Results tagged “federicofellini”

We've made it through 10 days of this year's New York Film Festival, and it's been a great run so far. As usual, the selection committee has picked stellar films and we've sat in on some star-studded Q&A sessions at Lincoln Center. Here are a few thoughts at the midpoint.

prompted a free speech case heard by the Supreme Court and was the only film banned in New York as well as 24 states and 4 countries. For those interested in the underground film movement in New York in the '60s, Smith is a really seminal, though obscure figure. This documentary portrait gives a real sense of Smith's struggles to get his work made and his role within the scene, from his exotic, free-form film shoots on SoHo apartment roofs to his late night, drug-fueled performance art pieces. Ultimately we see how Smith unfortunate insistence that his work remain unfinished (ostensibly to safeguard against getting banned again) kept him woefully obscure. But Jordan's documentary is a wonderful opportunity to see much of his luscious, weird and provocative work blown up on the big screen as well as hear from the crazy crew of friends and enemies who knew Smith. The film is playing now at Film Forum through April 24th, so don't miss it.

When New York Magazine calls your film a "glossy gay remake" of La Dolce Vita, it was probably inevitable that the people who have the rights to La Dolce Vita would sue. Whoever does own the rights to La Dolce Vita (Pathe?) is suing gay porn king Michael Lucas for violating trademark laws and sullying the original Federico Fellini classic's reputation. Here's how New York described the film last year:

Lucas has been rather busy of late. There was some pesky legal business to attend to, and he just wrapped his newest film, La Dolce Vita, a glossy gay remake of Fellini’s classic that includes a “non-sex” cameo by triple-X starlet Savanna Samson. For a porn production, it’s had an unusually public profile. Photographs of Lucas and Samson cavorting in the City Hall fountain (all proper permits were obtained) made it online, raising the ire of government officials, who with the most cursory of Google searches could have avoided this problem.

We bet the city is behind the lawsuit! Lucas tells the Post, "The similarities are so little, I would say it was maybe inspired." Yeah. For starters, La Dolce Vita takes place in Rome; Luca's version is in New York! And it stars Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, who are totally not in his film! And Nino Rota is not doing the score for the gay porn version. Plus, City Hall Fountain is like the Trevi Fountain. Finally, wasn't La Dolce Vita about debauchery anyway? But if Lucas tried to remake 8 1/2 (10"?), maybe a lawsuit is appropriate.

Two quite controversial and buzzed about movies hit New York theaters this weekend. So far the critical opinion of raving lunatic Mel Gibson's new foreign language feature, . Now we finally get to see the film they thought was going to be such a public relations nightmare. Leo plays a South African diamond smuggler who teams up with a Sierra Leone farmer (the always excellent Djimon Hounsou) to outwit a syndicate of businessmen. From the trailers it looks pretty heartpounding, and not just because the lovely Jennifer Connelly is also in it.

After we posted about Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album cover yesterday, we thought we'd do a series of posts on album covers featuring this city. Next up is The Doors Strange Days cover, photographed by Joel Brodsky.

For Fellini fans, Gothamist has your next two nights of movie viewing sewn up.

The Times' Alex Kuczynski gives the local color, calling it an event in a "Federico Fellini-meets-Michael Bloomberg kind of way," which, as Gothamist understands it, means the night involved lots of adulterous men, hookers, clowns, and billionaires turned civil servants. Cool!

Famed Italian movie studio Cinecitta is profiled by the New York Times today, as it tries to make itself a compelling option for Hollywood's filmmakers. Directors like Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti made Cinecitta the place to be in the 50s and 60s, but up until recently had not been successful. Wes Anderson's next movie, The Life Aquatic, is filming there, and most famously, Gangs of New York, was filmed there which had Martin Scorsese and Dante Ferretti replicate the Five Points in Rome.

Antonio Bandera will be making his Broadway debut in Nine. this spring. Nine is the musical version of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. Friend of Gothamist D.A. Miller would have a lot to say about Banderas, made a star by Almodovar, now on Broadway and in a musical. The Observer says Antonio and Melanie are looking for a place here. Guess they are confident of the musical's strengths. In any case, the film is wonderful - go buy the Criterion edition.