One of our favourite annual events that we adore participating in and being a part of is Italian Day on the Drive. Like everyone in Vancouver, we have really missed this East Vancouver tradition, and are celebrating its return with one our most requested titles - a 60th Anniversary screening of Federico Fellini's masterfully surreal, semi-autobiographical take on the trials and tribulations of the film-making, 8 1/2. Even better? Italian Day on the Drive pricing is in effect!

No less than Fellini himself declared 8 1/2 as one of his favorite films ever. Marcello Mastroianni delivers one of his best-loved, career-high performances as troubled Italian filmmaker Guido Anselmi, a harried man struggling with creative stasis as he attempts to get a new movie off the ground. Overwhelmed by his work and personal life, the director retreats into his thoughts, which often focus on his loves, both past and present, and frequently wander into fantastical territory. As he tries to sort out his many entanglements, romantic and otherwise, Anselmi finds his production becoming more and more autobiographical.

One of the greatest films about film ever made, 8 1/2 ("Otto e mezzo") turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. An early working title for 8 1/2 was "The Beautiful Confusion," and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. Also starring Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, Barbra Steele.

"Here is a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game." (The New York Times)

"Inventive, thought-provoking, and funny, 8 1/2 represents the arguable peak of Federico Fellini's many towering feats of cinema." (Rotten Tomatoes)

Sunday, June 9
Doors 8:00 pm | Movie 8:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

Italian Day on the Drive pricing is in effect! Tickets just $8.50!

8 1/2 "Otto e mezzo" (Federico Fellini, 1963 / 138 mins / 18A / In Italian with English subtitles) Harried movie director Guido, when trying to relax after his last big hit, retreats into his memories and fantasies, but He can't get a moment's peace when the people who have worked with him in the past constantly look to him for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left.