- published: 23 Dec 2015
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8½ is a 1963 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director. Shot in black-and-white by cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo, the film features a soundtrack by Nino Rota with costume and set designs by Piero Gherardi.
Its title refers to Fellini's eighth and a half film as a director. His previous directorial work consisted of six features, two short segments, and a collaboration with another director, Alberto Lattuada, the latter three productions accounting for a "half" film each.
8½ won two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design (black-and-white). Acknowledged as an avant-garde film and a highly influential classic, it was ranked third best film of all time in a 2002 poll of film directors conducted by the British Film Institute and is also listed on the Vatican's compilation of the 45 best films made before 1995, the 100th anniversary of cinema.
Guido is a film director, trying to relax after his last big hit. He can't get a moment's peace, however, with the people who have worked with him in the past constantly looking for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left. An autobiographical film of Fellini, about the trials and tribulations of film making.
Keywords: actor, actress, adultery, afterlife, airplane-stewardess, apology, applause, aries, artist, asparagus
Guido: Accept me as I am. Only then can we discover each other.
Guido: Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.
Guido: 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 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.
Guido: My Dears... Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone.
Guido: All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be.
Guido: The truth is: I do not know... I seek... I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive and look at you without shame.
Claudia: I don't understand. He meets a girl that can give him a new life and he pushes her away?::Guido: Because he no longer believes in it.::Claudia: Because he doesn't know how to love.::Guido: Because it isn't true that a woman can change a man.::Claudia: Because he doesn't know how to love.::Guido: And above all because I don't feel like telling another pile of lies.::Claudia: Because he doesn't know how to love.
Writer: You see, what stands out at a first reading is the lack of a central issue or a philosophical stance. That makes the film a chain of gratuitous episodes which may even be amusing in their ambivalent realism. You wonder, what is the director really trying to do? Make us think? Scare us? That ploy betrays a basic lack of poetic inspiration.
Writer: Why piece together the tatters of your life - the vague memories, the faces... the people you never knew how to love?
Guido: Could you walk out on everything and start all over again? Could you choose one single thing, and be faithful to it? Could you make it the one thing that gives your life meaning... just because you believe in it? Could you do that?"::Claudia: I don't know... could you?"::Guido: No, the character I'm thinking of couldn't. He wants to possess and devour everything. He can't pass anything up. He's afraid he'll miss something. He's drained.::Claudia: That's how the film ends?::Guido: No, that's how it begins. Then he meets a girl at the springs. She gives him water to heal him. She's beautiful... young, yet ancient... child, yet already a woman... authentic, complete. It's obvious that she could be his salvation. [Looks over at Claudia] You'll wear white... with long hair, just as you do now.
Head high to feel alive
Head high to recognize
We'll leave you there all alone
See you there tonight
Failed on a thing called sympathy
We miss everything that we thought was right
Kill time like a hobo tries
Kill dreams for a leap of faith
'Cause we'll get it all along
Keep it all inside
It's an endless fight
Have faith until you break
Faith once you've known
Well ride on, I said well ride on
Failed on a thing called sympathy
We missed everything that we thought was right