Fellinis 8.1/2 Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

not for everyone

I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a bad film, but I’d certainly say its appeal would be limited to a very small audience. Those who like art house pictures will find this self-indulgent romp a delight, however the flipside is that those who don’t would probably sooner do themselves serious self harm than watch all two hours of ‘8 ½’.

Personally, I found the showy manner in which the film was shot rather tiresome after a while and would have preferred Fellini to prove his abilities as a film-maker in a fuller sense – e.g. by making more than a cursory attempt of entertaining the audience, rather than somewhat arrogantly assuming that such things were below him (after all, it is a skill in itself).

In particular, his reputation for intelligent filmmaking was nowhere evident in the script – for all its ‘artifice’ it remains the one unambiguous thing about the film since he is quite incapable of subtle, nuanced self-analysis. This will sorely disappoint those who remember Fellini’s intelligent plotting and his ability to both shock and delight with equal ease in La Dolce Vita.

It is (of course) beautifully/pretentiously shot, incomprehensibly scripted and, to a great extent, plotless. However, to criticise it on these counts would be unfair – these are not Fellini’s criteria. The pleasure of the film is in appreciating the cinematography and the references to Fellini’s work, not in the film itself.

Fellini's 8? is an entrancing masterpiece from start to finish; it is often complex and confusing, challenging the viewer to disentangle the various narratives - those of reality and fantasy - before any meaning can be translated and understood. The film follows a director's retreat into his own subconscious, as he suffers a nervous breakdown under the pressures of his latest film. It opens with a surreal sequence where the delirious protagonist, Guido, suffocates inside his car as others in their cars look on in apparent uncaring nonchalence. Later, the film sees Guido revisit childhood memories and past romances in ever stranger sequences, as the director (and Fellini) tries to assemble his vision - it is no coincidence that Guido's girlfriend, Claudia, is played by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale..<br><br>However, whilst it is almost thoroughly autobiographical, 8? is perhaps best read as a film about filmmaking - an ascerbic metafiction that confronts some of the absurdities which Fellini himself often observed, and challenges how films are supposed to "work", in much the same way as Godard or Truffaut. 8? is a film that delights and compells because it plays upon a knife edge, ever-threatening to collapse in upon itself (as the scene at the end demonstrates). It is Fellini's considerable skill that ensures it remains utterly watchable to the last.