In October 1960, Federico Fellini revealed to journalist Camilla Cederna that he was working on some ideas for a new film. He didn’t know exactly what the film was going to be about, but he described it as a sort of magma, lying in the depths of his mind, waiting to explode. In a letter to screenwriter Bruno Rondi, the director revealed more details: the film was going to be about a man, maybe a writer or a theatre director, who needed to take a break from his activities and went to spend a few days at a spa. Writer Ennio Flaiano suggested for this new film the title “La bella confusione” (The beautiful chaos), but Fellini didn’t like it.
Little by little the plot changed and the film, entitled 8 ½, became the story of Fellini’s alter-ego, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a director who is having a mid-life crisis and goes to rest for a short period in a spa while preparing his new film. Here he is besieged by his wife, his mistress, various collaborators, producers and critics and by daydreams, visions, nightmares and flashbacks from his childhood. Childhood memories of his catholic education mix with visions of his dead parents, and with dreams of a house-harem full of women he domesticates with a whip.
One of the most memorable scenes in 8 ½ involves Saraghina, a horrendous, but irresistible woman-monster representing a traumatic vision of sex.
Saraghina was a seaside prostitute who sold herself for the sardines left in the fishermen’s nests. Dubbed by Fellini a “Moby Dick from Rimini”, she stuck in the director’s mind since he first saw her when he was 8 years old. 
In the film Saraghina is played by Edra Gale, an American opera student, who auditioned to play Guido’s mistress, but was instead chosen for the part of the seaside prostitute dancing the rumba on a soundtrack by Nino Rota for the kids from the nearby catholic boarding school.
Saraghina came to my mind a few days ago while, watching on the Internet the videos from the SHOWstudio project called Political Fashion, I stumbled upon Nick Knight’s “Feminist”.
The video, conceived and directed by British photographer Knight, features The Gossip’s Beth Ditto wearing a butterfly print dress by Alexander McQueen and a Swarovski crystal-studded dress by Christopher Kane. 
Calum Knight’s background music in “Feminist” reminded me a bit of Nino Rota’s soundtrack, while the Saraghina character came to my mind as Knight focuses like Fellini on Ditto’s voluptuous body that becomes a symbol of power, self-confidence and freedom. While Saraghina was supposed to be a sexual object but actually turned into a strong and grotesque witch who managed to sexually arouse young boys while scaring them at the same time, strong, beautiful and self-assured Ditto turns from controversial pop star into the fashionable embodiment of the feminist ideal.
Soo
n after Fellini’s film came out, Saraghina turned into one of the most legendary characters born out of the Italian director’s mind, and was often used as a reference by fashion designers. Fourteen years ago, Calugi and Giannelli designed a dress in stretch fabric, lace, black voile and rhinestones entitled “Homage to Feminine Exuberance: La Saraghina”. This avant-garde prêt-à-porter fashion house established in the early ‘80s in Florence by Mauro Calugi and Danilo Giannelli mainly produced menswear. Witty and ironic, Calugi and Giannelli became known for their satire of the church and masculinity and for subverting clerical attire to secular clothing in various collections. Their "Saraghina" dress was an exuberant explosion of curves, which proved – exactly like Beth Ditto in Knight’s short video – that you don’t need body-sculpture as a weapon of empowerment.
I know Rob Marshall will soon start shooting a remake of Fellini’s film entitled Nine that will be out next December. I cringe at the mere thought of seeing a masterpiece being destroyed. I have also heard Stacy Ferguson is rumoured to be the next Saraghina. I wish they had opted for Beth Ditto as she would have been much more controversial and fun and would have probably injected once again into this legendary character that special ironic and disturbing glamour Fellini’s Saraghina had.
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