140 8½

[Lino]

8½



Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8½ (Otto e mezzo) turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. An early working title for 8½ was The Beautiful Confusion, and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act.

Disc Features

- High-definition digital transfer of restored film elements (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on Blu-ray edition)
- Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam
- Audio commentary featuring film critic and Fellini friend Gideon Bachmann and NYU film professor Antonio Monda
- High-definition digital transfer of a new restoration of Fellini: A Director’s Notebook, a 52-minute film by Federico Fellini
- The Last Sequence, a new 52-minute documentary on Fellini’s lost alternate ending for 8½ (available on Blu-ray edition)
- Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert, a compelling 48-minute documentary about Fellini’s longtime composer
- Interviews with actress Sandra Milo, director Lina Wertmüller, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
- Rare photographs from Bachmann’s collection
- Gallery of behind-the-scenes and production photos
- U.S. theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring writings by Fellini and essays by critics Tullio Kezich and Alexander Sesonske

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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[Michael]

This has been a good week for me, cinema wise. On Sunday I got to see Bergman's new opus - Saraband - on the big screen. All it took was a train ride to Lisbon and there you go. And just last night, I went to see this Fellini masterwork and cinema touchstone in Oporto (you know, the place where Port Wine comes from). It was a showing of the restored Mediaset print and it was gorgeous! Feeling a bit spoiled right now...

I must say that I had quite a treat. It's really something to watch it on the big screen. All those parades of amazing faces and outstanding camera dance moves, courtesy of Gianni di Vennanzo that also contributed one of the most fantastic uses of black and white contrasts on film ever, make this truly a joy to watch. Such a perfect film!

Michael, I know this is your favorite film ever, so I hope you can take some time off and write more of those beautifully detailed film experiences like the one you did on the Fanny and Alexander thread...

Ok I will try but give me some time. 8½remains my all time favorite film ... my eyes are starting to swell up with tears just to be writing this. The most profoundly emotional, passionate cinematic experience of my lifetime...No film vibrates with more beauty, honesty, and passion than 8½. Underneath the beautiful chaos, 8½ is Fellini's love letter to Giulietta Masina.. making it the most romantic film I've ever experienced. There is so much more. Music. Cinematography.. how they dance and weave everything into the most breathtaking tapestry called 8½.

More on that later.

[Dylan]

Gianni di Venanzo's cinematography is quite likely the most accomplished and most beautiful cinematographic vision I've ever laid my eyes on. The characters are often bathed in shadows or drenched in light... the camera is often moving around the characters (sometimes seemingly choreographed to the music, as has been said many times before), and when the camera isn't moving, it's always perfect and painterly.

[THX1378]

I just pulled out my copy of 8½ and watch it again yesterday because I hadn't watched it in over a year. I've seen the film some 15 times now and for me even in the break of over a year viewing it, it still seems as fresh as the first time that I saw it. I think that this is the lasting power of any great film is the fact that every time you watch it you see something new in it. Or the fact that every time you see it it's like seeing it for the first time.

[Michael]

Fellini's love letter to Giulietta...

Fresh from the wild international success of La dolce vita, it wouldn't be surprising if Fellini found himself being constantly surrounded by gorgeous women everywhere he went. Plus he had a mistress named Sandra Milo who also played Guido's mistress in 8½. Imagine what it would be like Fellini's wife at that time to be dealing with his mistress, the women, and his wild fame... 8½ is one artist's very intensely personal work, baring his soul with every wart.

In 8½, of all the women, Guido's wife Luisa is a challenge to him. She's his equal. She calls him out, demands that he be more than he's ever been. It is clear that he loves her, but does not know how to love her. He is doing a bad job of it. It will take everything Guido has - all his energy, creativity, as well as complete honesty, authenticity, and nakedness - to love this woman. Loving her will never be easy, but will be rewarding. If he manages it, it will be the greatest achievement of his life. In the middle of a conversation about Luisa, Guido speaks of wanting to do something truly honest, something that buries all the dead things in him. Loving Luisa, and earning her love, would be this achievement. But Guido is filled with self-doubt; he is not sure he can manage it.

