Freedom Catharsis: Reflection of Dreams I loved this movie so much... Fellini managed to turn a capricious womanizer into a touching figure. Even his ridiculous imaginary grief is a piece of the most sensual in him. . . A film about how the muse does not come to you. There are several strange views on art: either “to create, one must suffer”, or one must be happy, concentrated, in all kinds of streams, nothing should interfere. But life is not like this, no one has a life without experiences. And then you realize that when you're not shooting badly, and when you're shooting worse. There are no ideal conditions to do your job : The final dance scene gives us an incredible breath - we didn't believe in us, nobody believed in us, but we were able to make a movie.
Eight and a Half (1963) is a reflection of Federico Fellini on his creative path, expressed in the existential crisis of the protagonist. Fellini’s previous great work “Sweet Life” (1960) just marked the peak of the work of the Italian director of the fading era of neorealism.
The film is autobiographical, it tells about the successful director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), preparing for the shooting of the next film. The problem is that he has no script, no idea, and the producers are attacking. In parallel with this, the main character unfolds a love drama - his mistress comes to him, and then his wife, who learns about the betrayal and decides to break up with Guido.
All events are interspersed with the director’s dreams and memories of his childhood, perfectly executed in terms of editing and construction of scenes. This becomes his key to resolving the crisis - Guido decides to make a film about his life and experiences - childhood (Catholic school, crazy dancer), relationships with women (wife, mistress).
At first, Guido may seem like a cornered wretched creator. This is especially true for those who are familiar with creative torments and burning deadlines. However, throwing the hero is only an attempt to bring his state to the absurd, when the situation is heated to the limit and it is impossible to stop the running process. This is about loss of control, and about the desire to remove responsibility, and about self-digging, which can be subject to any person, not just the eminent director. But does a figure like Fellini, or rather Anselmi, have the right to rush and hide? Does he belong to himself in his reflection, or does his talent and genius oblige him to serve?
The very fact of the existence of the film “Eight and a Half” confirms that, yes, the creator has the right to go to the darkest and farthest corners of his soul and mind, to extract the least attractive pieces from there, to close himself off from the whole world or even to make a movie about it. The conclusion that begs at the end of the film is very simple, it is to stay true to yourself and maintain love for loved ones.
Separately, I want to pay attention to how women are represented in the Fellini tape. Throughout most of the picture, there was a feeling that the heroines here were either stupid or hysterical. And act, rather, as a staff of creative efforts Guido and his disliked inner child. To claim depth here can only be that the wife of the director, who affects his decisions and fate, as the wife Fellini (Julietta Mazina) inspired him, becoming a real muse for him. Guido seeks answers about himself through love for his wife and through the pain he has caused her.
Mastroianni’s play, the work of the cinematographer and art workshops clothed the author’s idea in black and white tragicomedy, in which everyone can find something of their own. This makes the film of the 1960s relevant to this day.
7 out of 10
Each filmmaker had their own main film. The film, which grew to the name: Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”; Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Mirror”; Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”; Federico Fellini’s “Eight and a Half.” This is the eighth and a half film, as the director shot six full meters, two short meters (half and half gave one) and a tape co-authored with Alberto Lattouad “Variet Lights”, where the director did his 50 percent of the work.
What kind of thing is that? The autobiography of Fellini through the main character - Guido. Guido is a director who lacks inspiration, a creative crisis. The first shots of city traffic are surprising, but the shooting of the main character locked in the car clearly shows his compression, inability to fight. It is interesting to find quotes of this film in the future works of Andrei Tarkovsky: traffic jams in Solaris, the flight of the hero over the water in Andrey Rublev.
Awakening in the health center, drinking mineral waters (as if the resorts of the Stavropol Territory) show us Guido in creative agony. This is what a person looks like who doesn’t know what to take off. The unhurried narrative is interrupted by the constant image of Claudia Cardinale, causing the viewer to gradually lose the connection between reality and visions. Meetings with the producer, with the actor's friend - everything leads the director to look for inspiration within himself.
Flashbacks throw the viewer back to see Guido's parents, his childhood. At first it is unclear: why and why? But the more the director immerses himself in memories, the longer he delays the production of the film. Many women surround Guido throughout his life: from the moralizing of his mother to the mistress who arrived at the hotel to shoot. Having a wife also affects the mood of the director. So Guido creates a female circle, putting himself at the center of everything.
Emphasis can be placed on the early rejection of women and subsequent worship. Dreams, where all the ladies around him gathered in one house, explain that the character is always in search: in search of new sensations, new passion, and the emphasis on the age of the ladies plays an important role in working on himself (he is like Leonardo DiCaprio, girls choose by age).
Federico Fellini shows a decline in strength, while trying to give his Guid more mystery. What is the director thinking, hiding his eyes behind the dark lenses of glasses? Hidden desires and the search for self. This is the level when everyone wants something new from you, pressure from all sides, and you can’t build the right picture in your head. It is not necessary to live up to expectations, but to surprise and do better. The tape again goes into philosophy and flashbacks, when the main leap is obtained using the formula of success.
Trials, conclusions and moral teachings demonstrate the incessant search for perfection. Wife, mistress, other actresses. Everyone is waiting for something dramatic, so surprise from the scenery immediately determine the genre of the tape. The film ridicules talent, showing that the creator is pressured by everything. Yes, this is Fellini’s biographical view of himself, but...
The tape is tight. Filmmakers would appreciate statements, references to the fact that events from life should be included in films, but we see what has become of the production and scenery. The director wanted to show the change of the hero and his attitude towards himself and others? I showed you! What does the original plan lead to? Tragedy! Therefore, Felinney overplays in comedic tone, which is also explained by the presence of clowns, but Guido becomes more sensitive. Changing Guido as a recognition of Federico himself is what the director wanted to show. You can run away from the past, you can ignore people, but to create a full-fledged “self” you always need those who will be there. Eight and a Half shows indifference, awareness and acceptance.
“A picture that goes beyond what men think because no man has ever thought of it that way.”
Everyone sees in '81/2' something of its own due to the multifaceted specifics of information transfer. I saw boredom, but in the positive key of the word.
Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a burnt-out director who has lost landmarks in the course of life. Through his mind and perception, we discover the nature of human feelings and thoughts. All attention is paid exclusively to his figure, the rest is leveled and passes by his ears. I’ve often found myself thinking that my hearing and visual aids to Guido were letting the other characters’ speech flow away into the unknown, as if you were in the clouds. The worldview of the main character is built on a shaky and indistinguishable border between reality and fiction. Here the genius of Fellini is full of various ways, leading candid images of his life, possible for diverse interpretation. This is the case when cinema stops just telling a story - now it breaks the bounds of art, trying to take it to a whole new level.
Despondency in the picture is the strength of the idea of finding the meaning of life. It overwhelms you with the protagonist, forcing you to go from beginning to end. Guido tries to return to the usual flow of life, but internal indecision caused by drearyness does not allow him to do this. Detachment from reality is its main obstacle. The flight of thoughts, like floating in the sky, in the opening scene, becomes his idyll, from which he cannot escape. When he is called upon to ascend to heaven, he is only standing on earth. The combination of the present and fiction - the final dance - opens a kind of happiness to the hero.
