Federico Fellini pulled off the ultimate self-centered hat trick when he made 8½ in 1963. He crafted a semi-autobiographical opus — in which he cast frequent leading man Marcello Mastroianni as a frustrated filmmaker going through a wild case of writer’s block — that’s self-reflexive, self-indulgent and self-flagellating. Yes, the movie is an absurd fever dream; from Fellini’s POV, filmmaking is a surreal, never-ending circus where the director is the wily ringmaster. But Fellini also wasn’t afraid to rake himself over the coals, presenting Mastroianni’s maestro as a bratty cad stringing along a bevy of ladies (including legendary Euro starlets Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimée) when he’s not figuring out what to say with his latest picture. These days, whenever a filmmaker goes the Fellini route and turns their life story into an extravagant movie, they usually get two out of the three right. (Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths — I’m looking in your direction.) The Belcourt will unspool a newly struck film print this weekend, which means you can catch all the Fellini-ness in glorious 35 mm! Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
Nov. 21-23 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
