Life is a Feast: The Cinema of Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini Films: Wed, April 12 - Wed, June 14
Member Series Ticket, 7:30 pm shows
$35.00
$37.93
with fees
General Public Series Ticket, 7:30 pm shows
$40.00
$43.34
with fees
May 23 Single Admission Ticket: 8 1/2, 7:30 pm
more info
8 1/2, 1963. What can we say? Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert saw 8 1/2 over 25 times. It's a favorite film of Martin Scorsese and David Lynch, a profound and supremely entertaining work of art about the process of making art. Film director Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) is stuck, in all aspects of his life, overburdened with problems and confusion. He's not clear about the shape of his next film, but his screenwriter, actors, critics, the press, his wife, his mistress--all want answers NOW. Can soothsayers, an angelic woman (Claudia Cardinale), his dead parents, help? Yes, his dead parents: 8 1/2 showed the world's filmmakers how to craft a cinematic stream that melds past and present, dream and reality into emotionally resonant poetry. Maybe the mess of Guido's life is the raw material of his art. Oscars for Best Foreign Film and Costumes.
$15.00
$16.25
with fees
May 31 Single Admission Ticket: Juliet of the Spirits, 7:30 pm
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JULIET OF THE SPIRITS. 1965. Fellini, having given stunning cinematic reality to the inner/outer turmoils of 8 1/2's Guido, makes a similar emotional-spiritual exploration of a woman's quandary. Juliet (Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife) enjoys the well-appointed comforts of suburban Roman life, but she's far from happy. Her husband strays to other women, and she feels imprisoned by her strict religious upbringing. Juliet is far more introverted than Guido, and she's visited by spirits of the past/present/future who lighten her burden of guilt and expand her capacity for sensual enjoyment out in the world. Perhaps all the spirits are her. JULIET is Fellini's first color film, and cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo achieves wonders with the light spectrum's textures. New York Film Critics Circle Best Foreign Film.
$15.00
$16.25
with fees
June 7 Single Admission Ticket: Amarcord, 7:30 pm
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AMARCORD, 1973. The word means "I Remember," and the film evokes the seaside town of Fellini's youth in the 1930s, when Fascists ruled, but life went on, following the seasons; snow flakes in winter, puffballs in spring. And the seasons of a family: the son obsessed with pranks and women, father secretly agitating against the invading dictators, mama serving up a big dinner. People watch American movie stars at the cinema, the town beauty dreams of marriage, and all gather to see a gigantic ocean liner pass by. With warmth and humor, Fellini makes the whole town feel like a family. Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
$15.00
$16.25
with fees
June 14: Single Admission ticket: Ginger and Fred, 7:30 pm
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GINGER AND FRED, 1985. Harkening back to "the variety shows of my youth," and his film VARIETY LIGHTS, Fellini cast his wife, and his best friend, to play an aging dance couple tapped to star in a big TV Christmas special. Ginger (Giulietta Masina) has kept herself in shape over the years, but Fred (Marcello Mastroianni) has become an impoverished, boozy, charming vulgarian. Fellini has great satirical fun with the world of commercial TV production, but when it's time for Masina and Mastroianni to attempt to emulate Miss Rogers and Mister Astaire, it is serious magic.
$15.00
$16.25
with fees
Life is a Feast: The Cinema of Federico Fellini
Welcome Spring with a feast of cinematic splendor. Maestro Italian writer-director Federico Fellini (1920-93) says, "Life is a combination of pasta and magic," reality and imagination," and his delectable vision embraces gorgeous imagery, sensual pleasures, all the ups and downs of being human, a soulful yearning for transcendence—all served with a lightness of spirit, and the jaunty, enchanting music of Nino Rota. Many of the films feature Fellini's Oscar-winning wife Giulietta Masina, and Fellini's onscreen alter-ego Marcello Mastroianni. These two luminaries appeared together in just one film, Ginger and Fred, which will be flown in from Rome for our screening.
Ten films on nine nights, Wednesdays and three Tuesdays, April 12-June 14, 7:30 pm, at the SIFF Cinema Uptown Theater, in the heart of the lower Queen Anne restaurant district. Variety Lights, Toby Dammit, I Vitelloni, La Strada, The Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord, Ginger and Fred, all restored by Fellini's studio Cinecitta, the Fellini Foundation, Martin Scorsese, and Gucci. Poet, film curator and teacher Tova Gannana will provide essays on all the films. Theater concessions include wine, beer, coffees and teas. Mask-wearing welcome.
Series tickets: $80 Members of Festa Italiana, SIFF, SAM, UW Cinema and Media Studies and Italian Studies, Alliance Francaise de Seattle, NWFF, SFI, Cornish, TheFilmSchool, Scarecrow Video and KING FM. $90 General Public. Single tickets for all $15.
Present your ticket on the day of the film at any Tutta Bella Pizzeria and receive a 10% discount on the total price. Series tickets can be used each of the nine weeks. Ticket buyers can use the code ITALIA for a 10% discount at the Mediterranean Inn, across from the Uptown Theater, any night April 12 through June 14.
Series presented by Festa Italiana and Greg Olson Productions.