For the Grand Prize for '8.5' G. Chukhrai fought desperately at the Third Moscow Film Festival. This film was highly appreciated by A. Tarkovsky and, they say, did not hesitate to borrow his techniques and style in his paintings. R. Balayan noted that on the set 'Flights in sleep and reality' music from 'Eight and a half' was constantly sounding. Many followers of Fellini included in their films allusions to various elements of this picture (for example, the rain falling under the roof of the house in ' Solaris' is clearly related to the snow falling from the ceiling on the main character in '8.5'). It is quite natural that the film with the director as the main character, the image of which may well be a sarcastic self-portrait of Fellini, is loved and revered by filmmakers. First of all, the film is understandable and close, they see all the technical innovations applied by the author of this film, deservedly defined in the classics of world cinema.
Another thing - we, ordinary viewers, who seem to feel the extraordinary film, but the first time can not comprehend a multi-layered plot. It remains only to trust the statements that this film is dissolved in additional meanings at subsequent views.
I watched '8,5' only once and honestly I will say that I do not yet understand everything.
Applied in '8,5' narrative technique ' stream of consciousness' recognized by jewellery critics. But for the simple viewer, it turns the picture into a complex puzzle. '8,5' is a continuous series of dreams, memories, visions, fantasies and perhaps delirium. And here deliberately not placed the author's clues, which an inexperienced viewer could use to decode the key mystery: what, in fact, the meaning of the film. In traditional films, a voice-over would explain to us: ' and now we will look at the pictures of the hero’s childhood, which will explain to us the origin of his erotic fantasies.' And here the author is silent. However, in the separated episodes, it shows strongly related scenes, which serve as a subtle hint for us. In one scene we see the main character in childhood, surrounded exclusively by the female world - mother, grandmothers, aunts, sisters. In another scene, we see an almost complete analogue, directed by the hero himself - a harem in which he placed all the women he met on the path of life. Here are the wife and mistresses, many other women we already know from the film, as well as those we have not seen yet. Here the hero appears as the master, deftly restoring order in the harem, disturbed by the defiance of its inhabitants.
In the film, sometimes there are signs of reality, which mainly confuse the viewer, since this apparent reality may well be a mirage.
Trying to answer the question of what this film is about, you come to some assumptions. Maybe we are shown how the main character ends up in purgatory and undergoes ordeal? And that is why we have different pictures of his life. For good reason, there is an image of a bathhouse located somewhere in the dungeon, into which, along with the main character, masses of secondary characters descend in slender rows.
Maybe the hero is already in hell. The film begins with a semblance of his death, which occurred by choking in a traffic jam. And then 8.5 is not only the number of films Fellini made (according to the conventional version), but also a trip through hell with a stop somewhere at half the last of his nine laps.
Finally, it is likely that Fellini did not care that his work was bound by the obligations of logic. And then anyone who seeks meaning in it falls into a prearranged trap.
Something similar can be found in the late film Fellini & #39; And the ship sails'. It begins with footage of a black and white silent chronicle. We trust this documentation, but suddenly the silent video sequence is complemented by sound, to which color is added very soon. We don’t see this as a catch and are gradually getting used to the new verisimilitude of the storyline. But then, trusting this imaginary verisimilitude, we will be forced to find ourselves in the process of debunking it: at the end of the film we find ourselves in the early 1980s, on the set of an opera film. Here we will have to admit that we were frivolously seduced by operatic passions and plywood scenery.
About the same in 'Eight and a Half'. We tried to follow a narrative that was continually interrupted by seemingly abstract storylines introduced into it. And in the end, they were also on the set of the film. But only the set is more like a circus, in which clowns reign, and with them all the life companions of the protagonist are gathered in one arena - his wife and mistresses, deceased parents, the cardinal with his retinue and everything. All life, previously so meaningfully played out, reduced to clowning. The search for the meaning of the plot, and together with the meaning of life, led us to the conclusion that there is no meaning in either. And this is the main discovery ' existential tragicomedy' Dispelling logic and meaning by destroying the usual traditions of film narration is the main goal of the author, which is declared in the epilogue of the film by the critic: ' It is better to destroy than to create ... We choke on words, on images, on sounds that come from emptiness and go into emptiness. From an artist really worthy of this title, one would have to demand only one loyal act - to learn silence. If you can’t have everything, NOTHING is true perfection.39
And I must say that Fellini is extremely masterfully destroys stereotypes and stamped traditions, and so softly and gracefully that for his destructive activities he not only did not pay for his reputation, but on the contrary, received the honorable fame of a pioneer.
At 43, Fellini enters her zenith, making one of her best, if not best, films, 8 1/2. It is not only about the creative confusion that haunts the artist, not only about the chaos of inner life that one must learn to control in order to create, it is about the inability to reconcile the contradictions of life and the need to accept it as it is. After the first viewing, it is simply impossible to capture all the nuances of this oversaturated film with details, words, visual and acoustic accents, which is not only a narrative, but also a reflection and itself. In the 1970s, the film of Jean-Marie Straub and Daniel Yuye “Oton” wrote that it is “self-knowing”, but it is in “8 1/2” that we see for the first time in the history of cinema how characters comment on previous scenes.
The deep spiritual meaning of Fellini’s painting is in accepting the chaos of life in all its pristineness, the understanding that neuroses, complexes arise from the desire to reconcile what is not reconciled (primarily the desire of the mind and body). Some may find the ludicrously sexist fantasy of bringing all Guido’s women together in one family (isn’t that a preparation for Women’s City?) and then pacifying them, but it’s just a funny attempt to reconcile enemies. Fellini believes that the true cause of the creative crisis stems from the fact that the artist is torn apart by contradictory impulses, most of which are unconscious. To rationalize all this, as does the film critic (the true shadow of the protagonist!), means to impoverish your inner world.
Impulses, desires, dreams, according to Fellini, should be transmitted by means of cinema (or other art) in all its immediacy with minimal interference of reason. Visconti called Fellini a “cinematic animal”, apparently referring to this impulsivity, uncontrolled expression of the images he creates. In the depth of Fellini’s work lies a primitive, pagan delight in life, primarily its sensual sides, and the complexes and problems of his characters (not only Guido Anselmi, but also, for example, the heroine of Juliet and Spirits) stem from a purely human attempt to somehow organize their emotional life. The great spiritual significance of such a picture as 8 1/2 is that it teaches the viewer not to fear himself, his inner demons, his unconscious, but to try to accept him as he is.
Perhaps in this attempt of emotional equalization is the meaning of the final dance of all the characters. This is the fundamental difference between art and life: in the latter there is always a hostility of heterogeneous forces and impulses, people and emotions, reason and feelings, in art it is possible, if not to reconcile all this, then to give in all the complexity of the rotation of this madness. Art is a transformed life: Fellini, like his hero, gradually comes to understand this truth. Art can provide a refuge from life, where the power of fantasy the forces of life appear in a much softer form than on the other side of the screen.
8 1/2 is a great picture, so masterfully shot and assembled that all its confusion, all its chaos, all its oversaturation create a true illusion of the primordial chaos of both the inner and outer worlds. However, it is transformed chaos, controlled chaos. And, oh miracle! It is a chaos that saves both its heroes and the director with the audience from total control by reason, a chaos that heals from complexes and neuroses arising from a proud attempt to understand life in all its complexity and diversity.
