Casa Marnin, Locarno, opening August 28, 2020. Cultural program of the exhibition Sognando con Fellini: a retrospective of Fellini’s films at the Cinema Otello in Ascona, opening September 4, 2020.

The spirit of La Dolce vita. In these times of pandemic, the world of culture is in great need of a boost giving it the courage to move forward and rediscover the joy of celebrating those artists that Baudelaire called “lighthouses in the night”.

The double tribute entitled Sognando con Fellini was created simultaneously in Locarno and Ascona on the initiative of Augusto Orsi, who’s been a prominent figure for many years at the Locarno Festival, and Franca Antognini, who with her husband Arno runs a hotspot in Ticino’s gastronomic scene, one which occupies an essential place in the life of the festival, namely the Pasticceria Marnin. In Ascona a series of the Maestro’s films was shown at the Otello Cinema, and in Locarno an exhibition of film photographs from the Foundation’s Collection was staged in the gallery space of the Pasticceria Marnin.

The screening of La Dolce vita on Friday, September 4 at the Otello Cinema in Ascona was preceded by a talk on the film by Maurizio Porro, the renowned film columnist with the Corriere della Sera and professor at the University of Milan. Thanks to the dazzling Sognando con Fellini in Locarno and Ascona, the spirit of La Dolce vita reached the splendid shores of Lake Maggiore.