8½

(Federico Fellini, Italy/France 1963, 138 min., 35mm, Italian w/subtitles)

Academy Awards at 90. Fellini’s rapturous masterpiece stars the director’s parallel persona Marcello Mastroianni as a filmmaker lost in life, unable to find the motivation for his next movie. As Mastroianni escapes to a spa, he realizes that neither his wife nor his mistress understands him, and he drifts into a search for purpose. Flashing backwards and forwards, 8½ plays out the filmmaker’s youth, ambition, hopes, and fears in some of cinema’s most spectacular sequences, as Fellini celebrates life’s unpredictable path. Free to members (March 17 screening only).

Also showing: Saturday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.