The oculus of common sense, creative clouding. Fellini, as always, is unquestionably replete with fundamental aesthetics, starting with sophisticated decors, ending with subtle counterpoints and chamber tricks with the positioning of the subject, which cling to their trigger fabulas, causing a palette of emotions. Exciting and complex camera kulbits have no end and no beginning. Myriad examples of faithful and refined motives. Fellini's theme is often about deep psychological realism, a kind of calligraphic handwriting of the author. And then the Creator again. The Creator drowned in the illusions and simulacra of reality. The madness of modernity, consisting of a hellish-immersive process that is driven by a schematic theorem of inertia. Surrounded by enemies and traps, surrounded by philistines and cordiality, the director, incriminated in the midst of despair, has an entelechy that phagocytizes the body from unimportant phenomena in his life. Surrealistic masterpieces in this creation are impressive, the face of reality and sleep, the portal of light and darkness, the corrupting darkness, the olfactory, degenerate era of the transformation of Art into “modern art”. Criticism of avant-garde and competent interpretation through the prisms of allegories, metaphors, and other things. Synecdoch deliberation about the truth of the creator's motivations, understatement, but paradoxically integral saying. Anthropological metonymy based on a subject resembling an emotional essay, with the author’s frank contempt for the huge gap between people, the desire of some to go into their scientific texture features in comparison with previous species, and others to come to their animal essence, to the “original” incarnation. Of course, some of them try to balance, but often this is not possible and they are given to extremes. A precursor for the reminiscence of subsequent creators, along with some Murnau, Fellini turns inside out and very much according to the precepts of expressionism mentally explosive every path of the Great, which in general was already in a state of death, it was worth writing an obituary and closing the book of History. Another triumph with the compilation of the philosophical paradigm in this film forces you to frantically enjoy “Eight and a Half”. Sensitive strings of universal understanding, diverse color reproduction of thoughts, academic music, not barbaric Sounds for Goles, the legendary renaissance of the proscenium, scenes, airscene. Ballet of Disease and Confrontation. Treatment or destruction? In the temptation of the evil fall in art, or superiority through escapism, to sacrifice men to conquer vices, to get rid of valuntarism. Buy carte blanche for the price of fatum, emancipate yourself and die in freedom. I feel, like any other creator, how necessary it is for Fellini and for you, but at the same time I feel how impossible it is. Our being is monotonous, we are particles of snow, appearing as emanations, ending in nothing. Countless of us are similar, but structurally almost homogeneous, characterized by a petty epiphenomenon. What matters is what we leave behind after we die, not what comes with it. Immortality is only possible in the sciences. My intelligibility and that of others remains well known, but it is impossible to discover this theorem, which expresses the thanatology in its dawn. Hedonism is probably the right way out, maybe not? All the dead that we conceal in ourselves to bury, ornate racetrack of weaknesses to break. But how, why doesn't it work? Throwing from one corner of the room to another, wandering the sufferer and his thoughts about his relations to him and to himself. Fellini once again sublimates the audience with himself, along with a personal film about the concepts of finding a way and salvation that live to this day. Federico wants to hang himself, Federico wants to jump from a height into the open sea, Federico suffers to stop being a hypocrite and begins to talk to the Reader of the film frankly, ruthlessly and directly. The lack of the ability to sincerity, love, measurement in the everyday life of our lives, through the cinema, exhibits its own, alone with itself. An indistinct circus of fantasies, one in the whole world.
- Do you want to make a movie?
- Yes.
- Then do it!
- No, I won't.
- Why did you say that to me then?
- I don't know.
Apocryphal insecurity in everything, emotional torture of the author, lead him to inaction. Only death can stop all this. And the cold broke, and the snow broke, and the ice broke. To find a way out, spinning around yourself, around someone, it seems that all the time in vain.
a film about the shooting of a film by a weakling director surrounded by beautiful women, not a film, however, but a parable about himself? of course, like all directors
I'm not kidding, it's just a great comedy!
This review is my answer to the pompous attacks towards this film from the endless number of “warnings”.
I've seen this movie twice. To be honest, for the first time I did not understand almost nothing, but I did not write it down on the account of the film - put it on the shelf and decided to reconsider in a couple of years, maybe the opinion will change, it is not for nothing that this film is considered by many to be one of the greatest in the history of cinema.
Two years later, I decided to make myself a month of Italian cinema (' Leopard' Visconti highly recommend 10/10) and previewed the documentary by Martin Scorsese ' My voyage to Italy' where the famous director and excellent film critic analyzed in detail '8 and a half' and I understood what was the main problem of my first perception.
It was primarily about unpreparedness. I had never watched anything like this before, so I simply didn’t understand the transitions between reality and fantasy, memories and dreams. I simply did not understand who the main character was, what the film was about, and had no idea at all about the topics involved. Today I finally got a renovated version of Criterion and, my God, how good it was! The smile just didn’t come off my face the whole viewing, and the music of Nino Rota... can be applauded standing up! The viewing was so easy that you were amazed!
This is not the kind of movie you have to approach with a clean head and no preparation. I’m not going to describe in detail what the film is – everyone should feel it for themselves. I just want to emphasize that you should not categorically send such a movie to the folder ' boring' and ' not for everyone'.
Yes, it is, of course, not for everyone, but not because it is some kind of surreal nonsense in the style ' Last year in Marienbad' (also an interesting movie, by the way), but because to immerse yourself in such a film you need enough movie baggage, immense love for art and trying to understand what you see. After all, the more your insight into the cinema of this genre, the more you try to understand and understand it, the easier it is for you. And the greater the range of cinematic pleasure becomes available to you.
Learn to love and appreciate a really good movie. Welcome, everyone.
10 out of 10
Without a doubt, this picture of Federico Fellini is a masterpiece of cinema. 'The flow of consciousness', demonstrated by the director, is still so impressive that you become an unwitting participant in the carousel of the main character’s mind, ceasing to distinguish the line between reality and sleep.
Fellini’s work has inspired countless filmmakers and such impeccable films as 'Brazil'. Terry Gilliam and many others simply would not have seen the light of day without the creative source in the form of '8 and a half'.
It is very interesting that the director actually reveals himself in this tape. Marcello Mastroianni embodies the autobiographical image of the director himself on the screen, perfectly illuminating the creative torment of the director on the way to creating another cinematic work. The actor at the highest intuitive level retransmits ideas, thoughts, images of Federico, combining a troubled past, a crazy present and an idealistic-utopian future that is clamped in the clutches of hopeless dreams born far before the reality in which the main character is now.
All our dreams will fall into the abyss if we do not decide what we really need. As the main character, at the same time cooled and burning to his wife, wants to start over with her, realizing that she is completely different from the inner ideal of a woman, which he formed in a distant childhood. A woman who, like her own mother, will care for him and love him tenderly while he creates. That’s why Marcello’s character has a mistress who is also married, trying to escape the reality of his own marriage. The eternal search for the true ideal woman leads him to create a film, the production process of which turns into a real hell, filling the whole space with a mad whirlpool of unrealized ideas and ubiquitous participants in this very process, who tirelessly rush the director, preventing him from calming his idealistic vision of his own film, bursting from mental images for even a second.
'8 and a half' will forever remain a diamond of cinema, another touch of which inspires new achievements both in creativity and in life in general.
Federico Fellini is considered one of the greatest filmmakers in world history. Most of his films reflect the thoughts of the director himself on his life, on life as such, on the history of his country and the world in general, on human relationships and, of course, love. At the same time, he shows all this in such a soulful and human way that it is simply impossible not to fall in love with his films. However, the pinnacle of his work can deservedly be considered only “8 and a half”, which had a huge impact on the world of cinema.
