8 1/2

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  September 30, 2009

  SirPant

  Fellini's classic autobiography/poke in the eye of the film business is brilliant. A real must for people who are passionate about their films! The mix of dream sequences, irrelevant script and outstanding choreography amount to one of the greatest films in cinema history.

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  March 3, 2009

  hypathio7

  The Beautiful Confusion was a working title. I totally understand the confusion part. The beautiful part I'm not absolutely sure about. My wife and I had to watch it in three different sittings and we had to renew it to the max from the library. Part of this was because we ha...( read more)ve been very busy, but mostly it was because we kept falling asleep. That's unusual for me. When I watch a movie I focus and stay with it very well I think. There are very few films that I have struggled to give my attention to. I think, especially in this film, that the Italian language has a lullaby effect. Then there is the fact that certain parts of this movie are extremely talky and self-referential while the remaining parts are flights of fancy that leave you reeling with confusion. Reeling at least during initial viewing. It did seem well put together and since this is known as such a classic, I trust that on repeated viewings little details would appear clearer and make more sense. I did appreciate the autobiographical references as well as the film's way of dealing with the struggle of making an artistic, truthful, and meaningful film. It is trying to be a film about a film with scenes that don't make sense and lack meaning and answers to questions, but it is impossible for it to be meaningless itself. It's just a little harder to discover what else is hidden under the surface.

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  September 7, 2008

  PvtCaboose91

  "I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I'm the one without ...( read more)the courage to bury anything at all. When did I go wrong? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same."
  

  
  Out of all the films from the imaginative mind of legendary director Federico Fellini, 8½ is possibly his most celebrated masterpiece. When it comes to entrancing and mesmerising surrealism, Fellini's talents remain unparalleled. 8½ is strictly an art film that certainly is not for all tastes. It conveys a fascinating autobiographical narrative through thoroughly artistic visuals and intricately written dialogue. Fellini's film also embodies everything a wannabe filmmaker aspires to achieve. While some regard the film as self-indulgent and ultimately without meaning, the fact remains that this is a seminal slice of world cinema.
  On top of this, Fellini spawned several contemporaries who were downright inspired by his cinematic creations. Terry Gilliam is a prime example whose attempts at surrealism are evident in such films as Brazil. David Lynch and Woody Allen are other obvious students. Naturally, though, the artistic qualities will not be happily devoured by all. 8½ is undeniably an enigmatic creation bursting with bizarre metaphors and overt allegory. To genuinely appreciate the film it's essential for it to be viewed on its own terms - the outrageous product of an immortal director trialling the medium, taking advantage of everyone surrounding him, and satirising his very profession.
  
  Federico Fellini's 8½ is highly autobiographical. The bafflingly cryptic title in fact refers to the fact that this is his 8½th film. Prior to taking the reigns for the film, he'd directed six feature films. In addition he'd also co-directed one and directed episodes of two others, making the extra 1½. The story had been languishing with Fellini for years. It's a priceless tale that has been widely copied ever since its release.
  A film director named Guido Anselmi (Mastroianni) recently completed a film that developed into an incredible success. Following this hit, he's struggling to conceive a movie to further establish his desired reputation. His latest project promises to be a science fiction film featuring a spaceship. Aside from that aspect, no other features of the plot are revealed. This is probably because Guido has no clue regarding the story either. Guido is never given a moment of peace. He's endlessly hassled by colleagues and friends eager for more work and anticipating the commencement of production. Slowly but surely, Guido begins to lose his inspiration for ideas. Not only is he having trouble getting the script written and a story worked out, but those surrounding him are constantly pressuring him about different things. As a last resort, Guido retreats into his surreal fantasies and childhood memories.
  
  There is much irony surrounding the naivety of Guido. Throughout the course of production for 8½, the script was incomplete. The actors were given their lines for the day each morning before the cameras rolled...often verbally as well.
  
  8½ is an unmistakably unique slice of foreign cinema. The subject matter of a filmmaker reflecting in a fictional way on his own creative process was unfamiliar to the world of cinema, and especially so with the story being derived from the material of the director's own life. The film was also greatly influential for its fantasy elements. The opening sequence is a peculiar dream, with Guido being drawn up into the sky after being hopelessly trapped in a smoking car in the middle of heavy traffic. Throughout the course of the film, Fellini moves seamlessly between reality, dream sequences and memories. The film also benefits greatly from the superbly stylish and extravagant cinematography, as well as the stunning score by Nino Rota.
  However, the film's length is excessive. It's a painfully long film, clocking at about 140 minutes. It's long and difficult to get through. Despite the marvellous technical wizardly on display, I also felt constantly sleepy and irretrievably lost. One probably needs to watch the film constantly in order to properly follow the events.
  
  Mastroianni presents an absolutely wonderful performance as the troubled director. As 8½ is more or less a portrait of director Fellini, Mastroianni dresses and acts like the man he's representing.
  As we're looking in-depth at the film industry, the supporting cast is of course filled with attractive performers. There are several ladies that play a role in Guido's life throughout the film. His marriage is in trouble, he obviously enjoys the company of numerous beautiful girls, etc. All in all, the film is very well acted. Everyone looks the part as respective producers, designers, mistresses, and so on.
  
