Fellini and artificial intelligence

The artificial intelligence that pays homage to Fellini. Technology and the dream. The project was born from this unusual combination Fellini Forward, a short film wanted and produced by Campari for his Red Diaries, which was presented at the Venice Arsenale, at the Campari Boat-In Cinema, during the Venice Film Festival. A pioneering project, as the head of marketing of Campari Jean Jacques Dubau defined it, unique of its kind, which starts from a question: what does cinema consist of, the core of Fellini’s films? Images and words, shots and emotions: the camera studied all the director’s work and extracted tons of data, from which patterns emerged.

And so we came to the creation of a short that recalled the atmosphere, the visual language and the imaginary of Fellini.

There is also a documentary that reconstructs the entire creative path of Fellini Forward and which shows artificial intelligence while studying and learning from the films, and at the same time the people who took part in the project, the engineers together with the collaborators who with Fellini they worked, like Dante Ferretti, or shared memories like their niece Francesca Fabbri Fellini. He explains: «At the beginning I was a bit reticent, I didn’t understand well, but when the project was explained to me better, I was impressed. It is also very important to reach target audiences such as young people, who unfortunately know little about my uncle Federico, and with this operation they will certainly get close to his work. Together there is the creative past and at the same time the vision of the future: he has always been at the forefront, a utopian ». There is a moment in which Francesca is moved in the documentary. «I have always been very attached to soundtracks, as my uncle used to say listening to the music of Nino Rota: music disturbs me because it can take me to war or it can take me to the highest peaks of love. During the circle dance scene inside a circus, there is very beautiful music, the words are beautiful, I was moved ». Artificial intelligence has studied Fellini to arrive at the meaning of the adjective “Fellini”. «For me“ Fellini ”means dream, dream. There is a recipe that my uncle gave me and that I try to share with the world: Franceschina, remember that we have two lives: one with open eyes and one with closed eyes ».