Luisa is the kind of woman you go to battle for. The kind you die for.

In the end, it seems significant that Luisa is all in white, for the first and only time in the film. Perhaps Guido has realized that the salvation he is seeking is in giving all he has to this woman, that she is everything he needs, not because of what she is able to give to him, but because of what she is able to challenge him to be, and because of what he can give to her. This is the most affirming movie about love I have ever seen - the best love letter an artist could make. Watch 8½ again and you could really sense Fellini's love for Giulietta in every frame.

That's one of millions of reasons why I love 8½.

[Lino]

I had never looked at it that way, Michael. For me it was all about soul-searching and learning how to be true to yourself, which takes real guts. But the way you put it really makes sense! Thank you for sharing that perspective with us!

[Michael]

And another thing, I will never forget Giulietta's tears when Fellini received his lifetime achievement Oscar in 1993. Fellini died later that year and Giulietta followed him a few months later.

[Gregory]

To some extent, I agree that 8½ can be called a love letter from Fellini to his wife. I think Guido himself is the at the absolute center of the film. It is in part about his relationships to the women in his life, particularly with Luisa, shown from his perspective, as they relate to himself. The construction of shots in most films encourages the viewer to identify with one or another character (Before Sunrise seems to be a rare exception).

In 8½, the viewer tends to identify overwhelmingly with Guido, Fellini's alter ego in the film. Fellini made it much more difficult to understand Luisa's character and her conflicts. The film is his statement about his own struggles, in part to resolve his conflicts with Luisa, and others. And it is affirming, I believe, in a subtle way. In the film's original "railroad car" ending, Guido and Luisa are splitting up and are discussing who will keep the apartment, when finally, Guido has an epiphany that allows him to reach out to Luisa (and others), and the film ends with a rapprochement. Fellini decided to substitute the "parade" ending because he said it had more "showmanship" in it.

However, there is another major theme in the movie is about Fellini's feelings about himself as an artist. After La dolce vita, Fellini was plagued by fears that he would lose his creative powers. When preparations for his next film began he developed some degree of writer's block (or "director's block) and decided to incorporate that problem into the film. In the end, Guido regains his artistic prowess. But how? I've never been sure I fully understand Fellini's idea of Guido's epiphany at the end.

[Mr Sausage]

She's his equal.

Luisa is the kind of woman you go to battle for. The kind you die for.

Despite not being sexually where Guido wants her to be (hence the buxom Sandra Milo as his mistress, or Claudia Cardinale as his unattainable ideal) and being made up as a mousy kind of sterile intellectual? She seems not at all the type one would fight and die for; in fact she seems rather boring and passionateless throughout. I believe reading more closely Cardinale's character (as ideal love and as real person) would yield more than elevating Luisa to some pedestal she seems to resist. As far as a love letter to Guliette, I really cannot see it, nor can I see Guido's wife as anything more than just one small part of that long chain that forms the end.

[Gregory]

Guido's infatuations with Carla (Sandra Milo) and Claudia are symptoms of his immaturity. With Carla he indulges whore fantasies he developed as a boy with La Saraghina. His religious school's punishment of him for these fantasies both repressed them and made them more enticing.

With Claudia, he engages in a kind of virginal woman-worship. He is too weak and immature to fully relate to the commitments and complexities of a relationship with a intelligent, three-dimensional woman. So he imagines that if he could just be with Claudia instead, she would be perfection, all would be blissful. By the time of 8½, Fellini had begun to distrust realism and use his films to show his characters' imaginations, perceptions, dreams, etc. We don't see Claudia as a real person, we identify with Guido, and the film is an extension of his mind and imagination. Again, he is just trying to escape from his problems rather than concentrate on solving them.

Luisa is the one Guido really knows, has loved, and wants to realize how to love in the right way. As I said in my post above, the film is a self-centered one, so Luisa is portrayed largely as Guido's key to understanding himself. If she seems "passionateless" toward Guido it may be because she knows he is being untrue to her and they're going through a severe crisis.

