8½

Widely touted as one of the all-time great works of cinema, Federico Fellinis 8½ is an elusive film about even more elusive things. Its a meaningfully chaotic picture about trying to distil meaning from chaos and its a creative success about creative failure. It chronicles the resonant moments in one mans life and admits that it cant quite clarify why they matter. Doing justice to its early working title of The Beautiful Confusion, 8½ is a daring high wire act and an outstanding technical achievement that channels its story of artistic crisis into something sweepingly, uniquely profound.

Working again under Fellinis direction after his winning performance in La Dolce Vita, Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido, a creatively blocked director f...

Fellini, deconstructed, improvised and enshrined in a film that (not) pleases everyone.

I'm not a fan or deep connoisseur of Italian cinema, but I've heard of Federico Fellini, and I know that this film is considered one of this director's best films. I haven't seen any of his films yet: this was the first. And honestly, I don't quite understand this fascination: the film is chaotic! I think that, unless someone is an expert in cinema, the vast majority of people who saw the film did not understand it, but then said that it was very good just to avoid being criticized. I'm glad I don't give a damn what other people think of me...

Fellini was out of great ideas, and the production started working without even having an idea of what...

Acclaimed director "Guido" (Marcello Mastroianni) is looking for a peaceable life after his last successful movie, but at every turn he is being pursued by people who want to capitalise on the success. He just hasn't the inspiration though - and determined not to just churn out any old rubbish, retreats to a small town for some rest, recuperation and hopefully inspiration. He in also rather reaping what he sowed as his wife "Luisa" (Anouk Aimée) and her rival "Claudia" (Claudia Cardinale) are vying for his increasingly frayed attentions and that makes any chance of concentration almost impossible. What happens now? Actually that's not so important to the thrust of the plot. What's a little more engaging here is a sort of hybrid illustrating...