8½ (1963)

Funny, fast, exuberant, exciting, and excellent, Fellini's finest (two) hour(s) is a legitimate masterpiece, no exaggeration or even personal opinion necessary. It's really hard for me to find one thing wrong with the film, but it is extremely easy for me to find what is right about it! The plot centers around a filmmaker played with overwhelming suavity and sarcastic comedy by the great Marcello Mastroianni who is struggling to work on his latest film, a project that seems to hint at having the intentions of being autobiographical, centering on religion, skepticism, life, love, and so on, all while he himself is struggling with some inner crisis as well as having some pretty severe marital conflicts. Compared to the other Fellini milestones up until this point, the actual conflict is relatively minimal. There are naturally many moments of drama and sadness, but they never come close to reaching the tragic heights of a film like La Strada, Nights of Caribia, or even La dolce vita, all of which don't really conclude with much cheer or hope, even if signs of said cheer or hope can be found within them. However, 8 1/2, for the most part, is, in both the strictest and most lenient senses of the term, a comedy. It is a jovial experience all around, particularly as the tale closes and a truly magnificent carnivalesque dance number spirals merrily and surrealistically round Fellini's laughing lens in one of the most memorable, hopeful, and simply brilliant endings to any film made thus fair and, I bet you, any film that is to be made in the near or far future.

I have seen this movie more times than I can count. Even the first time I saw it I was struck by Fellini's masterful opening scene and the use of sound & silence. The movie is clever, funny, and poignant. Definitely worth watching.

EIGHT AND A HALF is a fantasy comedy drama about the problems of an artist during his creative process. However, this film is much more than that. This is the story of all of us, the quest for meaning and aspirations for better quality of life.A famous Italian film director, is suffering from "director's block". His upcoming science - fiction film contains some autobiographical references. However, he is torn between marital and business problems. He is resting in a luxury spa center. His friends, associates, mistress and wife "enjoy" along with him. More specifically, they destroy his personality. His anxiety and confusion are a growing problem. He has recurring visions of his ideal woman, which he sees as key to his story. The film production crew relocates to his hotel in an attempt to get him to work on the movie, but he evades his staff, ignores journalists, and refuses to make decisions, not even telling actors their roles. He retreats into himself and begins to search for meaning...The story about a consciousness, memories and dreams, through a strange blend of satire and grotesque, describes a psychoanalysis of one character. A fake luxury and life in a high society are part of a masterful deception by Mr. Fellini. He has made a strange relation between the real and an imaginary world, however, the main protagonist does not feel free in any of these worlds. The main protagonist has actually reconsidered his feelings and fears. His experiences are traces of his life. He is trying, through his experiences, to find a man who is lost in the real world. He has to cope with his own ego, women and business. I think, that he is trying to escape from his own reality, to another, which would become, with certain modifications, again his.The photography and direction are excellent, characterization is almost perfect.Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi is a film director, who is trapped between his ambition and his dream. A man who is not capable for love, must dream and hallucinate. Mr. Mastroianni has offered a phenomenal performance.Anouk Aimée (Luisa Anselmi) is a jealous wife, who wants to change her husband habits. Sandra Milo (Carla) is a charming and somewhat strenuous mistress. She is in total contrast with Louisa's character. Claudia Cardinale (Claudia) is a girl from Guido's dreams and forgotten voice of reason. There is a boring French actress, "a Gothic face" and a mysterious and seems lonely lady from their hotel. Basically .... women.This is an ironic, romantic and charming masterpiece.

For the time -- and probably still for those who haven't caught up to such as explained further along here -- 8 1/2 was a dandy treatise on Catechistic moral absolutism vs. trying to manage one's having been thus in-struct-ed, programmed, conditioned, socialized and normalized into codependent shame, guilt, worry, regret, remorse and morbid reflection with lots and lots and lots of romantic and sexual relationships, and then having to deal with all the moral repercussions. Guido is bemused and de-tached here and there, a-ttached and caught in the grind of shame and guilt here and there, and plain lost in the cultural F.O.G. of fear, obligation and guilt at other times. Fellini had read the classics, as well as the psychoanalysts, social constructionists and existentialists. And having the capacity to manifest what he learned in scenario, character and dialogue, he enlightens the rest of us.