La Città Delle Donne (City of Women) – a film by Federico Fellini (1980)

Fellini was a randy sod. He was 60 years old when he made this movie but , even without the aid of viagra, there is little sign of a fading libido. Quite the opposite in fact, his fascination with women of all ages, shapes and sizes knows no bounds. Judging by the profusion of big bottoms and ample bosoms on display, the preferred dimensions of his objects of desire are decidedly Rubinesque.

As with Fellini’s other movies, his alter ego is played with suave elegance by Marcello Mastroianni., here playing the part of the 50-something Snàporaz.

For all this character’s sophistication, he is reduced to the level of a guilty schoolboy when confronted by a squadron of amorous and sexually assertive women.

His journey into a mysterious forest and thereafter to a large gathering of liberated females begins after pursuing a voluptuous woman (Bernice Stegers) he encounters on a train.

He is confronted by a libertine’s nightmare of being surrounded by women who proudly declare they need men like fish needs bicycles (“a woman without a man is a pedigree without a thigh” is one of the surreal lines in their theme song).

As part of their training, these women take part in lessons on how to neutralise a male predator by a well-aimed  kick in the balls. They ridicule Snàporaz for his continued quest for an ideal woman. This is part of the general mockery towards men ranging from taunts about their one track minds to the fact that they piss standing up.

Snàporaz realises his hopes of scoring are limited and wisely opts to make a discreet exit but escape is less than straightforward.

To evade a drugged up group of disco chicks in sports cars,  he finds himself in the mansion of Xavier Katzone. When you learn that this individual’s name has been translated to Doctor Zuberkock, you get some measure of the man. To publicise his virility, this Don Juan type has a corridor full of photos of women he has bedded together with recordings of them before, during or after engagement in sexual congress.

This movie reflects Fellini’s confusion over women’s’ libbers although if he meant it as a satire on feminism it is laughably simplistic and horribly dated.

On the one hand he seems to be supporting womens’  right to free sex and prolonged orgasms yet at the same time he appears to bemoan their resistance to being placed on pedestals to satisfy the adoring male gaze.

The blatant objectification of women‘s bodies that you see in City of Women is something that continues in present day Italy. Fellini revered and celebrated women’s sexuality but there’s a crude voyeuristic quality in this film that contrasts with the style and substance of his earlier movies.

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