SINGAPORE.- Fifty years after the release of "La Dolce Vita," Singapore's National Museum marks the landmark film with a grand, nearly month-long retrospective of award-winning Italian film-maker Federico Fellini's films.

The tribute to the five-time Oscar winner Fellini kicks off on Friday at the National Museum with a special screening of his classic and about 20 other films ranging from "8 1/2" and "La Strada" to "Roma" and "Nights of Cabiria."

It is Southeast Asia's first such retrospective of Fellini, who died in Rome in 1993 and is considered a god among film buffs.

"Fellini films are known for their creative exuberance, with affection for parodies that he populated with flamboyant and dramatic characters -- a definite air of libertinage typical of the swinging sixties," the National Museum said in a statement.

"Despite over-the-top extravagance, his films touched everyone, from the film aficionado to the layman, greatly influencing popular culture of his time."

"La Dolce Vita," starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg and Anouk Aimee, was considered scandalous at the time of its release but is quite tame by the standards of today, where more flesh can be seen in many TV adverts.

In seven loosely connected episodes, Mastroianni, playing reporter Marcello, covers the escapades of residual nobility, nouveau riche, starlets and hangers-on of the cafe set on Rome's Via Veneto as he struggles to find meaning in his own life.

When the film came out, the Vatican said it should be re-titled "The Disgusting Life" and an irate elderly woman even grabbed Fellini in Rome and told him to "tie a stone around your neck and drown in the deepest sea."

More than 15 years after this death, Fellini continues to inspire film-makers and more recently the musical "Nine" was inspired by his work.

(Reporting by Sugita Katyal, editing by Miral Fahmy)