Intervista (1987)

In the dead of night, a Japanese TV crew arrives for an on-set interview with Federico Fellini. From there, more and more faux realities unfold: the septuagenarian director filming a re-creation of his first visit to Cinecitta studios in 1940, shooting scenes for an adaptation of Kafka's Amerika, and cajoling old friend Mastroianni into visiting an enormous Ekberg at her country home. Beneath the big-top bustle, there's a keen acknowledgement of mortality and faded glory in the bittersweet Intervista; when hostile Indians armed with TV antennas circle the filmmakers in the finale, you'll feel exquisitely sad to be watching via TV—the very medium Fellini feels has driven Italian movies to extinction.