[jorencain]

Despite not being sexually where Guido wants her to be (hence the buxom Sandra Milo as his mistress, or Claudia Cardinale as his unattainable ideal) and being made up as a mousy kind of sterile intellectual? She seems not at all the type one would fight and die for; in fact she seems rather boring and passionateless throughout. I believe reading more closely Cardinale's character (as ideal love and as real person) would yield more than elevating Luisa to some pedestal she seems to resist. As far as a love letter to Guliette, I really cannot see it, nor can I see Guido's wife as anything more than just one small part of that long chain that forms the end.

I have to agree with this. Guido is confused, both in his work and his personal life. I don't think that he shows any signs of maturing throughout the film in regards to women. He keeps running away up through the end of the film. He may recognize his own infidelity and immaturity, but he thinks that Claudia Cardinale is his "way out"; if he had her, his dream girl, then everything would fall into place for him. I don't remember a reconciliation between Guido and Luisa before the press conference - is there one? If so, that may prove me wrong. Otherwise, I agree that he may feel guilty about his infidelities, but Luisa's just another part of this huge production that he's the ringleader of.

[Gregory]

The "circus parade" ending is somewhat obscure to many, and here it seems it be leading people to conclusions that are (to my knowledge) supported by neither the rest of the film nor Fellini's published remarks.

The reconciliation between Luisa and Guido is much more apparent in the original "railroad car" ending. Fellini filmed the train sequence, then shot the circus footage for a trailer and decided to use it as the ending to give it a big finish (although he said that both endings were equally valid). The train sequence footage unfortunately seems to be lost forever. On the last forum, I typed out that portion of the treatment and the script -- maybe I'll go through that again sometime. Anyway, maybe that ending would shed more light on Guido's change at the end and Luisa's crucial importance to him at that moment.

[Dylan]

Anybody have this yet? It's a great-sounding documentary about the lost ending of 8 1/2. I don't have it yet, but it can be ordered here.

Dylan

[Michael]

My goodness! This documentary looks great. Has anyone seen it?

[javelin]

Anyway, maybe that ending would shed more light on Guido's change at the end and Luisa's crucial importance to him at that moment.

But you cannot analyze a film (or book, or any piece of art) for what it could have been, or what it isn't. You can only analyze it for what it is. Moreover, a primary analysis of the film should be deduced from the film itself and not the filmmaker's personal life (admittedly, this line is often blurry.) That's why, while I admire the profound effect the film had on Michael, I also do not agree with the sentiment that the film is a love-letter to Masina or that Guido's wife is his ideal. Certainly she's admirable, and Fellini was probably saying something about Masina, but I cannot see how that thesis would stand throughout the film.

[Mr Sausage]

If she seems "passionateless" toward Guido it may be because she knows he is being untrue to her and they're going through a severe crisis.

You seem to misunderstand. She's passionateless in general. And she doesn't offer Guido any way out of his troubles--there's a reason the two of them aren't swinging around in a circle by themselves at the end; there's a reason Saraghina, Claudia, Carla, as well as Luisa, join that circle. She is not entirely what he needs and never will be, just like his ideal, Claudia, isn't what he needs. And if she truly knew him the best then she'd likely understand why he invited his mistress along, and why he needed her. As it stands she really doesn't to some degree, and even tries to make him jealous with that young hunk in her entourage.

Anyways, the film just doesn't support this reading. If you could give actual examples from the film that does, I would recant. Until that time, though, I'm entirely unable to see it.

The reconciliation between Luisa and Guido is much more apparent in the original "railroad car" ending.

And yet Fellini changed that ending and came up with a new one and deliberately suppressed that reconciliation. Why? Because he didn't want it. That's something of a hint.

[Gregory]

But you cannot analyze a film (or book, or any piece of art) for what it could have been, or what it isn't. You can only analyze it for what it is.

You can analyze the director's intentions on the basis of an alternate ending that the director filmed and believed was just as valid as the ending that was used, as was the case with 8½.