  Overall, 8½ is an above-average art film that has been endlessly analysed and critiqued. It's impossible to absorb everything during a single screening due to the cryptic and bizarre nature of the proceedings. Director Fellini conveys a very fascinating narrative underneath a coat of fantasy elements and entrancing dream sequences. Not quite the masterpiece that it was made out to be...but then again, only rarely do films live up to their accolades. For example there are some who abhor Citizen Kane while conventional critics still hail it as the greatest film of all time. In the end, it's a matter of what you expect. In my opinion it needed a stronger story instead of the overabundance of dream sequences.

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• 
  
  July 26, 2008

  kenstachnik

  Not really my cup of tea, but I can tell I will appreciate this more with repeat viewings.

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  April 13, 2008

  McKittrick

  There's not a lot I can say about Fellini's masterwork that hasn't already been said. It IS one of the great masterpieces of cinema - anyone who says different doesn't know cinema. Simple.
  A beautiful love poem to women in all their forms - mothers, matriarchs, sisters, wives, mi...( read more)stresses, lovers, whores, actresses... Claudia Cardinale's ethereal entrance at the spa, Sandra Milo in furs, arriving by train and being "more like a slut" and not forgetting Seraghina (Eddra Gale), dancing her dance - rolling her eyes and swiveling her huge hips for the boys. True iconic moments of celluloid-amore that are embedded in this jaded cinephile's psyche. Marvelous!

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  November 18, 2009

  g0y

  Uninspired, self-indulgent and overrated. I hate it. The worst movie ever made. And you probably wouldn't even believe me if I told you why.

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  November 9, 2009

  dipa89

  
  

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  October 31, 2009

  HateYouIgnorant

  !Comercial or Stupid! :|

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  October 17, 2009

  ElCochran90

  "Asa nisi masa! Asa nisi masa! Asa nisi masa!"
  
  8½ (1963)
  
  Director: Federico Fellini
  Country: Italy
  Genre: Drama / Fantasy
  Length: 138 minutes
  
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  No matter how complicated and uncommon may accurately portraying metafilm be, few directors have accomplished to totally comprehend what filmmaking really means. The power of the words in a well-developed script, a cinematography and an editing that can go beyond our own words, a sublime direction like the one that could only come from a "giant of cinema", performances that are so great that they end up seeming extremely natural and the use of a beautiful original musical score that works for every scene of the film are characteristics that rarely can be found in a single movie. Federico Fellini, being one of my favorites "giants of cinema", directs what for many people's opinion (including mine) is his definitive masterpiece and the most representative sample of his visionary capacity of filmmaking, without mentioning that it is one of the best movies ever made by mankind.
  
  8½ depicts the story of a director named Guido who is retired from the movie business and who starts to turn to the past memories of his childhood and youth, coming to a point where he combines reality and fantasy. The movie won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White and Best Foreign Language Film, and had 3 other nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White losing against America, America (1963), Best Director losing against Tony Richardson for Tom Jones (1963) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen losing against How the West Was Won (1963). I totally disagree with the Academy Awards' choice for giving Tom Jones and How the West Was Won their respective Oscars.
  
  There are many important points to emphasize about the direction. In order to give such grandiosity like the one given to 8½ Federico Fellini was the only and most adequate director for the job back in the 60's. His spectacular vision inspired several filmmakers and directors in the future. On the other hand, this is his second movie that shows the total change that Federico Fellini gave to his filmmaking style since he left the neorealist subgenre, being his most prominent and famous films La Strada (1954) and Le Notti di Cabiria (1957), both having the wonderful leading performances of one of my favorite actresses: Giulietta Massina. Once he concluded this stage, he directed his second best film called La Dolce Vita in 1960, where it is clearly shown how he stops portraying the constant struggle of the society that lives in poor life conditions which was represented in a single person in postwar times (unlike the society shown in its totality, like the one Roberto Rosellini brought to the screen in Roma, Città Aperta [1946]) and starts to depict high class society in a very artistic and comical way. Whereas Fellini's neorealism focused on the struggle for survival in difficult life situations, La Dolce Vita and 8½ make emphasis on the existence of the individual, which normally relies on the role of the protagonist of the story.
  
  This movie has one of the best screenplays I have ever seen in my entire life. Besides being complex, poetic, intelligent and well-structured, it significantly helped the film to create particularly difficult and elaborate scenes concerning the appearance of the characters on the screen with their respective dialogues and the surrealism that some of these contained. The script also helps us distinguish between the fantasy and the reality that govern Guido's mind, constantly mixing each other. Federico Fellini created the story of 8½ with Ennio Flaiano, screenwriter that worked with Fellini several times in the past, and they both created the film's screenplay with the help of the talented screenwriters Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi. These 4 brilliant writers worked together for the first time with the screenplay of La Dolce Vita. The fact that the screenplay of 8½ hadn't won an Oscar is beyond me.
  
