After travelling to Paris for a script conference with Rossellini on '' Europa ' 51 '' , Fellini began production on '' The White Sheik '' in September 1951 , his first solo-directed feature . Starring Alberto Sordi in the title role , the film is a revised version of a treatment first written by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1949 and based on the '' fotoromanzi '' , the photographed cartoon strip romances popular in Italy at the time . Producer Carlo Ponti commissioned Fellini and Tullio Pinelli to write the script but Antonioni rejected the story they developed . With Ennio Flaiano , they re-worked the material into a light-hearted satire about newlywed couple Ivan and Wanda Cavalli ( Leopoldo Trieste , Brunella Bovo ) in Rome to visit the Pope . Ivan 's prissy mask of respectability is soon demolished by his wife 's obsession with the White Sheik . Highlighting the music of Nino Rota , the film was selected at Cannes ( among the films in competition was Orson Welles ’s '' Othello '' ) and then retracted . Screened at the 13th Venice International Film Festival , it was razzed by critics in " the atmosphere of a soccer match ” . One reviewer declared that Fellini had “ not the slightest aptitude for cinema direction "
13th Venice International Film Festival
13th Venice International Film Festival
Federico Fellini