THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT OF THE COPYRIGHT OF "THE ROAD", SIGNED BY FEDERICO FELLINI

Description

the agreement for the copyright
of Federico Fellini’s masterpiece «the Road»
Federico Fellini
.
Four-pages Private Agreement between the authors (Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli) and the
Società Cinematografica Ponti-De Laurentiis
(Carlo Ponti and Agostino De Laurentiis) for the transfer of the copyright and related rights of the movie
La Strada
. [Rome: undated, but October 1953].
Folio (296x210 mm), stamp-impressed paper with the stamp duty and the watermark of Italian Republic (dated 1951), ff. [4]. Autograph signature by Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli at the bottom of leaf 4. Still not signed by Ponti and Laurentiis.
The folder with the document also contains
two black and white photos from the movie
.
a precious document of the history of cinema: the agreement between Federico Fellini and the producers for transferring the copyright of “La Strada”.
To the present document is added a xerox copy of a letter/contract sent to Fellini before December 1953 (there is a posthumous date, 22 October 1953), and countersigned by him, in which he renounces to the copyright of the film. In the contract, they are indicated in detail the processing time of the movie and the director’s compensation, set at eighteen million lire (around 5,000 nowadays).
La Strada
(«The Road») is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini from his own screenplay co-written with Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman (Giulietta Masina) bought from her mother by Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish strongman who takes her with him on the road. Fellini has called La Strada «a complete catalogue of my entire mythological world, a dangerous representation of my identity that was undertaken with no precedent whatsoever». As a result, the film demanded more time and effort than any of his other works, before or since. The development process was long and tortuous; there were various problems during production, including insecure financial backing, problematic casting, and numerous delays. Finally, just before the production completed shooting, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that required medical treatment so he could complete principal photography. Initial critical reaction was harsh, and the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival was the occasion of a bitter controversy that escalated into a public brawl between Fellini’s supporters and detractors.
Subsequently, however,
La Strada
has become «one of the most influential films ever made», according to the American Film Institute. It won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957. It was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors’ list of cinema’s top 10 films.
La Strada
won more than fifty international awards, including an Oscar in 1957 for Best Foreign Language Film, the first recipient in that category.