  The grandiosity of most of the scenes in 8½ comes from the script, but if it hadn't been because of the brilliant edition, these would have never resulted the way they ended up being. The cinematography is outstanding, offering a vast variety of landscapes and both open and closed spaces, and the shots are incredibly constructed. If you put all of these elements together alongside with Fellini's vision, 8½ ends up being one of the most poetical and beautiful films ever made in cinema history. The camera seems to play with the actors and with the different filming locations in which the story is set, dancing to the sound of the wonderful musical score created by Nino Rota. 8½ is brilliance taken to the extreme; it is like if literature and cinema had fallen in love.
  
  The performances were excellent. Marcello Mastroianni, playing the protagonist's role once more, brilliantly performs the confused, depressed, lost and nostalgic mind that Guido possesses from beginning to end. The famous actress Claudia Cardinale and Academy Award nominee Anouk Aimée also did a splendid job as supporting actresses. The cast was excellently chosen.
  
  8½ focuses on the human side that very few films focused for that time, and that even nowadays modern directors find difficulty in portraying correctly, just like Woody Allen paid homage to Fellini with his movie Stardust Memories (1980). Guido is found in a constant fight against his own emotions and memories in order to give his life sense and a meaning, and more than knowing what it is that he should do next with his life in order to be happy, what he really seems to be looking for the whole time is the very meaning of his actions and how these are related with the meaning of his existence. The constant failure leads him to perdition and to confuse reality with fantasy. That is why in the end of the film, which I will not dare to mention, is very revealing, not mentioning that several times we are also going through that difficult phase of confusion and loss of faith.
  
  Something that is very characteristic from Guido's psychology is that he finds (or tries to find) comfort with his own filmic creations, like if these actually existed and had played a very important role in Guido's real life. He comes to a point of such low self-esteem that the simple fact of starting again distinguish his own characters from the people he knew in real life terrifies him. He doesn't know whom to ask for help just as he doesn't know where to find consolation. Incredibly enough, the movie feels like if it were talking to the majority of its audience, since statistically speaking most of the people worldwide have been in that situation at least once. That is why 8½ is for me and for many people a masterpiece that can really move us in a very personal way.
  
  Another slightly treated topic in 8½ is the controversy that we as persons find when we disguise our own depression and/or the effect that personal problems we have, whether these are small or big or whether they have a possible solution or not, may have in us, without knowing if we are doing the right thing or it should be considered as hypocrisy. Although the film does not give a straight and concrete answer, it is left to the viewer's own interpretation. In my opinion, Guido could have prevented losing himself to such degree once he abandoned one of his greatest passions, and that is precisely what we also incorrectly tend to do. Life is characterized by the constant changes that our life plans suffer and the numerous obstacles it presents so we can strengthen ourselves as human beings: No matter how difficult it may be to believe, life will never put us into situations that we can't handle or overcome. If it did, then why were we born in the first place? Where would the purpose that God assigned us when he gave us the beautiful gift of life be?
  
  Ironically, a possible title that had been planned for 8½ was "La Bella Confusione", which means "The Beautiful Confusion". That working title makes us think that the magic of life comes from our constancy of making of our lives something wonderful, unique and different from the life of anyone else. It is definitely the most beautiful confusion we may ever have, and more than a "confusion", it is a search.
  
  Although the title of 8½ caused controversy even among film critics because it was interpreted as a way Fellini used to show off, considering that the title came out from the fact that this is the eighth movie that Fellini directed including a segment of the movie Boccaccio '70 (1962), that doesn't stop 8½ from being one of the most personal and complete cinematographic masterpieces. Its brilliance goes beyond what words could describe for themselves. Whether you like cinema or not, I can't conceive the idea of someone who spent his whole life without seeing 8½.
  
  100/100

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  September 29, 2009

  ahhh1989

  Manages to be a personal film without feeling like one, which is one hell of an accomplishment. Definitely masterful.

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• 
  September 24, 2006

  panchof28

  Wonderful, highly recommended to any movie fan.... a landmark.. words are not enough to describe this
• 
  June 10, 2006

  lentilsoup

  My favourite movie

• Marcello Mastroianni
• Claudia Cardinale
• Anouk Aimée
• Sandra Milo
• Rossella Falk
• Barbara Steele
• Madeleine LeBeau
• Caterina Boratto
• Eddra Gale

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

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  Japon (100%)
• 
  Wedding Director (Il Regista di Matrimoni) (50%)
• 
  Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (73%)
• 
  La Dolce Vita (96%)

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• She plays Guido's (Marcello Mastroianni) wife in Fellini's "8 1/2":  Answer »
• What was Lisa's shoe size in the movie "Wicker Park"?  Answer »
• The film director Guido Anselmi is the main character of which film?  Answer »
• Correction: what movie is NIghtCrawler in? You Chose: b. X-men 2 (Incorrect - 0 pts) Correct Answer: a. X-Men 1 (2%) b. X-men 2 (8%) c. x-men 3 (6%) d. Saw 2 (1%) e. Superman returns (1%) The game said X-men 3 is correct, but in fact I am correct. The answer is X-Men 2.   Answer »

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