How did Italian Neorealism influence Federico Fellini’s early films?

Italian Neorealism played a foundational role in the early career of Federico Fellini. In 1944, he began a pivotal collaboration with director Roberto Rossellini, serving as a screenwriter for the landmark Neorealist film Rome, Open City (1945). He continued to work within this movement by contributing to screenplays for Paisan (1946) and Il miracolo (1948), the latter of which also featured him as an actor.1

While Neorealism—characterized by its documentary-like objectivity and focus on the lives of ordinary people—initially shaped his professional development, Fellini eventually sought a more personal, often fantastic style that diverged from the movement's strict tenets. His transition is evident in his early directorial work: while his debut, Variety Lights (1950), explored the seedy world of vaudeville, his 1953 film I vitelloni demonstrated a grounded, faithful reflection of provincial life, drawing directly from his own adolescence in Rimini. Ultimately, Fellini evolved beyond pure Neorealism by superimposing dreamlike and hallucinatory imagery onto the ordinary situations that defined the movement.123