It is here that we have a Fellini documentary, about (what else?) Fellini himself. This movie was made after a failure of another film he wanted to make and on the verge of Satyricon. Fellini, in familiar nonsensical fashion, travels around Rome, visiting the odd characters that we have come to see in many of his films. At first, the similarity between the characters of such films as 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita is striking. But this is a documentary, leading me to wonder how much of this documentary Fellini actually planned. For example, when he is trapped in his room by countless eccentric characters who want to be in Satyricon, suddenly three of the women are dressed in Roman prostitute clothing. It may be that Fellini simply asked them to do this, if they were already so desperate to be in his movie themselves. Nevertheless, there's the woman on the accordian singing about Fortune, the man who tells Fellini to behold his bird-like whistling son, and the giant who walks up wondering if he can be in the film. We also get glimpses into the dreamlike lives of Marcello Mastrioanni (where, in an ironic twist, the man who plays Fellini so well gives Fellini some advice for his own life) and Giulietta Masina, and other characters who struggle to speak-a English for the camera.This is, in a way, 8 1/2 after 8 1/2. And the movie, being only an hour long, might be called "9". The way Fellini presents himself, he is living in a dream-like city, where time has gone by yet stayed still all the while, where eccentric characters crowd his study and where he is harsh and blunt with them, but where he comes to the realization that he needs these characters more than they need him. He needs their imperfections and oddities (we get to meet the clairvoyant seen in La Dolce Vita and Juliet of the Spirits), because in the end, Fellini's just as weird as they are.
My grade: 8/10
My grade: 8/10