Recognized throughout Italy, director Guido Anselmi is preparing to shoot another film. The producer has allocated huge resources for scenery and costumes, the screenwriter is about to write an idea, several worthy candidates have already gathered for the main roles, but the director can not gather his thoughts. Guido is in a creative crisis caused by disappointment in life and love. He can't concentrate on his work. In his head mixed thoughts about filming, about his wife and mistress, about family and childhood, about the women who surrounded him all his life. This whole stream of consciousness takes the form of unusual fantasies and surreal insights, in which he eventually finds inspiration not only for work but also for life.
The play of the actors “8 and a half” is characterized by an unusual manner of acting with a measuredness and calmness not characteristic of the Italian temperament. But at the same time, the characters simultaneously feel sensuality and passion, but not vulgar, but spiritual, childishly naive. In this vein, first of all, it should be noted the legendary Marcello Mastroianni in the role of Guido – in fact, the prototype of Fellini himself. Guido is a talented director who enjoys respect both among the public and among his colleagues in the workshop. He has a wife and, as is customary in Italian films, a mistress. He has money, fame, influence, opportunities, but he doesn’t get any emotional returns from all this. By and large, he is simply bored, and the hero is forced to carry a dead weight in himself, which does not give him the opportunity not only to create, but also to live normally. I would also like to mention Anouk Eme as Louise, Guido’s wife, who has come a long way with him and has long understood him as an artist, as a man and as a person. However, she is disgusted by the idea that even after 20 years of marriage, Guido could not understand this, who used to tell lies for the truth.
Directing 8 and a Half is generally considered an autobiographical film, and frankly, you can agree with that. In literature, there is such an artistic method of “stream of consciousness”, reproducing the mental state of the character through verbal “registration” of his experiences, memories, thoughts. Fellini managed to transfer this technique to film, reformatting the internal state of her character from verbal to visual “registration”. The film really closely intersects the real events and the fantasy of the hero. Here he is during breakfast trying to hide from his wife the fact of infidelity, when the restaurant is his mistress, and here in his head the wife and mistress became best friends, and then generally teamed up with other women from his life. Metaphorical is a fundamental part of the film, but all these images do not seem incomprehensible. On the contrary, the meaning is clear and clear, although, probably, every viewer will see some interpretation of these images.
Of course, with such a description of the manner of narration it may seem that the film and the plot as such do not, but this is not so, because he would not then have received such popularity. According to the plot, the main character Guido Anselmi, a respected director throughout Italy, is preparing to shoot a new fantastic film, at least for some reason decorators are erecting a giant model of a spacecraft. The producer requires Guido to decide on the choice of performers for the main roles, the screenwriter – with a common idea, and the actors – with the images of their characters. But neither one nor the other, nor the third in the head of Guido has not yet worked out. Honestly, in terms of work, he still “did not have a horse lying around”, but Guido still does. The hero is in a deep creative and life crisis. He was tired of his work, of an intrusive mistress demanding attention and at the same time constantly mentioning her husband in her conversations. On the one hand, he is insanely ashamed of his wife Louise, but at the same time he can not refuse the affair. He is wildly irritated by the bombast, the tinsel, the fanfaronism that surrounds him. The hero tries to find answers to his tormented questions in religion, in his memories of his childhood and parents, in his fantasies about his favorite actress Claudia (played by the beautiful Claudia Cardinal). But in order to find answers, find inspiration, and finally find himself, the hero will have to endure the emotional shock of the possibility of finally losing everything he already has, and what he previously did not really appreciate – these are memories.
I have a theory according to which all Romance peoples, which include Italians, in genetics laid craving for art. One cannot but agree with this – look at the masterpieces of architecture, sculpture and painting, with which Italy is literally dotted along and across. And this ability to create masterpieces went to Italian cinema. After watching 8 and a Half, I became convinced of this theory. Of course, maybe now Italian cinema is not as bright as before, but the fact of the masterpiece of the works of the same Fellini is beyond doubt. It is generally believed that every real moviegoer should see this film. Now I have this box, which I recommend to you.
Fellini's fantasy about the artist's place in the modern world, which is still relevant today. It's a film of reflection, a film of consciousness, if you compare Fellini to writers, it would probably be Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. And if with the directors, then Chaplin, since the desire for a holiday in the frame brings them very close.
Before watching, it is worth knowing that there are 4 narrative “lines” in the film:
1. Reality;
2. Fantasies;
3. Memories;
4. Sleep.
The transition between them is not marked, so you need to look very, very carefully. Due to the lack of transitions and direct gluing of frames, a surreal effect is created, you will not understand “where you are now” and what is happening at all. That's Fellini's innovation. No one has ever done this in cinema before. This was possible only in speech, but not in the movies. This is a brave, certainly unusual decision of a genius. Just because of this fact, it is already worth choosing this film to watch tonight and join the history of cinema and trace the experience of a great creator.
By the way, you knew that the famous dance of Uma Thurman and John Travolta from Pulp Fiction. Tarantino, is this a copy of a scene from Eight and a Half? (Tarantino has never hidden his fondness for copying scenes from his favorite films).
The main idea of the director was to show the world of the artist from the inside. This film is about the film and its creation. Fellini himself sought to create a comedy, he even wrote himself reminders that he creates a comedy, as a result, the film turned out to be serious and touched on many aspects of human existence.
The main task of Fellini’s artist is to create, and to create, as long as he believes that he is doing really well and inspired. (By the way, this reminded me of the dialogue between the Homeless and the Master in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita.) Remember when the Master asked the poet if he liked the poems he wrote, and he replied that he did not, to which the Master advised him not to write again. Also, the film reveals the theme of “the creator and his creativity”, the critic, Guido’s friend, says at the end: “The world is already full of superfluous things, and adding confusion to confusion is not the case. Do you think anyone would be interested in the wretched catalogue of your mistakes? – this phrase reflects the doubt of the director regarding his film, he kind of asks himself whether anyone will need “8 1/2”. The true creator is the one who is objective towards himself and his creation. If you have written, do not write, because your creation will not bring anything into the world, if you “removed”, do not shoot, there are so many bad movies in the world.
It is also impossible not to mention costumes and makeup! Costumes in movies are like images from dreams, the director said. Dreams and dreams teach us that there are universal means of language: it is possible to convey to another person the sensation of every object, color and detail of clothing. Therefore, costumes embody a certain aesthetic, help tell the story of the character.” The images of the heroes are perfectly thought out. The heroines flaunt in luxurious outfits and phantasmagoric headdresses. Whether it's plush mistress outfits with white fur and a black veilette, or strict laconic men's suits, hat glasses. Donna Fellini’s makeup is very interesting, the emphasis is on wet eyes, each makeup is very bright, as if there is some story behind it.
I definitely recommend watching the movie! After watching it, you will understand why his cinema is being discussed today, why they argue about it, and what Fellini has, which still inspires in him not only people whose lives are connected with cinema, but also fashion designers, musicians and writers. Now I'm going to watch his Amarkord and Sweet Life, are you with me?
Fellini's film is about the dream of all men - polygamy.
What is the famous film '8 and a Half & #39? Federico Fellini? To put it very briefly and simply, this fantasy film is about the eternal desire of all men to reconcile all their women: his wife and numerous mistresses. How great it would be if the wife was engaged in the household, and the women ' harema' completely obeyed their dearest master, acted according to the statutes that he defined. Older people would go somewhere remote. And at the same time, quite a kind fellow, film director Guido would not suffer from moral torment over his constant betrayals, betrayals and any other such nonsense that complicates the life of a man. It is a film about Guido’s desire to be completely free, unencumbered, and that everyone else, especially women, should simply fulfill his wishes.
