Historian and philosopher Tzvetan Todorov argues in the French left wing newspaper Libération that the foundations of democracy are at risk whenever a country accepts – as the United States did with the war in Iraq – lies and illusion. An English translation of the article here.

Search string used: Todorov + Fellini, after seeing the following definition of the term felliniesque at Wikipedia:

“felliniesque” is used to describe any scene in which a hallucinatory image invades an otherwise ordinary situation.

This reminded me of Todorov’s definition of fantastic literature.

The truth is — and as always with cases of instinctual dislike I cannot exactly explain why — I don’t care much for Fellini who is considered according to the same Wikipedia article as “one of the most influential and widely revered Italian filmmakers of the 20th century and … one of the finest film directors of all time”. All time film equals 20th century film, too much praise indeed.

The last film by Fellini I watched was his vignette for the Boccaccio 70 collection. His contribution, starring Anita Ekberg just seemed downright silly. I liked the other 3 contributions except his.

I’d like to point out the irony of Todorov, who’s written about the unresolved hesitation between the real and the imaginary, should write about the notion of truth as it relates to Iraq and the U.S.A..