An esteemed filmmaker goes quietly on the lamb after his assistant jokingly makes inappropriate remarks to a woman he thinks is an actress waiting for an audition, implicating the director in a sex-scandal. While hiding out in a small town he has his arm twisted by a local prince into making a film of his daughter's impending wedding. This film has a lot on its mind about the current state of film-making, not much of it pleasant. Beneath the labyrinthine story levels lies an angry satire of an industry that reduces artistic directors to no more than metaphoric wedding film makers, and a society that rewards death over excellence when considering person's worth. These are only two of the many themes that expand to fathers and daughters, masculine identity, power games, even the old 'nature of art vs. reality' debate. Even when baffling with it's magical realism and surrealist touches it's never less than engaging. This is the kind of film that begs you to come back for a 2nd viewing, and you look forward to it.

I agree that this film is too pretentious, and it is not easy to know where it is going. I have been teaching literature and film for many years, and I find this film to be one of the most over rated, according to some of the previous reviews here. However, let me remind you that this is the same director who has L'ora di religione (Il sorriso di mia madre- My Mother's Smile) to his credit -- a gem of a film! Was he trying to outdo Fellini's 81/2 here???? The scene with the dogs, which has also been pointed out, is absurd and excessive – just one example. Others would take too much space, and some reviewers have already noted them. Overall, a most frustrating and annoying experience!

There is something that one of the characters (the aging film director who pretends to be dead) says which may summarize all the film: "In Italy it's the dead who rule". True! This is a country without a future, in the hands of old and jaded men. And Bellocchio's cryptic portrait of the country, pivoted on the apparently senseless story of a director who has to film marriage parties to earn a living, manages to say a lot about what is not working here. But foreigners may miss the point, as it's not clearly expressed. I understand that Australian or Canadian people who watch this may get bored and wonder if there's a meaning--well, there's a meaning, but it's clear only to people who live here today, and keep their eyes wide open... like Bellocchio. Surely it's not one of his best films, and it's not as powerful as Buongiorno, notte, but it's worth seeing... for Italians who live in Italy.

This film was a wonderful romp, intelligent, playful, mysterious, full of surprises, with humor in odd places and a tremendous energy. The famous film director (the protagonist) and the events he tries to manipulate through film all become entangled in fascinating ways as he is nearly out-maneuvered by a prince who has never heard of him. There are wonderfully rich images throughout and paths suggested but not followed (exactly what is going on with the somber wife of the pedestrian tourist wedding director?). The ending is so much the better for being untidy. Realism and logic are not what you should be looking for here. If we are going to turn our weddings and our imaginative lives over to film directors, we should be prepared for a wild ride, this film seems to suggest.