The Continuity Script from the Film with Screenplay by Federico Fellini
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The Continuity Script From the film with screenplay by Federico Fellini Ennio Flaiano Tullio Pinelli Brunello Rondi AN UNDERPASS Throughout this scene, the images are marked by a start black- and-white contrast. 1 MS: the back of Guido’s head through the rear window of his car. (We will not see Guido’s face at all until the film’s next sequence, shot 31.) Caught in a traffic jam, Guido’s car inches forward. The camera tracks forwards slightly, as if it too were caught in the jam. The only sound is a regular drumbeat, suggestive of a heartbeat. 2 Pan right, starting at the level of the cars’ roofs, rising to the level of the windows of a bus on the left side of underpass. 3 CU: the back of Guido’s head. Pan left to the face of a man in the adjoining car, staring at Guido, then to a woman, apparently dozing in the driver’s seat, then back to the interior of Guido’s car. Guido takes a piece of cloth from the dashboard and begins to wipe the interior of the windshield. Pan to the occupants of the car on the right, then back to Guido’s dashboard. A whiff of smoke escapes from the car’s ventilation system, accompanied by a whooshing sound. Gasping for breath, Guido vainly tries to adjust the ventilation, then to open the door. 4 LS: top half of frame, a row of arms hanging out of the windows of a bus; bottom half, the occupants of the cars, staring in Guido’s direction. 5 MS: Guido continues to bang against his door. More smoke fills his car. He tries to open the window on the passenger’s side of the car. CU of his hands banging and clawing against the window. Pan right to a man in an adjoining car, looking on impassively. Track right and pan left to Guido’s hands, banging on the window. 6 MS: in another car a man, smoking a cigarette, is caressing and sexually arousing a scantily dressed woman. (We will later recognize this woman as Carla, Guido’s mistress.) Pan right past the faces of a couple in another car to Guido’s smoke-filled car. Guido bangs on the window on the opposite side. 7 MS: Guido crawling onto the roof of his car. 8 CU: a man looking in Guido’s direction. The camera rapidly rises and pulls back slightly to reveal, in LS, a man and a woman in the front of the bus, staring impassively. Pan right follows Guido, his arms outstretched, floating over the roofs of the cars. 2. 9 MS tilts up Guido’s back as he floats, stretching out his arms, his black coat billowing. When he leaves the frame at the right he reveals, against a stark white sky, the overhead wires of a tram. THE SKY 10 LS: following Guido as he gloats in the sky. 11 LS: from Guido’s POV, advancing toward sun and rapidly-moving clouds. 12 LS: from Guido’s POV, moving toward a structure of girders and wires that we will recognize as the spaceship superstructure of the film’s final sequences. A BEACH 13 LS: Claudia’s Agent, wearing a cape, riding a horse. Pan follows him right. CLAUDIA’S PRESS AGENT Avvocato, I’ve caught him. Claudia’s Press Agent appears in MS. He rises from the sand, grabs hold of a cord and looks up. Claudia’s Agent stops and points to the sky. CLAUDIA’S PRESS AGENT (CONT’D) Hey. Down. Come down. 14 High angle LS: from Guido’s POV as he floats above the beach, of his own leg, a long cord attached to it, held by Claudia’s Press Agent far below. 15 Closer high angle LS: Claudia’s Press Agent holding the end of the cord, pulling on it and laughing. 16 As in 14. Guido tries to untie the cord around his angle. 17 Low angle MS, then zoom into CU of Claudia’s Agent, rifling through some papers, on horse. CLAUDIA’S AGENT Down for good! 18 Extreme high angle from above the figure of Guido who falls precipitously toward the water, the sound of his gasps continues into the next shot. 3. GUIDO’S HOTEL ROOM, DAY 19 CU: Guido’s arm stretched upwards, taut with anxiety. First Doctor enters, LS, from the right background, walking left toward Guido’s bed, first looking up and to the right, then at Guido, who coughs repeatedly during this shot. FIRST DOCTOR Please forgive this early-morning intrusion. How do you feel? I am one of your great admirers. I am very happy to meet you. May we begin? From behind Guido’s head, pan left continues to an elderly nurse, entering through a white curtain. NURSE May I use your typewriter, sir? Pan right to Second Doctor, with stethoscope, seated next to Guido’s bed, MS. SECOND DOCTOR Please uncover your arm. Keep it relaxed. 