The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, August 10-16
City of Women (1980)
Directed by Federico Fellini
After devoting all his creative energy to trying to lend support to the wife he cuckolded in Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini turned his not inconsiderable creative power on his own psychosis and neurosis. Specifically, he surrounded his usual surrogate Marcello Mastroiani with all the women he could ever want, then pulled the rug out from under him by giving everyone of those women a fierce will and personality. City of Women may be a fantasy but it’s not one of male power or desire. Like a feature length version of the harem sequence in 8 1/2, Mastroianni and Fellini are both at the mercy of a group of fully functioning humans who were only supposed to fantasies. And like the best work of both men, City of Women is a beguiling drift through a truly stupendous feat of theatrical ingenuity. Come for the colorful commentary on misogyny (a sort of funhouse gender studies textbook brought to life by a Sumerian Trickster God), stay for the typically astounding art direction, production design and all the sweet stuff Italy’s voluptuous cinema mascot was known for. Scout Tafoya (August 12, 7pm; August 13, 4:30pm at MoMA’s Gaumont series)