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Quote 4

Claudia:   “A guy like your character, who doesn’t love anybody, is not very sympathetic, you know. It’s his fault. What does he expect?”

When Guido finally meets Claudia, after having seen her only in photographs and in his fantasies, she drives him to an empty street near the spring. After Guido describes the plot of his film, Claudia laughs dismissively, telling him that he doesn’t know how to love. He acts unsurprised and responds coolly that he doesn’t believe in love and doesn’t feel like telling another bunch of lies. But as Claudia persists in telling Guido about his emotional deficiencies—she clearly understands that Guido’s character is autobiographical—he becomes upset. This moment is an echo of the exchange that Guido has with one of Cesarino’s nieces in the back room of the production office. The niece tells him that he can’t make a love story, and though it is a lighthearted comment, it bothers Guido noticeably enough to prompt Cesarino to try to cheer him up with some clowning.

The fact that these two offhand opinions upset Guido so easily emphasizes his sensitivity regarding his ability to love. Guido is in love with Luisa, but he continues to have extramarital desires and wonders why he can’t commit to the woman he loves. It is especially poignant for Claudia to accuse him of not being able to love because she is meant to play a character in Guido’s film for whom the hero gives up everything, to whom he decides to devote his life. Immediately after Claudia tells him that he doesn’t know how to love, Guido admits to her that he doesn’t really have a role for her in his movie, because he knows that he and his hero alike are incapable of perfect devotion. Fellini, too, was confused about love, anxious to know where it is born and where it exists thereafter. Not surprisingly, he also had a famously impressive number of affairs (including one with Sandra Milo, who plays Guido’s mistress Carla).

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