20 CU: a newspaper, being read by the First Doctor, fills the right foreground; LS: Nurse in left background. NURSE How old are you? GUIDO Forty-three. SECOND DOCTOR Please get up. The First Doctor drops the newspaper and leans affably on the bedstead. FIRST DOCTOR Well, what are you cooking up for us? Another film without hope? NURSE Is this the first time that you’re taking the cure? GUIDO Yes. 4. 21 CU: Guido’s back, covered with sheet. Second Doctor first taps, then puts his ear to Guido’s chest. SECOND DOCTOR A deep breath. A knock at the door. GUIDO Come in. 22 LS: through an etched glass partition, we see Daumier, in bathrobe and pyjamas, entering Guido’s room. Although during the course of the film he occasionally says a word in French rather than Italian, Daumier speaks excellent academic Italian with a strong French accent. DAUMIER Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll come back later. Daumier starts to back out. 23 As in 21. GUIDO No, come on in. 24 MCU: tracking Daumier entering and walking left. SECOND DOCTOR (O.S.) Breathe. (pause) Deeper. DAUMIER Good morning. 25 LS: Daumier. DAUMIER (CONT’D) May I smoke? Absorbed in his own thoughts, Daumier sits in a chair on the far wall, smoking. He holds a script in his lap. SECOND DOCTOR (O.S.) Cough. 26 CU: Guido’s hands; his head is hidden beneath his dressing gown. He coughs. SECOND DOCTOR (O.S.) (CONT’D) Breathe. 5. GUIDO Have you read it yet? 27 As in 25. DAUMIER Yes. 28 As in 26. SECOND DOCTOR Breathe. GUIDO And what did you think of it? 29 As in 27. Daumier runs his hand through the few remaining hairs on his head. DAUMIER Well, I’ve made some notes. But we’ll talk about it... later. 30 CU: Second Doctor’s leg and arm, and Guido’s bare leg that the doctor has just finished tapping. SECOND DOCTOR (O.S.) Your system has been a little overworked. Thank you. You may get dressed. Tracking pan follows the doctor’s hands as he puts his hammer into a case on the bed. The bed is strewn with glossy photographs of women. He picks up one photograph. SECOND DOCTOR (O.S.) (CONT’D) A pretty girl. American, isn’t she? 31 LS: Second Doctor walking right with his bag and Guido walking right, putting on his dressing gown. This is the first glimpse of Guido’s face in the film. Pan right revealing First Doctor who stands to shake Guido’s hand, and Nurse, who is typing out the instructions. SECOND DOCTOR (CONT’D) (referring to the photographs) You sure have a lot of good merchandise here... (When Guido begins speaking, some of the Second Doctor’s lines become unintelligible.) 6. SECOND DOCTOR (CONT’D) This cure will certainly do you lots of good. (to Nurse) So, Miss, every day, on an empty stomach, 300 grams of mineral water to be drunk in three doses, at quarter-hour intervals. Every other day, mud baths. After each mud treatment, a bath in mineral water for ten minutes, according to the prescription. Diet... At the end of the first week of the cure, suspend all the prescribed treatments for two days. While Second Doctor paces left to right, giving these instructions to the Nurse, and First Doctor paces and fans himself with his newspaper, the camera tracks back to Guido, his dressing gown half on, walks forward dazedly, past the imperturbable Daumier. GUIDO What time is it? DAUMIER I’ll wait for you at the springs, if you like? GUIDO Yes, thank you. Guido enters the bathroom on the right. GUIDO’S BATHROOM 32 Tilt up to bathroom mirror as Guido walk into CU. The music, Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” (Die Walküre, Act III), continues through this scene into the next. Guido snaps on the light and we finally see his face clearly. He looks dejectedly at his reflection; his features are bloated, his eyes rimmed with dark circles. 33 LS: Guido in the enormous bathroom. He scratches his head, finishes putting on his dressing gown. The room is flooded with bright light, accompanied by an “electric” sound. (Both the light and the sound will be repeated several times in the film. They are references to the floodlights and the buzzer of a movie soundstage.) Guido walks to the right, starts taking off the dressing gown. The phone rings. He turns in annoyance and marks each subsequent ring by squatting lower and lower.