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February 25 & 26:
Orson Welles’ “F for Fake” (1974) and Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” (1963)
I’m going to sound like a broken record here saying these are two of my very favorite films, but I guess that’s the reason I chose all of these. [laughs] I’d seen “F for Fake” in college, but [I don't think you can fully appreciate it] the first time you see the film. I’ve had a few friends who have seen it for the first time recently and I wouldn’t tell you that they enjoyed it in the strictest sense of the word. It shellshocks you the first time you see it. You’d think that today, with our incredibly evolved ability that we’ve all gotten over the past few years to absorb large amounts of information very quickly through different media, that it would go down a lot easier, but it’s still way ahead of the curve in that regard. It throws so much at you. With repeat viewings, there’s a steep curve in terms of how quickly you start to see exactly how amazingly cohesive the whole thing is. I exponentially love it the more I see it. Once you start to be able to see the patterns of the film and what it’s doing, you appreciate more exactly what Welles achieved with it. And with “8 ½,” I…[pause] I’m at a loss for words, clearly. Words that will make me sound like an asshole. We’ll leave it at that.