Moreover, a primary analysis of the film should be deduced from the film itself and not the filmmaker's personal life (admittedly, this line is often blurry.) That's why, while I admire the profound effect the film had on Michael, I also do not agree with the sentiment that the film is a love-letter to Masina or that Guido's wife is his ideal.

I don't quite follow you here. What's exactly is a "primary analysis"? Why can't a filmmaker have personal motivations for making a film, and why shouldn't critics examine evidence of those motivations to better understand the film?

She's passionateless in general

How do you conclude this? Again, I would argue that the film is not a realist one and that everything we see in the film is through the lens of Guido's mind and perceptions. She seems passionless to Guido because over a long period they've been descending into a severe interpersonal crisis.

there's a reason the two of them aren't swinging around in a circle by themselves at the end; there's a reason Saraghina, Claudia, Carla, as well as Luisa, join that circle. She is not entirely what he needs and never will be

As I've said, the film is self-centred, not focused on both Guido and Luisa as equal characters, so she naturally wouldn't be in the center with him at the end. It's about Guido's own problems relating to others, most importantly his spouse. Why assume that all the others are of equal importance? Because they're all in equal proportion in the parade? That strikes me as an oversimplified reading, which doesn't recognize the way the plot developed up to that point.

You asked for examples, so here are some: There is ample reason to conclude that Guido's relationship to Carla is of lesser importance to hilm than his relationship with Luisa for several reasons.

1. His contact with Carla is developed to a great extent simply to flesh out the conflict between Guido and Luisa. E.g., Guido and Carla's daytime encounter at the outdoor dining area is important because Luisa sees it and reacts to it.

2. Guido's communication with Luisa is shown to be on a much deeper and more significant level than his communication with Carla. Most stories are all about conflict, and 8 1/2 is no exception. Moreover, Guido's conflicts with Luisa are far more deep-seated and substantial than any he has with Carla. From which follows ...

3. Guido's commitment to and relationship with Luisa is much more important to him than those with Carla. His interest in Carla is in exercising the whore fantasies that he developed as a child with Saraghina. He is not interested in who Carla really is but rather in her capacity for role play.

This example is limited to these three characters, but one can draw similar conclusions about Claudia and other characters, which diminish in importance compared to Guido's conflict with his spouse. This is very clear in the "railroad car" ending that Fellini felt fully conveyed his ideas about Guido, his problems, his epiphany, and what it means to his relationship with Luisa.

And yet Fellini changed that ending and came up with a new one and deliberately suppressed that reconciliation. Why? Because he didn't want it. That's something of a hint.

You're glossing over some important facts, many of which I've already stated:

He didn't choose the ending he did in order to "suppress" the reconciliation. He had already filmed the circus parade footage for a trailer and decided that it could be edited to show the end of the story he intended just as well as the railroad car ending had: That Guido reaches an epiphany, marking a turning point in his relationships with Luisa and others.

Later, he said that both ways of showing what happens to Guido at the end were equally valid. So, no he didn't suppress anything, he chose a different way to show it. Why? Because he didn't want/like the "railroad car" sequence? No, because the parade ending had more "showmanship" in it, according to Fellini. This supports what I've been saying: He didn't change his mind about the ending to change WHAT happens to Guido, he did so for reasons of HOW it was shown. He wanted a flashier finish, that's it. And since Fellini felt that both endings were equally true to his intentions, both can be analyzed for purposes of understanding the story and its characters.

[Mr Sausage]

She's passionateless in general

How do you conclude this? Again, I would argue that the film is not a realist one and that everything we see in the film is through the lens of Guido's mind and perceptions. She seems passionless to Guido because over a long period they've been descending into a severe interpersonal crisis

You just answered my question: "She seems passionless to Guido because over a long period they've been descending into a severe interpersonal crisis." I conclude it because the film shows it to me. Since we get nothing else it does no good to force meaning onto her. She is in this movie as she is; we must read her actions only.

1. His contact with Carla is developed to a great extent simply to flesh out the conflict between Guido and Luisa. E.g., Guido and Carla's daytime encounter at the outdoor dining area is important because Luisa sees it and reacts to it.

