I doubt there is anyone alive who adores Fellini more than I; the same goes for those who are dead. "8 and a 1/2" influenced me so much so that as a young guy just coming of age, I got on a freighter to Genoa, hitched to Florence for a few months and then finally to Rome: I had to see all of this in person. And did I ever! You get the point. Now, as a man of more mature years, and having seen this film way after its release I can only cry with disappointment. Vincent Canby in the NYT apparently loved it, and Roger Ebert registered enthusiasm, and many of the reviewers on IMDb do as well...but: no body else - I cannot imagine - has ever seen so many of his movies more than once and some of them many times more than once and has always delighted in them. This one just had my jaw dropping at the NON-beauty of it, the clumsiness even, the total lack of story-line. Whereas, as an example, "8 and a 1/2" left one with hope and a sense of grandeur and completion, a sense of beauty, this one left me, at least, sad and dismayed that the genius screwed up. Oh, well - one rotten apple need not - and does not - ruin the whole bunch. I still love him and always will. He must have woken from a nightmare and had to spit it out before it got the better of him. Give me Juliet any day and La Strada and La Dolce Vita and Satyricon and Amarcord et al and let me be transported to heaven rather than the unfortunate hell of this unfortunate movie.
Review of City of Women
