La città delle donne (City of Women). 1980. Italy/France. Directed by Federico Fellini. Screenplay by Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi, Brunello Rondi. With Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Prucnal, Bernice Stegers. 4K digital restoration. In Italian; English subtitles. 139 min.
Fellini’s fascination with the opposite sex reaches a crescendo with this raucous fantasia populated by women. The womanizer Snàporaz (Marcello Mastroianni, once again appearing as Fellini’s alter ego) attempts to seduce a femme fatale, but instead finds himself led to a feminist convention in the remote countryside. The circus-like atmosphere sets Snàporaz’s head spinning; one moment he confronts a dizzying room full of roller-skating ladies and the next he is simultaneously rescued and bamboozled by a group of punk girls driving cars. The hallucinatory experience forces Snàporaz to reconsider his views on women—and his relationships with them.