Now who's being simplistic. I don't for a second buy that she's only there to flesh out the 'central' role Luisa plays in his life. If anything the film is building towards his meeting with Claudia, not his wife's arrival (if you want to give that conflict such a central role and reduce the others to merely aiding it.)

2. Guido's communication with Luisa is shown to be on a much deeper and more significant level than his communication with Carla. Most stories are all about conflict, and 8 1/2 is no exception. Moreover, Guido's conflicts with Luisa are far more deep-seated and substantial than any he has with Carla. From which follows ...

Because Carla is a complete bubble-head whose deepest thought relates to how poofy her hat is. Guido is with her because he desires her carnality.

3. Guido's commitment to and relationship with Luisa is much more important to him than those with Carla. His interest in Carla is in exercising the whore fantasies that he developed as a child with Saraghina. He is not interested in who Carla really is but rather in her capacity for role play.

His relationship to Carla is indeed that, but it's no less important because of it. Guido needs such things; it is an essential part of his character. All the women in his life are dear to him and it's really debatable whether some are more significant than others.

You're glossing over some important facts, many of which I've already stated:

To be quite honest I don't actually remember you saying those things earlier; if they've been "glossed over" it wasn't intentional.

In any case your point seems to be both 8½ is centered totally around Guido and that Luisa plays the most central of the secondary roles--the film existing just to reconcile the two. But as I've been trying to point out, seemingly to no avail, is the film isn't just a build-up to a reconciliation with Luisa, hence why they don't spin in a circle by themselves. She is very important to him there is no doubt. But she is not central to him, and so in his final dream he needs everyone with him. He needs Luisa, yes, but he also needs all the various parts along with her, which can only suggest the film is not just about leading him to a reconciliation with Luisa, but leading him to reconciling his own personality and its disparate desires. I do not try to diminish Luisa, but nor do I try to put her on a pedestal above all the others. And nor do I see her as a love letter to Massina.

[Gregory]

She is in this movie as she is; we must read her actions only.

I think she's in the film not as she really is but as Guido's mind perceives her and conceives of her. It's a deeply Jungian film (indeed, Fellini was in Jungian psychoanalysis at the time) and it's important to avoid thinking that anything we see in the film was intended to be the camera objectively capturing reality.

A parallel, I think, is Kubrick's Lolita. The film is an adaptation of a book written from H. Humbert's perspective, which is distorted by his obsessions, etc. Thus, it's important to keep in mind that Charlotte Haze, from an objective or "3rd person omniscient" perspective, would have probably been a lot less pathetic and needy. She is depicted that way because that was how Humbert perceived her, because he didn't love her but was using her to get to Lolita. Any careful evaluation of a character in such a text, I believe, needs to keep these "filters" in mind.

In any case your point seems to be both 8 1/2 is centered totally around Guido and that Luisa plays the most central of the secondary roles

Yes.

the film isn't just a build-up to a reconciliation with Luisa, hence why they don't spin in a circle by themselves.

That would tend to suggest that the film was really about both characters equally. Most of all, it is Guido's own struggle to attain a genuine sense of himself, and self-acceptance, and to bring that to bear on his relationships with others. He's finally in control of these things at the end, which is why he's leading the parade with his whip. Still, I don't believe that Luisa is the only important person to him at the end (even in the "railroad car" ending the seats are filled with all the women in his life) but I also don't think they're all equally important to him.

the film is not just about leading him to a reconciliation with Luisa, but leading him to reconciling his own personality and its disparate desires.

I agree -- well said. But the reconciliation with Luisa was extremely important to Fellini, in bringing Guido's story to a close. Humbly, I wonder if perhaps the ending that he used doesn't communicate that as well.

And nor do I see [Luisa] as a love letter to Massina.