Speaking of the Guido family, the dialogues after 20 years of marriage of a handsome man with his wife, exhausted by his constant lies, are familiar to almost all families in which the husband is a guljaka: He said, “Louise, if you had to endure a little more... but you don’t want to endure...” She said, "You lie as you breathe." He said, "But what are you going to do alone?" She said, "Aren't I alone right now?" "I'm not going back! Go to hell! And #39: I’m not the person I want to be. Louise, I wish I could look you in the eye without shame... but accept me as I am.
I don’t know, this infantile talk in the mouth of the most charming Marcello Mastroianni disgusts me, because he really doesn’t love anyone, he just doesn’t want to go out of his comfort zone if he loses his wife, and he doesn’t care about her constant torment. . .
What is the result or conclusion that the layman will make after watching this film - no, emptiness. Guido really has nothing to say to people, not even to his wife, because there is no remorse, no desire to change anything ... yet his wife will once again forgive him and continue her terrible life. . . ?
It seems to me that in his life everyone has heard the name of Frederick Fellini, in one of his unmade films on a thin ice floe in a glass of martini with a hero on a hero, a heroine on a hero, but from the shots I would like to tell my impression today about the film 8 and a half. I approached him for a long time, constantly postponed as I thought that it would be too incomprehensible and autobiographical, the set is specific, will you agree?), but one evening the loud name of the director and my tender mood still persuaded me to watch.
I will tell you right away, if you want to watch something interesting so that the evening flies faster, you are not here, if you want not to delve into the analogous, but if the mood is to contemplate beauty and try to understand what is going on in the head and soul of great creators-greats.
The film is permeated with some elusive longing, the search for yourself, eternal and of course just incredible women, I do not know yet such a film that can be safely called an ode to beautiful luxury ladies - these outfits and makeup can be taken as a separate art form, I do not know if there is already such a term, but I would enter “Lady Fellini”.
Is it worth watching? Definitely worth at least for the original dance of Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction, which as it turns out Tarantino borrowed from Fellini, for the atmosphere, beautiful Italians led by Marcello Mastroiani and the inspiration that gave me this film.
9 out of 10
This film fascinates from the first moments, and its charm does not weaken until the very last minutes. This film, dedicated to the creative crisis of the director, is a triumph of directorial skill!
If literature at the beginning of the XX century reached the pinnacle in the creation of the novel-stream of consciousness, then Fellini definitely achieved this in cinema. Not only does he deliberately not separate the incredibly metaphorical dreams of the protagonist from reality, he skillfully depicts with the eyes of the same hero all the turmoil, the cycle of people and hands, something thirsty and waiting from the creator, who has no strength to create.
How elegantly and elegantly Fellini presents the theme of mental crisis. And how symbolic that the main character director is a role that every person normally should play in his life.
How did his crisis begin? From the moment he decided to make a film that could heal people’s souls, he decided to teach them something important when he decided he had something to teach. Turns out he's devastated. He has absolutely nothing to say. All he can do is turn to his past or present. But he cannot find a connection between the individual echoes, he cannot connect them.
Interestingly, the sign of this depressed state is not only the inability to say, but also the loss of taste, taste for life and taste in life. The most striking example of this is a loudly dressed mistress instead of an elegant, but less catchy wife.
No less symbolic is the scenery built in the field (a charming detail!) – huge and meaningless. Illustration of how a person seeks to go into space, instead of solving earthly problems. Interestingly, it is the main character who refuses to climb it, in the end he finds it quite mundane application.
How great Fellini plays on contrasts: still quite young Marcello Mastroianni looks ridiculous surrounded by elderly people marching to the procedures. Paolo Sorrentino will recreate the scenes in the sanatorium in many years in his film “Youth”, adding another detail from Fellini’s film – a breathtaking panorama of the field, on the edge of which stands a man-memory. The contrast of scale creates a fascinating effect.
I wonder where healing comes from. The main character tries to appeal to faith, and quite literally - he addresses the cardinal himself. But the cardinal gives the most anticlerical answer - why everyone thinks that they should be happy in this life. According to Fellini, beauty rather than faith will save the world. The director himself is presented with a valuable lesson from the most unexpected, on the one hand, and on the other - almost the entire film of the expected character. The lesson is simple, but difficult to perform, so even in the last minutes of the film, the viewer cannot be sure that he will be fully mastered by the main character. But there is definitely a positive trend...
This is a real cinematic masterpiece, magnificent in all its manifestations!
The second time I saw the picture “Eight and a Half” (1963) by Federico Fellini. How fascinating that was! With the same smile as the first time, I watched the absolutely nonlinear plot inverters of reality and the stream of consciousness, the smile of the protagonist and his piercing ironic look through the horn frame à la Kingsman (sense where it all came from, eh?), his endless women and constant “talk about nothing”, through which the apogee of theatricality, the artificiality of life’s troubles seeped.
The film tells us about the stage of the creative crisis of the fictional famous Italian director Guido Anselmi, whose previous film was unusually successful. The producer, dizzy with success, invests millions on scenery, actors, screenwriters, as long as he starts working on a new picture. But Guido is disappointed in life, in love adventures, and all the ideas of the future masterpiece can not form a single plan.
In many ways, the autobiographical film gives us a contradictory reality, where Fellini himself in the image of a hero and a director of life, and trickster infantil, and the main clown of the whole secular circus. Critics with the position of Soviet socialist realism (are they still alive?) may note that the director shows the collapse of the bourgeoisie, drowning in its senselessness of existence and the absence of any spiritual values. Defenders of moral values will condemn the hero for his detachment from pressing problems, for the spontaneity of thinking and understanding of the world. Only the director, I think, and did not intend to exalt or degrade anyone. He staged a theatrical production, where he embodied his sense of creative crisis, when the desire to create turns into a desire to hide in a diaper under the whispering of an old grandmother as in childhood. And now, at the moment of making a responsible decision, when the money of greedy producers is at stake, the hero enters into polemics with himself and his past, and if to judge by Freud, then with the unconscious part of himself - "It" (in the desire for conflict-free relations with many women, in the desire for unrealized creative permissiveness) and the imposed public consciousness - "Super-I" (in the form of strict Catholic education and observance of the norms of family values nurtured from childhood).
Guido Anselmi is Fellini’s alter ego, a hero who is hard to sympathize with, but even harder to condemn, except for his inaction. But he has an excuse for this: “Destroying is better than creating if you don’t make things that are really necessary.”
But he destroys literally everything in his path: the project of a new film, family life, relationships with people in his circle. Why should I ask? Perhaps for the sake of what he was desperate for all the time—freedom and truth, personal and creative—that he may not have found, but at least he tried. In the end, everything can be replayed, which is what our pinocchio does in a tuxedo for the finale, building the entire cast of a real film in its own way, with its own script and in accordance with its plan.
An extraordinary mix of reality and unreality, excursions into the past and exposure to the present create an extremely intimate film-impression, a film-essay about the director from the director. Fellini does what many might take to be an act of self-centeredness—imagine herself behind an easy-to-read mask, talking about her wanderings in the creative field. But, as you know, during the production of the film, he constantly kept one thought in himself, from which he did not retreat one step: “Remember that this is a comedy.” Confession from the trickster in any case can not be perceived by confession as such. This is a farce that has grown to a scale when the truth is just around the corner. This, undoubtedly, for me personally, one of the most interesting finds of the picture is to make almost true a confession from a hero whose actions, with rare exceptions, did not contain sincerity.
“Eight and a Half” is almost a recursion of Fellini, reflected in curved mirrors, which makes the essay about creativity turns into a caricature of a fragment of his own life, where there is a share of truth and a considerable piece of excellent lies in the best sense of the word.
