dreaming Fellini dreams

"Fellini produced three intriguing commercials that he called the picnic lunch dream, the tunnel dream, and the lion in the cellar dream. Several other dreams were sketched out--the ledge dream and the dream of the man carrying an egg--but were never realized. The three completed dreams were given the collective title of Che brutte notti (What Horrible Nights) and consisted of three nightmares experienced by actor Paolo Villaggio that are first vividly depicted and then examined in a session with analyst Fernando Rey. Fellini himself provides voice-over commentary in places. In each case, the analyst assures the dreamer that he will be less anxious if he keeps his money with the Banca di Roma. Like the commercials Fellini shot in 1984 for Campari Soda and in 1986 for Barilla Pasta, these films in miniature tell us far more about Fellini than about banking."
from The Final Dreams of Federico Fellini (Book). By: Bondanelle, Peter, Cineaste, 00097004, Spring2004, Vol. 29, Issue 2

“Che brutte notti!” (1992)— three television commercials for the Banca di Roma entitled “Il sogno del ‘déjeuner sur l'herbe’” [The Picnic Lunch Dream]; “Il sogno della galleria” [The Tunnel Dream]; and Il sogno del leone in cantina”[The Dream of the Lion in the Cellar]; SCRIPT: Federico Fellini; PHOTOGRAPHY: Giuseppe Rotunno; MUSIC: Nicola Piovani; SET DESIGN: Antonello Geleng; EDITING: Nino Baragli; PRODUCER: Roberto Mannoni; CAST: Paulo Villaggio. Anna Falchi, Fernando Rey, Ellen Rossi Stuart