8 1/2

8 1/2 (1963)

  • 97% of critics liked it
    (36 reviews)

  • 92% of users liked it
    (41,081 ratings)

Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido… More

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In Theaters
Jun 25, 1963 Wide
On DVD
Dec 4, 2001

Critic Reviews

  • , TIME Magazine

    Unless Fellini's problem has been preying on the mind of the viewer, he may not care to take on the director's doubts and confusions.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    It's Fellini's last black-and-white picture and conceivably the most gorgeous and inventive thing he ever did.

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Here is the author-director picture par excellence, an exciting, stimulating, monumental creation.

  • Bosley Crowther, New York Times

    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.

  • Desson Thomson, Washington Post

    Somehow, the movie is more than the dated crisis of a naval-contemplating artist. It's about the inability in all of us to make sense of our lives, put it all together and come up with something meaningful.

Read all 21 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Sam B


    Like the troubled director at the core of the story, and the actual director, 8 1/2 kind of roams aimlessly for a long time. Yet, when it finally tells us something, it does so with a type of profound insight that all filmmakers would aspire to.

  • Alexander D


    To say that 8 1/2 is a biopic would be only part of the truth. The film is, in fact, an autobiography of Guido Anselmi, the alter ego of the film's own director and screenwriter. The crucially notable fantasy twist, therefore, must tell the viewer one of two things: either… More

  • Melvin W


    Guido: All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be.  "A picture that goes beyond what men think about- because no man ever thought about it in quite this way." 8 1/2 may just be the most perfect film I have… More

  • Emily A


    Oof. It's hard to know what to make of this movie. It's got extremely severe pacing problems, and just when you think that the film has run out of steam, it starts cannibalizing itself. It would seem that Frederico Fellini lives vicariously through a character named Guido, a… More

  • Cassandra M


    This is the greatest movie ever made. Oh, but there's no shooting, no fighting, no car chases. No 800 years old frogs, no light sabres, although people do fly! Instead, there is an artist and his fickle imagination, struggle with the lack of inspiration and the creative process,… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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