P.S.: The visual part of the picture causes an immediate impulse to creativity. It's a powerful game. This is one of the heroes of the film, no less!) camera work and editing, light and shadow within the framework of a black and white film - a creative feat of the entire production group of the film.
10 out of 10
The amazingly attractive film 8 and a Half (1963) is perhaps the most significant film in the directorial career of Federico Fellini. And even though many people will cry out to me and say “Sweet life”, I will only smile: everything is beautiful from under the hands of a genius. And let the characters of the compared films intertwine, as if they are identified with each other: the creative crisis, the actor Marcello Mastroianni (with whom Fellini considered himself alone as a whole), the fact that both are to some extent a reflection of the director himself, and let him. “8 and a Half” is definitely a more personal movie, because Federico Fellini essentially exposes himself to vices and his own insensitivity, whereas in “Sweet Life” society does. More personal because it's clean.
The original title of the film “8 1/2” contains all the films that Fellini has ever made: six full-length, two short films (which he counted for one), as well as “Variet Lights”, created in conjunction with Alberto Lattuada (the same “half”). This film is an absolute rethinking of creativity before him, a retrospective look into the past, immersion in an almost schizophrenic chromatoscope of scenes from real life and dream visions.
Watching the creative quest of Guido Anselmi, the viewer is completely reunited with the space indecently symbolized and metaphorical everyday life of the creator, creating his new film and lost in this process due to disappointment, creative crisis, futile aspirations to realize how to be in the future. The director combines two pictures on the screen, where one is a personal creation that tells about what is happening, and the other is the one that his main character creates. And both films are translated tracings, symbolically figurative reflections of the lives of their creators. And each of them, in my opinion, has reached a period of life when everyone is trying to rethink the results of his life, to systematize it. In the creative profession, this is undoubtedly achieved by creating a new child, through which the lost or forgotten meaning is found.
There are no accidents in the black and white tape, because all the images, heroes and characters of the picture are thought out to the finest details, as well as the scenery, costumes, music, the actors’ play – their gestures, manners, angles. Each scene, each frame is like a separate photograph with incredibly structured objects filled with symbols and metaphors - the camera work is perfect, as are all the components of this film.
After viewing, there remains a persistent feeling of treacherous involvement in someone’s life: in a life overtaken by a creative crisis that develops into a crisis of life and its comprehension. The film will be infinitely close to all creative people who have overtaken this stage of rethinking their own works: when you need to find something new inside yourself or outside, get rid of the load, gain all-consuming power and take off. I remember one phrase of the hero: “When did I lose my way?” I have nothing to say, but at the same time I have to say something.
The film is recommended for multiple viewing, because with each new vision at different stages of your life, you pay attention to completely different details and moments that open the picture with many faces and intersecting planes.
For the first time after watching the movie, I asked myself, “Who am I to judge this process?” ? .
The beginning of the film seems a little confusing, but it is worth gaining strength to continue to delve into what is happening. .
The plot of this film completely goes into the process, the life process of a mature man who does not hesitate to confess to the viewer, using all conceivable and unthinkable directorial techniques that he has, roughly speaking, “in his heart.” In addition, the idea is that he is trying to create a film based on this process. But the process within the process is a difficult task, and at the end, the protagonist finally begins to analyze his chaotic behavior. By this point, the entire shooting process has already plunged into Chaos.
As a result, the destruction of the framework of this complex idea-task (to fit all the mess of messy connections in a two-hour film), as a result, becomes a salvation from the horror and darkness of hopelessness.
Undoubtedly valuable material.
But the displayed polished half-world/half-sleep, and these images, which are already somewhat out of date, call into question the value.
And the “aftertaste” laid down some general smoothness, with which the main character (like many of us) seems inclined to state the details of his life. Although this kind of “smoothness” positively simplifies the perception of the picture and in the general sense of yourself.
Especially "densely sound" parting that gives the hero Carini, il critico cinematografico from the actor Jean Rougeul in the end! But it is better to look at the whole, if it is worth watching at all.
9 out of 10
It seems that Nikita Khrushchev, a little short of the end of this film, fell asleep ... and very in vain! Of course, the difficulties in reducing the subjective and objective, which in this film wagon and a small cart, were far from only Khrushchev (if he followed the plot at all). For example, I have seen this film about five or seven times, but even I would not bother to judge which episodes Guido just dreamed of, and which really existed for other characters inclusive (and what in general can exist objectively in a movie, if all this is a world of alien illusions?!). So why destroy this magnificent cocktail of phobias of the director who has fallen into crisis (I am not talking about Fellini, of course, but about his character), some phantoms of his unrealized desires, complexes and events from the past? Fortunately, neither Fellini nor his (hopefully) viewer sets himself the task of dotting "all the dots on the i," for "8 and a half" is not valued in any way for its integrity.
And this film is beautiful with its indescribable ease.
Paradoxically, intellectual cinema with such a bunch of semantic heaps, the most complex technique of editing (you can easily lose the thread of the narrative, barely “falling asleep” for 5 minutes!) and, let’s face it, not the simplest narrative, looks incredibly easy! Some indescribable sense of style comes through literally from every frame. “8 and a Half” is such a film of the highest standard that it can personify not only the best film of one of the main geniuses of world cinema, but also cinema in general (by the way, in 2014, the famous frame from the film, where Marcello Mastroianni lays black glasses on his nose, was the official poster of some there on account of the Cannes Festival, and this is the main film event of the year!). It is a pleasure to watch even some screenshots from this film, or its small episodes, at least in pieces. What is the dance of one fat girl, from the childhood memories of Guido? And how beautiful is the scene with the harem, where the main character at first nicely coosses with his passions, but then, after disobedience of one of them, grabs the whip... And the brilliant performance of Marcello Mastroianni! A truly brilliant director Federico Fellini! And the divine music of Nino Rota! I don't know how to sleep here.
The main character - director Guido - is experiencing a midlife crisis. All understood by the age of 43, lived, all got (familiar?). To heal the liver, doctors send it to the resort of mineral holy waters. There he meets his acquaintances, his mistress comes to him, then his wife, the film crew of the film he is going to shoot. I mean, everyone who got him. In the course of the film, we are shown the dreams of the protagonist, his memories, fantasies. The unfolding of history is similar to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror. This technique, it turns out, is called in the language of filmmakers “the language of editing comparisons”. It was first shown by Bergman in "Earthly glade".
Guido dreams of a harem of women he has ever loved and fantasized about. Thinking about his ideal life, in which everyone idolizes him. Imagines leaving the screen test and going to ride around the night city with the beautiful Claudia Cardinale. Fantasies of a man whose psychological age forever remained in childhood. Watching is unbearable. Three days with breaks is my record. Trying to eat while watching, and chewing seeds, and drinking red dry - nothing helped. Even with food and alcohol is impossible to watch.
Two Academy Awards (1964) for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design in a Black and White Film. Grand Prize of the III Moscow International Film Festival (1963).
“Are you also excited about movies that don’t happen?”
“8 and a Half” is the first picture I have seen of the great Federico Fellini. Not being a lover of old, and especially Italian films, I understood that I, as a person who is fond of cinema, should not pass by such a significant work. But the film made a double impression on me.
The absence of an idea or, if you will, a philosophical premise makes the film a collection of completely random episodes, although perhaps entertaining, depending on the degree of their ambiguous realism.
