8½

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8½

Original movie poster
Directed by Federico Fellini
Produced by Angelo Rizzoli
Written by Federico Fellini (story)
Ennio Flaiano (story)
Ennio Flaiano (screenplay)
Tullio Pinelli (screenplay)
Federico Fellini (screenplay)
Brunello Rondi (screenplay)
Starring Marcello Mastroianni
Claudia Cardinale
Anouk Aimée
Sandra Milo
Music by Nino Rota
Cinematography Gianni Di Venanzo
Editing by Leo Cattozzo
Release date(s) Flag of Italy February 14, 1963
Flag of United States June 25, 1963
Running time 138 min.
Language Italian / English / French / German
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

8½ (Italian: Otto e Mezzo) is a 1963 film written and directed by Italian director Federico Fellini. It is regularly acclaimed by film critics as one of the finest films ever made; in a recent poll of film directors conducted by the British Film Institute, 8½ was ranked 3rd best film of all time.[1] The film was shot in black-and-white by influential and innovative cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo, and features a soundtrack by Nino Rota.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The plot revolves around an Italian film director, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), who is suffering from "director's block". He is supposed to be directing an ill-defined science fiction film but has lost interest amid artistic and marital difficulties. As Guido struggles half-heartedly to work on the film, a series of flashbacks and dreams delve into his memories and fantasies; they are frequently interwoven and confused with reality.

[edit] Themes

Marcello Mastroianni as Guido
Marcello Mastroianni as Guido

8½ is about the struggles involved in the creative process, both technical and personal, and the problems artists face when expected to deliver something personal and profound with intense public scrutiny, on a constricted schedule, while simultaneously having to deal with their own personal relationships. It is, in a larger sense, about finding true personal happiness in a difficult, fragmented life. Finally, like many Italian films of the period (and most famously evident in the films of Fellini's contemporary, Michelangelo Antonioni), 8½ is about the alienating effects of modernization.[2]

[edit] Autobiographical elements

8½ is highly autobiographical: Fellini made the film because he himself was suffering from a director's block; the character of Guido (played by Mastroianni, whom Fellini often used to mirror himself in his films) is a representation of himself and many of Guido's memories are based on Fellini's own. Because of this, 8½ is a recursive film: a film about the creation of itself.

Fellini did not originally intend the film to be so obviously autobiographical. According to screenwriter Tullio Kezich, in the original script, Guido was a writer who could not finish his novel. However, when Fellini found out that Marcello Mastroianni had just played a writer in Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte, he changed the character into a movie director, explaining, "How am I going to ask Marcello to play a writer again? He’ll end up believing he’s one and he’ll write a novel."[citation needed]

The title refers to the total number of films Fellini had previously directed: six films plus three collaborations (one of them, Boccaccio '70, counted as half a film as it was a short segment), making this production number 8½. Its working title was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion).

Four years after completing 8½, life imitated art. Fellini's producer, Dino de Laurentiis, had invested in an expensive replica of Cologne Cathedral and other huge sets that had been built in Cinecittà for Fellini's film Il viaggio di G. Mastorna. Fellini then informed de Laurentiis that he would not finish the film. De Laurentiis was furious, much like the producer in 8½.

[edit] Production

During production, Fellini handwrote a note to himself and attached it to the camera below the viewfinder so that he would constantly see it when filming. It stated, "Ricordati che è un film comico." ("Remember, this is a comedy.").

As with most Italian films of this period, the sound was entirely dubbed in afterwards, including the dialogue. One noticeable post-production error occurs when Marcello Mastroianni is waiting at the station and Sandra Milo's train is heard arriving off-screen—we hear the whistling of a steam engine, but when the train finally appears, it is being hauled by a diesel locomotive. This film marks the first time actress Claudia Cardinale was allowed to dub her own dialogue—previously her voice was thought to be too throaty and, coupled with her Tunisian accent, was considered undesirable.[3]

[edit] Technical details

8½ was filmed in the spherical cinematographic process, using 35-millimeter film, and was exhibited with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.

[edit] Awards

2 Academy Award wins: Award for Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design (Black and White).

3 other Academy Award nominations: Best Director, Best Original Story and Screenplay, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Black-and-White).

The film won all of the seven awards it was nominated for at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

The film won the top award of the Moscow Film Festival.

8½ is a fixture on the prestigious Sight & Sound critics' and directors' polls of the top ten films ever made. It ranks number three on the magazine's "Directors' Top Ten Poll", and number nine on the "Critics' Top Ten Poll", from 2002.[1]

It is considered the 4th best Foreign Language film of all time by the Screen Directory. [4]

[edit] Influence

The musical Nine and the Canadian television series More Tears are both based on 8½[citation needed].

The movie Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, has some thematic parallels to 8½, and features music from the film.

Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil had the working title of 1984½. This signified both the influence of Fellini and the George Orwell novel 1984 on Gilliam's film.

Peter Greenaway's 8½ Women is a nod to Fellini's film. Woody Allen's Stardust Memories is modeled on 8½[citation needed], as is Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.

A scene in Paul McGuigan's Wicker Park, when Lisa (Diane Kruger) tells Matthew (Josh Hartnett) that her shoe size is 8½, Matthew responds, "like Fellini".

"A little bit of love", a 2007 music video directed by Remi Rybicki for the Irish-Canadian celtic-punk band The Mahones, is based in part on the Saraghina dance scene. The video is also black-and-white.

In Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes's Ghost World, in a sterile Blockbusteresque video store ironically named "Masterpiece Video", the clerk is approached by a customer (played by Daniel Graves) who requests a copy of 8½. Befuddled, the clerk asks if it is a new release. The customer informs him that it is a classic. The clerk obliges and starts a search on the store's computer. Confidently, the clerk says, "Yes. Here it is. 9½ Weeks with Mickey Rourke. It is located in the 'erotic drama' section." The clerk smiles pleasantly. The stunned customer corrects him, "8½ not 9½! The Fellini film." The clerk stares blankly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Directors' Top Ten Poll. British Film Institute. Retrieved on March 26, 2007.
  2. ^ Screening the Past.
  3. ^ 8½, Criterion Collection DVD, featured commentary track.
  4. ^ Top Ten Listings: Foreign Language. The Screen Directory. Retrieved on March 26, 2007.

[edit] External links


Federico Fellini

Variety Lights (1950) • The White Sheik (1951) • I Vitelloni (1953) • L'Amore in Città (1953) • La Strada (1954) • Il bidone (1955) • Nights of Cabiria (1957) • La Dolce Vita (1960) • Boccaccio '70 (1962) • 8½ (1963) • Juliet of the Spirits (1965) • Satyricon (1969) • I Clowns (1970) • Roma (1972) • Amarcord (1973) • Fellini's Casanova (1976) • Prova d'orchestra (1979) • City of Women (1980) • And the Ship Sails On (1983) • Ginger and Fred (1986) • Intervista (1987) • La voce della luna (1990)
Preceded by
Sundays and Cybele		 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1963		 Succeeded by
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Cinema of Italy

Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Film chronology • Cinematographers • Editors • Producers • Score composers • Screenwriters •
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