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| An appropriately eclectic poster for Federico Fellini's highly eclectic 8½ |
8½ is Italian master filmmaker Federico Fellini's (La Dolce Vita (1960)) highly subjective film about filmmaking, and possibly also the best film about filmmaking ever made.
Marcello Mastroianni (The Night/La Notte (1961)) plays film director Guido, who has forgotten what his next film will be about, and who has the habit of losing himself in reveries and dreams in the time leading up to the film's production.
8½'s structure and narrative remains as refreshing, modern, and fragmented today as it ever was. The film still stuns with its extraordinary language, sound and music. It is a colorful (figuratively meant, because it is in black and white), funny, chilling at one point and erotic at another, vivacious film above all.
The only thing I can say against 8½ is that I think it runs a bit long.
Fellini co-wrote the screenplay with Ennio Flaiano (La Dolce Vita), Tullio Pinelli (La Strada (1954)) and Brunello Rondi (Fellini Satyricon (1969)).
Related post:
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Watch BFI's excellent, restored trailer for the film with English subtitles here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ (rentals)
= Uncertain (but likely a big hit)
[8½ premiered 13 February (Rome, Italy) and runs 138 minutes. It was shot in Italy, including Rome, from May - October 1962. It was screened out of competition in Cannes (because its premiere was set at the Moscow International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize and was met with applause from its 8,000 audiences in the Kremlin's conference hall, worrying the Soviet authorities, who reportedly interpreted the hoopla as "a cry for freedom".) The film won 2 Oscars, for Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design B/W, and lost Best Set/Art Direction B/W to America America, Best Director to Tony Richardson for Tom Jones and Best Original Screenplay to James R. Webb for How the West Was Won. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Was the film made for an at the time in Italy lavish 1 mil. $, it would count as a big hit. Fellini returned with Juliet of the Spirits/Giulietta degli Spiriti (1965). Mastroianni returned in The Organizer/I Compagni (1963), Claudia Cardinale (Brigands/Li Chiamarono... Briganti! (1999)) in masterpiece The Leopard/Il Gattopardo (1963), Anouk Aimée (Les Marmottes (1993)) in The Shortest Day/Il Giorno Più Corto (1963). 8½ is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of 8½?
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