Speaking briefly about the plot, the film is a story about a director who is in a creative crisis during the creation of his next film. Overall, 8 1/2 has a more complex structure. We regularly see absurd scenes, whether it is the memories of the protagonist, his fantasies, dreams, dreams or vision of his future film.
> I understand what you want to say. You want to talk about the confusion in the soul. But you have to be clear to be understood. What's the use of that?
The film is to some extent autobiographical. At a certain point of view, it becomes clear that the hero is an allusion to Fellini himself. It shows his mental anguish accompanying the creative process.
"Do you consider cinema an art form or pastime?"
Heroes say questions that torment you throughout the viewing. These may be hints at some absurdity of what is happening or statements about the misunderstanding of unreal scenes. And in one of the boring moments of the film, we are told that it is very important for filmmakers to monitor the emotions of the audience, especially the yawns. Such a thin banter running through the whole film, in my opinion, is a great find, and one of the main advantages of the picture.
Tonight, I seem to have realized that you are trying to solve a problem that, in my opinion, is simply impossible: to breathe life into the amorphous, abstract, practically non-existent characters of your script.
The film is not a narrative. "8 1/2" is a film of reasoning. Due to strange metaphors and the lack of a clear linear plot, the film tries to reveal the inner world of the creative person. The role of heroes is also not quite ordinary. The personality of the main character is revealed not when interacting with other characters, but when showing scenes of creative psychosis, which is his life.
If you think it's interesting, it should be interesting for everyone. How can you not take into account the opinion of the audience?
I think the film is very difficult to understand. All the techniques used in the film distance it from the audience. My rational mind refused to understand what was happening on screen, I just couldn’t get the big picture. And if by the middle of the film you get used to the form of the narrative, then at first the desire to turn it off almost does not leave you.
Full. The film must be viewed as one of the most important creations of cinema. But only deeply creative individuals can like it.
The film by Federico Fellini & #39;8 and a half & #39; watched only twice (with an interval of about three years). For those who have already seen this movie - I recommend sometimes to reconsider - moreover, if you have a creative profession or a profession related to film.
There are no accidents in the film - all we see is the images, types, scenery, costumes, acting (a magnificent cast), what they say - how their gestures behave and how it is seen by the operator - each scene is a brilliant composition, each angle is built with meaning. For those of you who are not familiar with the film, I definitely recommend watching it many times! Moreover, I suggest to distract from all the numerous comments, reviews and reviews and draw your own conclusions. The picture is so deep that every time you look you discover something unexpected. It is impossible to give an unambiguous and categorical answer to the question ' what the film is about. At first glance, this is a film about a movie. But the director raises so many questions and leaves the viewer unanswered. He probably knows the answer for himself, but he prefers to keep his character quiet. On the one hand, he is looking for a path that is the only one that is true and honest, and he has many ideas in his head, but that is all he wants to get rid of—that from which he wants to escape—that lie he can no longer overcome—or that confusion with truth and falsehood he is no longer able to discern. He seeks purity and truth. He wants to free himself from something within himself and at the same time gain a supernatural power so light and so full that he can soar in the sky. But 'On the contrary. But I am the one who has no courage to forget anything. When did I lose my way? I have nothing to say, but at the same time I have something to say...'
On the other hand, it has no 'source'. A higher power and energy that will drive and inspire them. That's the power he seeks in a woman. There are many women - they are all beautiful - they are all different - and everyone seems to love him - but each of them suffers - and suffers from the lies of Guido (Marcello Mastroiani). Because none of them can perceive him as he is - with 'his' the truth. And he can't. ': Can you drop everything and start over? Can you devote yourself to one thing and be faithful to the end? Can you make sense of it just because you believe it? Can you do that?'
I would like to point out that the film is black and white. Fellini is brilliant since the title of the film. No colours, only black and white and their gradations. Nothing superfluous that could distract the perception from all the seriousness of this... ' comedy' (according to Federico Fellini himself). All the attention on the screen - on the essence - to peer into the stunning faces of the actors - their ' role ' in this story.
And of course music! The picture with each component sounds harmonious. And the composition at the beginning of the film (about the 7th minute) is very similar to the music from '2001: Space Odyssey' Stanley Kubrick.
Just listen to the title theme written by Nino Rota and you will understand.
The film tells the story of Guido. The director who was in crisis. Family, spiritual, but most importantly, creative. His previous film was a success and producers expect the same from his new film. The scenery is created, the actors are selected, the budget is painted, but Guido has no script, not even an idea. He is desperately looking for a plot, but little comes of it. He is still visited by the muse, but these dates become rare and short-lived. He changes his mistresses one by one, changes the situation, but nothing helps.
8 1/2 is a very autobiographical film. The great Fellini did shoot his eighth and a half film (" half he considered the joint work “Variety Lights”) and was also in crisis. Along with the history of how cinema is created in general, showing the underside of studio production, the director tells us his own, only his personal, story. Childhood in a large and poor Italian family. Catholic school. Funny episodes with a prostitute Saragina, all this reveals us the hero, as reveals the personality of the director.
Needless to say, this is the best film from the category of “movie about cinema”. How subtly here are shown all these producers, critics, editors, actors and actresses, who do not understand anything in art and drives the master into a cage.
The film mixes dreams and reality. Fantasies and everyday life. Which in the mind of any artist are little separated from each other.
Also in the film a lot of symbolism, it is for this that he is often hung an incomprehensible stigma - "Art House". Although, in my opinion, the symbolism of Fellini is understandable to everyone and it is very interesting.
It is also interesting how two directors come out of the crisis. Federico and Guido do it in their own way. In the end, Guido is even more courageous and honest than his creator.
Can you quit everything?
Do you want to start over?
Choose one, only one, and
To be loyal only to him?
Make it the goal of your life,
That which is everything to you,
That becomes everything.
Because of your loyalty.
Makes it eternal. Can you?
The famous director Guido Anselmi has a nervous breakdown and is sent to the resort to a sanatorium, to heal with mineral water and sun baths. The cause of this mental exhaustion was a creative crisis, flared up exactly in the middle of preparation for large-scale shooting of the new film. Guido needs to gather his thoughts as quickly as possible, decide on the choice of actors and the script, and start the shooting process. But he is eating a lot and does not allow him to work calmly, existential and creative crises continue.
Everything in this story is dedicated to the main character, aka Anselmi, aka director Fellini. A kind of recursion of the Italian master, making a film about himself, making this film. If you forget this and look for other parallels, you can find two main, literary ones. Guido is similar to Steve Daedalus, the main character of Ulysses. Similarly, the hero of Eight and a Half is afraid of this world and would like to return to the womb, so as not to face problems and not to receive complaints and demands from relatives and colleagues. He has similar life principles, but he is also too easily willing to give up.
Also, in some moments, Guido thinks and speaks just like Merso, the hero of Albert Camus’s The Stranger. Everyone around him is trying to tell him something that Guido is absolutely not interesting. Trying to be honest rather than rude, he tells them frankly about it. However, they continue to pour out his soul and tell him what bothers them and interests them, and what should seem to cause the main character the same feelings. However, involuntary indifference does not alienate people from him, on the contrary, these annoying ones become more and more every hour.
