According to experts who love classifications, I vitelloni would be classified as the end of the first cycle; and in 1954, a second one would start, comprising La strada, Il bidone and Nights of Cabiria. “In the brief interlude”, recalls Tullio Kezich, “the director would shoot, in part for fun and almost as a challenge, a short episode in an anthology film entitled L’amore in città. Cesare Zavattini was the project creator and promoter, a tireless prophet of uncompromisingly realistic neorealism, a cinéma vérité ante litteram”. […] In addition to Fellini, Carlo Lizzani, Dino Risi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alberto Lattuada and Citto Maselli also took part in the initiative. “Convinced that it is necessary to invent everything, Federico Fellini – who never shared Zavattini’s purist theories – chose the point of view of a false-true story”. A cynical journalist wants to investigate a marriage agency, one of those small set-ups where one pays for love. “What I’m about to tell you is true”, the voice-over assures us. “Someone gave me an address, I found a very old building, in an old neighbourhood of Rome, practically in the attic”. Without looking like one, to many this short film will seem like a small masterpiece of spontaneity and intelligence. “Rossana’s character”, observes Renzo Renzi, “is illuminated by an extraordinary delicacy, overcoming the limits that her awkward presence, poor pronunciation and plans for the future repeatedly suggest”. This naive character is obviously a precursor to that of Gelsomina in La strada.

Aldo Tassone, Fellini 23½. Tutti i film, Edizioni Cineteca di Bologna, Bologna 2020  

I knew Zavattini from the period of “Marc’Aurelio”. He told me he wanted something of the journalistic style of certain American films of the time. They were supposed to be a true representation, while in reality they were pure invention. I vitelloni had been criticised in the press, which had a fondness for neorealism. I was accused of being ‘sentimental’ and that annoyed me. Since Zavattini gave me this opportunity, I decided to shoot a short film in the most neorealistic style possible, with a story that couldn’t be real in any case, not even ‘neo-real’. I thought: “What would James Whale or Tod Browning do if they were to shoot Frankenstein or Dracula in a neorealist style?” And that’s how Agenzia matrimoniale came about.

Federico Fellini, L’avventurosa storia del cinema italiano. Da Ladri di biciclette a La grande guerra, edited by Franca Faldini and Goffredo Fofi, Edizioni Cineteca di Bologna, Bologna 2011