Scorsese Recalls Fellini's Final Words in Rome-Bound Doc 'The Last Fellini'

Martin Scorsese's last conversation with Federico Fellini ended with words he still cannot fully explain. "His voice was very weak, and he just said, 'Thank you, Martin. Thank you, thank you. You know, I'll see you soon. Yeah, I hope so,'" Scorsese recalls in The Last Fellini, a documentary premiering at the Rome Film Festival on Saturday.

The film, directed by Gianluigi Attorre and produced by Italy's Atomic and RAI Cinema, examines the final decade of Fellini's life — a chapter that remains largely unexplored despite the director's towering reputation. PiperPlay has picked up the documentary for international sales.

What does the film actually cover?

The Last Fellini looks at Fellini's struggles during the 1980s and '90s, when finding support for his projects became harder. Beyond Scorsese, it features interviews with:

• Roberto Benigni
• Composer Nicola Piovani
• Journalist Vincenzo Mollica
• Comic book artist Milo Manara
• Fiammetta Profili, Fellini's inseparable secretary

Scorsese's credentials as a Fellini partisan are long-standing. He has cited 8½ as one of his all-time favorite films, and his film foundation was involved in restoring La Dolce Vita.

The documentary series that never happened

The film's most revealing thread is a collaboration between the two directors that nearly came together. Scorsese details how he and Fellini almost teamed on what he affectionately calls a "crazy" documentary series about different aspects of film production.

"We have one [segment] on the producer; we have one on the actor; we have one on the cameraman," and so on, Scorsese recalls Fellini telling him.

Fellini, characteristically, had his own comic logic about the enterprise. He told Scorsese that the most important role for a producer was that of the location manager. "I said, 'Yeah, and why is that?'" Scorsese remembers asking.

The answer was pure Fellini. "Because when you go location scouting" — this was going to be in the script — "whether you are scouting through Rome or Parma or wherever, the location manager has to know of a location that's near the good restaurant, so you could stop and have lunch." Scorsese laughs heartily retelling the anecdote in the documentary.

The plan was concrete, not speculative. The first one-hour segment was to focus on the actor. Scorsese, who had a deal with Universal at the time, had secured $1 million to finance it. Then Fellini became ill and died in October 1993.

The last phone call

The documentary's final movement takes place in 1993. That year, Fellini received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in Los Angeles. The day after the ceremony, he had his last phone conversation with Scorsese.

"So I pick up the phone, and this time his voice was very weak, and he just said, 'Thank you, Martin. Thank you, thank you. You know, I'll see you soon. Yeah, I hope so,'" Scorsese says in the film.

The thanks remain a puzzle. Scorsese speculates on what Fellini was thanking him for, since the two had never spoken directly about the fact that he had found the financing. "I'm not quite sure, but his voice was very weak," he reiterates.

What does this change for Fellini's legacy?

The promise here is a final chapter finally told — the dying auteur, the Oscar, the unfinished series, the unexplained gratitude. The caveat: the film relies on memory, and its central exchange resists resolution even for the man who lived it. Still, with PiperPlay handling international sales, The Last Fellini is positioned to reach audiences well beyond Rome, which means the last words of one cinema's giants may soon become its most quoted.