There are films that the viewer can assimilate and enjoy in one viewing. There are others that demand a second view, just to catch the missing clues or to re-live the story for the first time. Still, there are others, much better, who despite the plot revelations, despite knowing what will happen, produce the feeling of giddy anticipation taken to soaring heights.
And then there are films by Directors -- monsters of film-making who even at their worst create compelling works of art that are the stuff of film theory. To see Federico Fellini's film 8 1/2 is to see such a creation. It is the gates of a Dalinian fun house where the past and the present and even the future converge into one intricate, tangled mess of a story -- but one that is beyond analysis, beyond interpretation, and exists in its own universe.
8 1/2 is the story of a film director, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni doubling for Fellini), who is unable to continue with the production of a science-fiction movie due to his lack of interest in it. A tightening noose of people who demand of him is beginning to take shape and suffocate him. There is his mistress Carla (Sandra Milo) who throws her earthy neediness on him. A barrage of producers, film critics, and his insecure French actress (Madeleine LeBeau) increase the pressure. His wife Luisa (a severe Anouk Aimee) is estranged from him. Gloria Morin (Barbara Steele) is Gothic-chic incarnate and only succeeds to annoy to hell out of her surroundings. The appearance of two nebulous women: the muse Claudia (Claudia Cardinale, luminous and ethereal) and the mysterious actress (Caterina Boratto) spark some mystery, but neither manage to do more than that -- throw a net of feminine mystique.
Guido tries to throw himself into his own memories and see if he can come up with something: his sexual awakening as a boy to the songs and the overpowering carnality of La Saraghina (opera singer Eddra Gale), a Rabelasian woman who lived by the sea, the sanction of the priests, and a fantasy in which he lives in a household of all of the women in his life who are at his feet ready to serve him with abandon. Despite all this it becomes clear that the film in itself will not be made -- more so when his muse appears in the flesh and tells him he "does not know how to love." Her statement becomes evident when he is given the chance to reconcile with Luisa but remains the Director -- a control freak -- even when he himself has lost all control.
8 1/2 is one of those films that can be seen in multiple ways. An extended conscious dream fusing itself with reality, Fellini plunges everything he can into a sensory overload where one event which happens in reality becomes framed with another which is a part of a memory or a fantasy. Many characters from his own reality are mirrored in other minor ones. Carla and la Saraghina both reflect themselves in the flesh-and-blood Claudia who tells Guido he does not know how to love, Luisa sees herself in an actress on-stage and recoils but she also shares a lot with Rossella (Rossella Falk), Guido's conscience, Claudia the muse and the Mysterious Lady are two and one, and on and on. They themselves are harbingers of a vicious relationship cycle where Guido finds himself at Stage One and unable to act or give in. This is a film that is not easy to review because it would require an in-depth analysis which would take pages upon pages to write, but in short, it's the slow evolution of a film creating itself when its own director/creator is on autopilot and a whirlwind of activity follows him like a swarm of bees. A masterpiece of film-making, a study of obsessions and unexpurgated demons, a collage of memories past and present, and a wicked roller-coaster ride: this is what 8 1/2 stands for and is, alongside CITIZEN KANE, a flawless black and white film and the womb for all other "Proustian" films which have come out, most notable being Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES. From its standout opening sequence in which suffocating traffic is the catalyst for Guido's escape into the skies (only to be pulled back down by himself), to the glorious moment when Jacqueline the showgirl and Saraghina initiate a revolt against his misogynistic behavior to the moving final sequence where Guido as a boy orchestrates the descent of every person in his adult life and reveals them dancing, together, in harmony, in a conga-line, 8 1/2 is an unforgettable experience of iconoclastic cinema.
And then there are films by Directors -- monsters of film-making who even at their worst create compelling works of art that are the stuff of film theory. To see Federico Fellini's film 8 1/2 is to see such a creation. It is the gates of a Dalinian fun house where the past and the present and even the future converge into one intricate, tangled mess of a story -- but one that is beyond analysis, beyond interpretation, and exists in its own universe.
8 1/2 is the story of a film director, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni doubling for Fellini), who is unable to continue with the production of a science-fiction movie due to his lack of interest in it. A tightening noose of people who demand of him is beginning to take shape and suffocate him. There is his mistress Carla (Sandra Milo) who throws her earthy neediness on him. A barrage of producers, film critics, and his insecure French actress (Madeleine LeBeau) increase the pressure. His wife Luisa (a severe Anouk Aimee) is estranged from him. Gloria Morin (Barbara Steele) is Gothic-chic incarnate and only succeeds to annoy to hell out of her surroundings. The appearance of two nebulous women: the muse Claudia (Claudia Cardinale, luminous and ethereal) and the mysterious actress (Caterina Boratto) spark some mystery, but neither manage to do more than that -- throw a net of feminine mystique.
Guido tries to throw himself into his own memories and see if he can come up with something: his sexual awakening as a boy to the songs and the overpowering carnality of La Saraghina (opera singer Eddra Gale), a Rabelasian woman who lived by the sea, the sanction of the priests, and a fantasy in which he lives in a household of all of the women in his life who are at his feet ready to serve him with abandon. Despite all this it becomes clear that the film in itself will not be made -- more so when his muse appears in the flesh and tells him he "does not know how to love." Her statement becomes evident when he is given the chance to reconcile with Luisa but remains the Director -- a control freak -- even when he himself has lost all control.
8 1/2 is one of those films that can be seen in multiple ways. An extended conscious dream fusing itself with reality, Fellini plunges everything he can into a sensory overload where one event which happens in reality becomes framed with another which is a part of a memory or a fantasy. Many characters from his own reality are mirrored in other minor ones. Carla and la Saraghina both reflect themselves in the flesh-and-blood Claudia who tells Guido he does not know how to love, Luisa sees herself in an actress on-stage and recoils but she also shares a lot with Rossella (Rossella Falk), Guido's conscience, Claudia the muse and the Mysterious Lady are two and one, and on and on. They themselves are harbingers of a vicious relationship cycle where Guido finds himself at Stage One and unable to act or give in. This is a film that is not easy to review because it would require an in-depth analysis which would take pages upon pages to write, but in short, it's the slow evolution of a film creating itself when its own director/creator is on autopilot and a whirlwind of activity follows him like a swarm of bees. A masterpiece of film-making, a study of obsessions and unexpurgated demons, a collage of memories past and present, and a wicked roller-coaster ride: this is what 8 1/2 stands for and is, alongside CITIZEN KANE, a flawless black and white film and the womb for all other "Proustian" films which have come out, most notable being Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES. From its standout opening sequence in which suffocating traffic is the catalyst for Guido's escape into the skies (only to be pulled back down by himself), to the glorious moment when Jacqueline the showgirl and Saraghina initiate a revolt against his misogynistic behavior to the moving final sequence where Guido as a boy orchestrates the descent of every person in his adult life and reveals them dancing, together, in harmony, in a conga-line, 8 1/2 is an unforgettable experience of iconoclastic cinema.