Do we like them?

Do we like Federico Fellini?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found from him directly, but the record I could confirm is thin, so it sits in the middle.

Fellini died in 1993, so this is a legacy check rather than a live goss session. The sources I could reach for him are mostly about his films and the stoush over them, not his private conduct. That makes this a thinner file than most.

The big drama of his life was La Dolce Vita in 1960. Church Times reports that the Vatican's newspaper attacked it and that the faithful who saw it were threatened with excommunication. An AFP report carried by the Sunday Times of Sri Lanka says the church called for Fellini himself to be excommunicated and that churches prayed for the 'sinful' director.

The Guardian's 1960 coverage, reposted on a blog, says a man spat on Fellini 'in the name of the fatherland' after the noisy Milan premiere. So the hostility came from the pious and the political right, and he copped it for making a film, not for hurting anyone. Abuse aimed at him counts for nothing against him here.

On the harm test, nothing turned up of him campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, migrants or the planet, and no controversial statements in his own words. Critics have argued that his films often show women as stereotypes, which is a criticism of his art and attitudes rather than a campaign. That is why it's an asterisk, not a clean pass.

The honest read is that he's a giant of cinema who took on the church establishment and came out with the film still loved. Whether you'd cheer for him over a beer depends on how you weigh the portrayal of women in his films, which the evidence I could verify can't settle.