LA CITTA DELLE DONNE (CITY OF WOMEN)

Italy, 1980, 149 minutes, Colour.
Marcello Mastroianni, Bernice Stegers.
Directed by Federico Fellini.

City of Women, written and directed by Fellini, is one of his final films. He made a great impact as a writer in the 1940s and 50s, moving into direction with such films as La Strada and The Nights of Cabiria. He won Oscars for both films.

However, in 1959 he made the classic La Dolce Vita and was assured of worldwide popularity. The 60s for him were very strong with 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, culminating in Fellini - Satyricon. During the 1970s he also had success with Roma, Amarcord (Oscar winner) and his Casanova. During the 1980s he also made And the Ship Sails On as well as Ginger and Fred. His last film was The Voice of the Moon in 1990.

This film features Marcello Mastroianni who had appeared in many of his films including La Dolce Vita, 8½ and Ginger and Fred.

This is a film about feminism – done in a surrealist style. Mastroianni plays a man who is attracted by a woman in a train, follows her through a field and finds himself in a convention of feminists. This gives the opportunity for some comment on men, their relationships with women, women and their assertiveness – and the mood of the times.

1.The work of Fellini, his career, interests? Italy and its past? The autobiographical dimensions? Sexuality, home situations, the church, cinema? Sexual initiation? The heritage of Rome? Sets? Casanova? This film with Fellini at sixty, exploring feminist themes? An older man, questions of identity, sexuality?

2.The technical bravura of the film: sets and décor, realism and stylised work? The hotel, the rink, upstairs, the party and the house, the roads and the lighting, the room and the storm, the roller coaster, the prison, the concert? The blend of realism and surrealism? Colour, shapes and movement? The contemporary tone, drawing on tradition? Fellini-esque material: the circus, grotesques? Nino Rota’s score, classic, the Fred Astaire style?

3.The quotes, the illusions? Fred Astaire …?

4.The man in the train, as a character, himself, his life, purpose? Sexuality and marriage? The ideal woman? Following the woman from the train? Sexuality and delight? Curiosity, silliness, ordinariness? The response to feminism? Age?

5.Feminism: the man and his inner resentment, the external behaviour? Women, nice, the threat, the man’s fear? Fear of ridicule? Mockery? Not understanding? An object for women? The women and their reality, their causes and issues? The woman in the train, the falling water, the lure, teasing? The convention, the details, the denunciations? The man as a case? The various types, behaviour, the girls, the fat lady, the doctor and his ten thousandth conquest, the dances? The wife? The police, the memories?

6.Fellini and his attitude towards women, admiration, objects of desire, puzzlement, elusiveness? His work with his wife over the decades?

7.Snaporaz: Marcello Mastroianni, the background of 8½? The pomposity, Smick-smack, fascination, the woman on the train, women in general, the skating rink? The fat lady, frightened by the teens? The visit, Elena and her accusations? The old lady? Reconciliation with Elena? The past, the end and the achievement – and waking up?

8.Sexuality and symbols: the tunnel, the bottle, the kiss? The photo, the skating? Dumping, raping, afraid? The doctor and the gallery? The Fred Astaire background? The bed and the memories?

9.The doctor and the house, reputation, art and the gallery? The dress, ten thousand conquests, the pearls and coins, the candle and the champagne, the singing and the end, the dead dog, a sign?

10.The woman on the train, the fascination? The wife, problems?

11.The old people, the servants?

12.The issues of glamour and sex?

13.Reality, dreams – and the Jungian overtones? The title, the experience? Emotions and insight?