"John Baxter, in this first major biography of the director (and the first since his death), limns the life and career of a man who made dreams and lies into great films. He was a man deeply disturbed, who proved that with genius came hardness: Fellini elicited extraordinary work from all around him, but bridled when their fame approached his; constantly won love he was unable to return; wove a filmworld whose fantasy seemed truer than real life. One producer compared him to Attila the Hun; another charged, "He's as phoney as a glass eye." The genius of his films rests on a foundation of deceptions, creations, and, above all, lies - woven by a man who frankly admitted that he invented everything." "By a meticulous study of original sources in Italian, French, and English, and through interviews with friends and collaborators, as well as with the man himself, Baxter has brought into focus the real life of the man universally recognized as one of the greatest filmmakers ever: Fellini."--Jacket.