The Montesi Scandal : The Death of Wilma Montesi and the Birth of the Paparazzi in Fellini's Rome

Rating:
Summary: A clever take on crime and celebrity
Review: I found this book fascinating and recommend it highly to anyone interested in Fellini's "Roma" of the 1950s, in the cocktail generation, or in how a minor news item gets taken up by the popular press and expanded into an enormous scandal. It's a book about what's true about so-called "true crime." Pinkus writes well, and uses the format of a film treatment (not a screenplay) to tell the story of a Rome fascinated with film, celebrities, and stardom--whose Post-war denizens think of their own lives in terms of the movies they go to see. There are some great photographs in this book, and it is in part about the birth of the paparazzi, which occurred in relation to this murder case. Features a great cast of characters. Apparently dozens of filmmakers have, over the years, tried to figure out how to make a movie about this mystery. Maybe now Pinkus has provided just the right "map" for telling this great, complex story via celluloid.

Rating:
Summary: A clever take on crime and celebrity
Review: Life is messy. Death is messier, particularly when it involves powerful politicians, sex, drugs and, in this case, a victim who is either a) a total innocent; or b) a drug-ridden sex toy. Pinkus has taken an Italian scandal from the 1950s and re-created it as a brand-new screenplay, drawing liberally on the approach taken by the great Italian filmmakers of the time, who themselves raided the story for their own movies.
A fascinating and original treatment of the quintessential tabloid scandal story.

Rating:
Summary: "La Dolce Vita" comes to life.
Review: Life is messy. Death is messier, particularly when it involves powerful politicians, sex, drugs and, in this case, a victim who is either a) a total innocent; or b) a drug-ridden sex toy. Pinkus has taken an Italian scandal from the 1950s and re-created it as a brand-new screenplay, drawing liberally on the approach taken by the great Italian filmmakers of the time, who themselves raided the story for their own movies.
A fascinating and original treatment of the quintessential tabloid scandal story.

Rating:
Summary: Delicious original
Review: With this publication of "The Montesi Scandal: The Death of Wilma Montesi and the Birth of the Papparazzi in Fellini's Rome"
(What a title! What a conception!), Karen Pinkus has created a remarkable original----a new genre combining the best elements of the traditional screenplay/mystery/political analysis/ and cultural anthropology treatise. I saved this book for my vacation and it proved to be the savory read I'd hoped for. Like Wilma's family, I found it difficult to move beyond the footbath theory.