on the Po (1949)

• Path of Hope (1950)

• Variety Lights (1950)

• Four Ways Out (1951)

• Cameriera bella presenza offresi... (1951)

• The Bandit of Tacca Del Lupo (1952)

• The White Sheik (1952)

• Pietà per chi cade (1953)

• I Vitelloni (1953)

• Love in the City (1953)

• Symphony of Love (1954)

• The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954)

• La Strada (1954)

• Il bidone (1955)

• The Wolves (1956)

• Nights of Cabiria (1957)

• Fortunella, (1958)

• Herod the Great (1958)

• La Dolce Vita (1960)

• Adua and Her Friends (1960)

• Boccaccio '70 (1962)

• Careless (1962)

• The Steppe (1962)

• 8½ (1963)

• The Three Faces (1965)

• The Gaucho (1965)

• Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

• Francesco di Assisi (1966)

• The Climax (1967)

• Check to the Queen (1969)

• Galileo (1969)

• Sweet Charity (1969)

• Serafino (1969)

• How, When and with Whom (1969)

• Help Me, My Love (1969)

• A Pocketful of Chestnuts (1970)

• The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)

• Alfredo Alfredo (1972)

• Amore e ginnastica (1973)

• My Friends (1975)

• Down the Ancient Staircase (1975)

• Lovers and Liars (1979)

• Il Marchese del Grillo (1981)

• All My Friends Part 2 (1982)

• Amici miei - Atto III (1985)

• Ginger and Fred (1986)

• Let's Hope It's a Girl (1986)

• Mano rubata (1989)

• The Voice of the Moon (1990)

• Pinelli, Tullio (2008). L'uomo a cavallo. Roma: Edizioni Sabinae.

• Tullio Pinelli at IMDb