About Fellini, a name I've come to loathe through no fault of his own.

Until very recently there has been an unspoken rule in Italian cinema that a movie, to be considered artistic and worthy of being internationally distributed, had to be 'Fellinian': anything that did not conform was deemed "too commercial" or, even worse, "Americanized". The highest praise to give a movie was to liken it to Fellini's production. The trend is slowly changing, but there's still quite a few directors (Sorrentino) whose most appreciated quality - or only quality - is to be 'very Fellinian'.

Which is funny, since quite a few of Fellini's movies, now considered masterpieces, were mocked by critics at the time.