Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sexylocher Masterful Movie

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Kirpianuscus It is not the best Fellini. but it is an useful one. for the fantasies, for references to early films, for Mastroianni, for the use of fears, taboos and grotesque, for the mix of kitsch, fantasies and stereotypes, for the disco music and for the toys and tools of an eerie. it is a not comfortable film. too long, too eccentric, too ambiguous, too strange. but it has a bizarre art of seduction. and, maybe, this is the lead trait defining it. not a satire against feminism and machismo, but a remind of the roots of the crisis for contemporary world. and that did not it a great movie but only an useful one. for the precise verdict. for the meeting with images from nightmares with potential to be bricks of near reality. and for many other reasons. too familiar after 38 de ani from the birth of "La citta delle donne".

Phillim Big dream/nightmare vision of a man in late middle age (dapper hot daddy Marcello Mastroianni) about women, gender politics, and death.Midway through 'City of Women' we are introduced to one Dr. Katzone (literally 'Dr. Big-Dick'), representing the phallocratic, pig-man archetype. He drinks, he bullies, he shoots guns, he objectifies women. He lives in a castle comprising an assemblage of phallic symbols, wherein he has built a giant gallery/pantheon, where framed sexy pictures of his hundreds of 'conquests' light up and speak sexy talk when you push their respective buttons.Fellini cast tough-guy actor Ettore Manni as 'Dr. Big-Dick' -- reportedly to type: the character merely a slight exaggeration of the blustery actor. The Legend: the hyper-masculine Manni was in the habit of tucking a pistol in his pants. During the film shoot, Manni accidentally shot his genitals off and bled to death. Absolutely true? I like to believe it.Anyway, this is a helluva film -- hilarious, surreal, honest. Art director Giorgio Giovaninni deserves many medals.

dstanwyck 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.

TheLittleSongbird Continuing my Fellini quest, I found City of Women to be interesting. It is not my favourite Fellini, the pace feels sluggish at times and it is rather shrill and unsubtle in tone. On the other hand, Fellini directs beautifully with his distinctive style most evident. City of Women is visually stunning in scenery, costumes and cinematography. The music is full of cheerful energy and nostalgia, while in terms of writing the autobiographical aspects are interesting, the self-parody and satirical aspects are funny and the dream aspects are appropriately dream-like and in an enchanting way. The story shines with the personal and nostalgic style that is so distinctive of Fellini. The acting is fine, especially from the ever compelling Marcello Mastroianni, though his performances in La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 are even better.All in all, interesting but I personally would have preferred more subtlety. 7/10 Bethany Cox