La cité des femmes (City of Women). 1980. Italy/France. Directed by Federico Fellini. Screenplay by Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi, Brunello Rondi. With Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Prucnal, Bernice Stegers. In Italian; English subtitles. 139 min.
In Fellini’s nightmarish fable of male inadequacy and female rapaciousness, Mastroianni plays a doctor trapped in a hotel during a feminist conference. Responding to the inevitable attacks, the filmmaker would observe, “It’s the viewpoint of a man who has always looked at woman as a total mystery.… Through the ages, from the beginning of time, I’m certain man has covered woman’s face with masks. They are, however, his masks, not hers.”