Word: fellinis
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...without a poetic farewell. So just after sunset on the day he succumbed, at 72, to pancreatic cancer, his wife Flora stood with the mayor of Rome and 500 other mourners at the Trevi Fountain, into whose waters Anita Ekberg had lured Mastroianni in the famous scene from Federico Fellini's 1960 La Dolce Vita. Now the lights faded, the water from the Neptune statue stopped, a lone flutist played the theme from 8 1/2 as two black drapes were stretched over the fountain. It was a last token of love to a man who was imperfect and irresistible...
Before you see a single fra me, in the first seconds of "City of Women," a mocking female laugh rings out in the darkened auditorium like a challenge. But Fellini gets the last laugh...
...Fellini's palpable presence troubles the audience in more than this superficial manner. At one point, when Snaporaz is wandering around the convention of feminists, Fellini has the dame from the train point out our hero and accuse him of merely feigned sympathy for women. The viewer cannot help but identify Snaporaz with Fellini, and level the same accusation at the director. The film includes enough male titillation, and enough parodied feminism, to call its emancipated credentials into question. It's unclear whether Fellini is part of the solution or the problem...
...real problem lies in giving the title "City of Women" to a film about men. Snaporaz as protagonist and Fellini as director inevitably give much more insight into men and the the male perception of the sex war than into gender relations themselves. The hysterical portrayal of the medallioned, chest-wigged Casanova on the verge of his carefully catalogued ten-thousandth conquest comes across much better than the rather insubstantial angry feminazis. The plot is just as dominated and enslaved by the experiences of Snaporaz as a housewife is by the male oppressor...
...Indeed, Fellini controls this movie as only he can. The circular plot leaves Quentin Tarantino blushing. The diversity and clarity of his flights of fancy sweep the viewers off their feet. But that variety only masks Fellini's focus on his hero and his gender, at the expense of the embittered woman the film purports to bring to life...