Yes, I agree that it's not quite apt to sum up the whole film as a tribute to Masina or a love letter to her, but I believe there's some truth to it nonetheless. In other words, it's part of what the film is. Fellini once said, "I am Guido." The film is not strictly autobiographical, of course, but I think there's strong evidence that the Guido's conflicts were also Fellini's, particularly issues of trust and fidelity that Fellini and Masina struggled with. He often disliked openly discussing the personal nature of his films at length, but I think the fact remains that the film was a very personal one -- not just about his fears of losing his inspiration and becoming artistically impotent, but also about the interpersonal issues explored in the writing, filming and editing of the film.

In the interest of providing some sources for what I've said:

Boyer, Deena The Two Hundred Days of 8½ New York: Macmillan, 1964; Garland, 1978.
Bondanella's books and Fellini on Fellini are also good, but I haven't dug those out in awhile.
Chandler, Charlotte I, Fellini New York: Random House, 1995

[Mr Sausage]

Well, since most of what you wrote in there I agree with there's nothing much to add, except:

I think she's in the film not as she really is but as Guido's mind perceives her and conceives of her.

I am indeed aware of that (apt comparison with Lolita, tho' I've never seen the movie; I've read the book, tho', so I'm aware of what you're talking about) but to my mind we can never get past this nor detach her from Guido. We can only take her as she is--dour, mousy, sterile, whatever--and should not attempt to divorce her from her perceiver. To do so is to speculate on what isn't there and read into the text. Hence, for me, she shall always be the mirthless one.

Oh, and thank you for the sources, although in all honesty there's no way I'll ever find time to read them.

[Gregory]

With certain texts -- e.g. novels such as Lolita or Catcher in the Rye -- the author intends the reader/viewer to understand that the main character through which the story is conveyed is not always a reliable source of information about how events really happened, what characters are really like, etc. In 8 1/2 we find heavy use of similar subjective storytelling devices. Thus it's really not reading into the text in a way that creates misunderstanding. On the contrary, it's reading between the lines in a way that's necessary to arrive at an accurate understanding of the characters and story. That's my view of it, anyway.

A note about the Deena Boyer book for anyone who wants to look it up: it's out of print and rare, but any good interlibrary loan program should be able to get it.

[Mr Sausage]

Yes, but in those instances, where language is the case, we can read ironies, small slips, any various language tricks. With film, on the other hand, it's terribly difficult to do that, and 8 1/2 half gives us absolutely no definitive proof about Luisa or the other characters to the contrary of their presentation. Creating pure ironies with the camera is quite hard. In Luisa's case I believe reding between the lines just gives us vague suspicions and little more. Unlike Nabokov who in his novels gives us much more than that.

[lord_clyde]

Just picked this up for 20$ and I was wondering, how old is the trailer on disc one? I'm curious because with all the reviews heralding it as one of the greatest movies of all time (which it certainly is) I couldn't help but wonder if it was a rerelease trailer. I've noticed that with some movies people have to look back on them to realize how great they were, is it possible the world realized what Fellini had achieved so soon after its initial release?

[Gregory]

That's an original trailer, not one that was produced for a revival. The film was extremely well-received by critics upon its release and the United States was no exception. Pauline Kael wrote an interesting review at the time, and most of the major media outlets hailed it as a masterpiece. It was nominated for five academy awards and won two. 8½ is one of those films that's had a consistently high reputation.

Viewers thought highly of it, too, although there were some exceptions -- it was rejected in some of the Italian provinces, for example. The producers were worried that audiences in rural areas would find it confusing, so the prints going to those areas had spliced-in color footage of the fantasy sequences to make them more obviously distinct from the rest of the film. Fellini was adamantly opposed to this, of course. It seems that because of its non-linear narrative structure, some people just weren't going to get it, and color dream sequences didn't help. Maybe they also should have added TV-style wavy visual effects and harp glissandos to lead into the flashbacks of his childhood!

[Michael]

I don't know if this has any relevance to 8½ but I had just finished reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time. It took me two years to finish it. The book reminded me strongly of 8½. It is about a person searching how to begin writing a book. Only at the end does he become ready to write the book... the book that you've just finished reading.

Too early to say but I'm beginning to think that Proust's book might be the greatest fiction ever written.