Pat Greene is Bungalower Media’s first sponsored Resident Reporter. Greene has joined our team as our Arts and Culture Correspondent for the next quarter, supported by the efforts of Interstruct Design + Build, an award-winning Orlando-based design and build firm.
Every month on the fourth Wednesday for the past year, the Downtown Arts District (Website) and I have been hosting a monthly artist and art lover meetup at CityArts called the “Sort of Brutally Early Meetup.” It’s an opportunity to meet other artists, share ideas or projects you are working on, and drink free coffee.
We will meet to celebrate our first anniversary at CityArts this month at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 24th, with Bungalower Blend coffee provided by our new coffee sponsor, Bungalower Media and Lobos Coffee Roasters (Website). City Arts Factory is located at 39 S. Magnolia Avenue [GMap].
On Friday evening, from 6-8 p.m., one of my favorite restaurants, Black Bean Deli (Website) in Winter Park, hosts a book swap. It’s a monthly event, and this is the third month of the series. Participants can enjoy a $5 glass of wine alongside their delicious Cuban food. Bring a book to swap and have a read for dessert.
The Enzian Theater (Website) is a good spot to camp out at this weekend. 11 a.m. this Saturday is a special, free event, featuring local filmmaker Lorraine Sovern as she showcases her three thesis films as she will soon graduate from UCF with an MFA. Forward Fast (which has played over 20 festivals and taken home various awards, including Best Short Film at the Tallahassee Film Festival), Always/Never (Together Forever), and Shotgun Baby. The screenings will be followed by a Q&A.
The following day, Sunday, July 28, the Enzian will feature a tribute to the late French actress Anouk Aimee. I am very excited that they will show one of my favorite films, 8 1 ⁄ 2 by Federico Fellini, one of my favorite directors. I know I said that a couple of weeks ago when they showed Le Samourai. I meant it then, and I mean it now. The film was shot in 1963, in black and white. Fellini’s style had strayed (evolved) from Italian Realism to Surrealism. Check out the opening scene below.
The film’s premise concerns director Guido Anselmi’s creative block or mid-life crisis. Guido, played by Marcello Mastroianni, is based on Fellini. Anouk Aimee plays his frustrated wife, Luisa. She was frustrated by her husband’s infidelities and his insistence that part of him was in the past. A big part of Guido’s creative block is because of distractions, mainly other women and the business expectations of filmmaking.
Much of the film consists of dream sequences, and for Guido and the viewers, it’s often difficult to separate the dreams from real life. The opening scene sets the tone for the rest. It’s a dream sequence that resembles urban life merging with a slow-motion carnival. It is brilliant, beautiful, comical, and strange.
That tone doesn’t let up. The beauty of the film is that Fellini presents himself as having trouble creating but creates one of the most interesting and creative movies ever made. It feels like he is watching himself make a film without having control.
I realize that some of you aren’t interested in subtitles or black-and-white films, but I suggest you try and embrace this brilliant art. Click HERE for tickets.
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