Fellini's The City of Women, Città delle donne, La (1980), is 138 minutes of pure Fillini, from his second phase. In other words, there is imagery, nudity, symbolism, and enough of a plot to give some continuity. In all fairness, I was involved in the first half of the story, but was very glad to see it end.

A man on a train (Marcello Mastroianni) tries to pick up a woman in his car, gets off at her stop to get her number, and misses the train. He follows her to a hotel, only to discover that he is nearly the only man in a hotel full of feminists having a convention. He tries to observe, and maybe even learn something about women, but is eventually attacked first verbally then physically by the women. One women helps him to "escape," and he ends up with a large middle aged woman on her motorcycle (Iole Silvani according to the credits, and Jole Silvani according to IMDB). Rather than taking him to the station to catch a train, she takes him to a greenhouse and tries to rape him.

He then escapes to a lush mansion owned by a man who is celebrating his 10,000 sexual conquest with a huge party. In my favorite moment from the film, the bride to be squats on small platforms, and inhales coins then pearls from the floor with her pudenda to demonstrate why he chose her. Mastroianni meets his wife at the party, and encounters several other woman.

Spoiler Ahead

He passes some sort of test, is allowed to escape in a hot air balloon in the shape of a naked woman, is shot down, then wakes up in a train car opposite his wife. BARF!!!! The entire 2 minutes and 18 seconds has been a dream.

End Spoiler

In the film, Fellini is showing his age. He is at the point that most men worry about losing their sexuality and with it their masculinity. Felini explores every man's deepest fears, and, at the same time, shows how life would be if women were the sexual aggressors. Maltin, in awarding 3 stars put it very well, "Lavish fantasy could only have been made by one filmmaker; a Fellini feast or déjà vu o. d. , depending on your mood and stamina." IMDB readers say 6.4/10. I will call it a C+.

I looked at these three new releases:

Finding Forrester. What are the chances that we would have a literary equivalent of Mozart in our own times, and he would meet the exact same guy to be his Salieri? Yup, the F-man is back in the exact same role, different costume. I think they made him Polish this time, Salierski, so we wouldn't notice. Sean Connery is back in the exact same role he played with Wesley Snipes in Rising Sun. This is a movie with a wonderful heart and an IQ of 80. Which is a shame, because it's about a guy with an IQ of 200. I liked it OK, but it could have been a wonderful masterpiece if they only had a brain. Where's the Wizard when we need him?

The Girl on the Bridge. A good film, but the only film in the history of France with no nudity. The premise is so strange that I can't summarize it in one line. Read the review for details. A strange, grotesque and wildly romantic fairy tale, as if Fellini had directed Pretty Woman.

Phantom of the Opera. A complete abomination of a movie, but lots of nudity. I'm running late, so I'll have details and more caps tomorrow. For now, here's a couple of Asia.

• Asia Argento (1, 2)

This has been capped many times before, but, like many of my previous efforts this is my go at it, since Ms Rogers is the proud possessor of the most spectacular breasts in mainstream acting on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

The first two collages are of a threesome scene involving Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny and an actress I can't pin a name on even having looked through the titles half a dozen times.

Yes, I know it's been done, but I needed the vidcapping practice. Today I noticed that for some strange reason I always seem to pick movies with odd lighting, so it was a nice challenge as well.

As for the movie...I enjoyed it. When it came out there were many comparisons to "American Pie". Although that was really just a marketing trick. Granted, there were 18-20 somethings, and one of the dudes was in both movies, but that's really where any comparisons end. "American Pie" was more of a coming of age, we all learn lesson, everyone goes home happy kind of movie. "Road Trip" reminded me more of "Animal House" (Please note I said reminded only.) It was a stupid and fun college movie with beer, sex, and a nice dash of unnecessary nudity. A very welcome addition to the college road trip genre.

For those who disagree, keep in mind that it is FAR superior than 99% of the college movies that many of us sat through in the 80's! Sadly, because of TNT and TBS, we'll never be able to forget those!

The 'caps...I've been trying to edit my captures to produce nice skin tones, which is very difficult when they shoot nude scenes in poor light, flourescent light, and with the sun in the lens. Not to mention the pale yellow tile in the shower scene, aaargh!

Here's part 1.