Women demand too much from him, as do producers. And in the same way, Anselmi tries to convince his wife, friends, colleagues, bigwigs from the film company, and himself, that it is vital for him to make a film for himself and himself. It should be a revelation film about his childhood memories and current acute experiences, to show in contrast what he wanted and what happened. Despite the "personality" of the film (no pun intended), it can be interesting to many. Well, only if those experiences and questions that Anselmi wants to portray are not personally his curse. But no, that’s the secret to the success and recognition of this movie. It turned out that if you boldly and skillfully film even the most seemingly insane course of the stream of consciousness, it will be close to a huge number of people. Almost all scenes of other films are too straightforward, they have no subtext. The only secret not shown there is the identity of the killer or the secret of the scam. “Eight and a half” in this regard is very rich in various innuendo and extremely resembling. If you just think that you understood everything and caught all the hints, it will surely turn out that you missed a dozen other allegories and symbols.
If you try to highlight the main theme of the film, it seems to me that first of all it is a movie about the inevitable loneliness. After 20 years together with his wife, he reproaches her that she still has the wrong idea about him. He despises his once best friend, the reason for this is that he has turned into a man whom Guido very much does not want to become - an aging and already reconciled with many men, looking for happiness comfort in wine and young mistresses. An old man who has given up trying to understand himself. A role that many would not even think of judging is a respectable way to fool themselves. Precisely, self-deception as a natural trait in the eyes of society is despised by Guido. He is tormented that he is, so to speak, trying to justify everything and find a compromise before his own eyes. But it is not, in this surreal adventure, general misunderstanding and uncertainty about one’s desires are even necessary components of success. Guido does not have a script, it simply cannot be, reason in honest analysis gives rise to images that should be filmed immediately, without question. But begging actors and producers takes time for seemingly crazy ideas. But they all have to listen to the great director and that's it. The real actors did so, the uneven pieces of the puzzle eventually formed into a masterpiece.
With this film began my acquaintance with the work of Fellini. I read some information about him before watching and after, the poet knew roughly how to spend my spare two and a half hours. Honestly, I’m not disappointed, but I’m not excited, I probably expected more from the film, because I always loved this director, I was inspired by his quotes, and I also like the main topic that he touches on quite often – creative crisis, search, self-determination. This happens to everyone, even if it is not associated with creative activity. The person is confused and does not know what to do next, maybe he has exhausted himself. Maybe he has nothing else to offer, but everyone should have hope, they should try, try and try again.
This film is a paraphrase, so Fellini put it in his own language, and no wonder he put his soul into this film, if you believe the information on the Internet. But what I didn't like was how long it took, and that makes this movie boring, and I barely watched it, because there's almost nothing worthwhile going on. Especially the first half, it was easy to fall asleep under it, to my great regret, because I was not used to falling asleep under movies. I'll explain why I thought he was like that.
The main character, Guido Anselmi, who was brilliantly played by Masstroiani, is in a creative crisis, but to get out of it, he somehow surrounds himself (not specifically of course) to horror with boring people. He does not do this on purpose, yes, the boring producer should know where he will invest his money, the assailant actresses eagerly want to play with him in the film and quickly find out who, a mistress, with a very cute face, is boring about her husband and newfangled outfits, a friend talks about how he met a young beauty with whom he is incredibly happy. In the middle of the film, I wanted to walk up to Guido and pat him on the shoulder and say, ‘What an inspiration, get out of there!’ And that’s what I thought throughout the film, in my opinion, only his agent or assistant (if I understood his position correctly) and his wife were the most intelligent people and could do anything to help him. But, in the world in which the main character revolved, in that place, more precisely, there was nothing but stupid talk. The only thing that drew attention to himself was his dreams, visions, and past. In my opinion, everything was in his head, perhaps his hero would have created a masterpiece, but in a completely different genre, as the main character says, he wants to tell people the truth, without falsehood. His brain exploded with ideas (as it seemed to me), but he couldn’t choose one or the other. It can be understood, and I come back from where I started. A mock producer, actresses, mistresses, even a wife. From this he became even more confused and found himself in the very depths of the labyrinth. Personally, all his actions and attempts did not inspire anything, I did not realize anything, I had nothing to learn from the main character.
Let me turn to the positives. The actors played perfectly, Mastroianni here is a very pretty man, although earlier I did not pay attention to his external data. Elegantly dressed, with a thoughtful look, detached. The women here are all very beautiful and I like the old ladies too. I also noticed that all the characters (if I'm not mistaken) were dressed in black and white. Men in costumes, of course, and ladies in black and white. This gives the film its own style. And of course, the music of Nino Rota, one song I knew before watching the film and still love to listen to it.
But since I said above, I was bored, uninspired, with all due respect to Fellini.
6 out of 10
Federico Fellini To begin acquaintance with the filmography of the maestro with the main film of his life is rather imprudent, every novice amateur of author's cinema memorized the name of this picture by heart. “He lies with this name, he rises with this name.” How I wanted to stand with him in one row, to tell your grandchildren about the very day, about the day on which you first met such figures as Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni.
An illusory picture about the creative crisis, about the wanderings of Guido Anselmi in search of a script, in search of an actress, in search of female approval and understanding. To summarize this work in words is a big mistake. You will begin to summarize yourself.
"Everything and nothing." A film about people, about human relationships with minimal action content. It is a great risk to stand on such a tightrope, woven solely from your own experiences, over the crowd - you lose your balance, immediately fail. The viewer will be bored - everything is wasted. If you try to abstract from the inviolable greatness of Signor F.F., without making a discount for more than half a century, it becomes clear that someone seems to have resisted. All the allusions and attempts to attract the viewer’s attention – “Demon” on the beach, harem riot with the subsequent pacification of the whip – broadcast into the void. Endless chatter only helps in the desire to fall asleep, immerse yourself in your own illusions, which, as it begins to seem after the first hour of viewing, no less amusing.
Is it worth it, and if so, why watch this movie? Italian life. A unique saying, a lot of details of that very Italy - if this is yours, then you will want to feel and admire every second of the film. The picture is level and above that. Each frame literally gives pleasure, here you can see one thing - the camera work is really Art. And, of course, the melodies of the incomparable Nino Roth, adorning the confusion that is happening on the screen. Undoubtedly, Federico Fellini brought a lot to the development of cinema in general, but his main creation could be at least a little more exciting.
I would like to add that at the ceremony of awarding the award “Oscar-2015” the winner in the nomination “Best film” was the picture “Birdman”, which tells about the creative crisis, only now Regan Thomson. However, this topic never exhausts itself.
Best film for falling asleep (approved by N. S. Khrushchev).
The car moves, travels a couple of meters and stops again. A lone man in a hat is driving. There are a lot of similar cars stuck in traffic, accidentally merged together in this still society. You only need to look around to see the prosaic life of others. Everywhere mediocrity, indifference, vulgarity. Reality, like smoke, fills the interior of the car, and the man in the hat begins to choke. He's trying to get out, reach out to someone. But no one cares, only a shadow of judgment in the eyes of the man watching. Finally, the man in the hat climbs out through the hatch in the cabin of the car, rises above the world and begins to breathe fully. The light comes and takes him to the sky. But reality, tied with a rope to the foot, does not allow you to hover in the clouds indefinitely and very quickly makes you return to earth.
This is how the famous film "Federico Fellini" 'Eight and a Half' begins. In this scene, one of the main leitmotifs of the whole film is traced - the artist's desire to escape from the yoke of the surrounding world, feel true freedom and go into the flight of his imagination. Successful director Guido Anselmi manages to do this only in his sleep. In real life, he is drawn into the routine of the shooting process: endless conversations with the producer, actors, set designers. But he is in a creative impasse, and there is no place for these people in his film.
His work is about him, but with a different fate. The film, which includes episodes from Guido’s past with castings for the roles of people close to him, but with fantastic components, is an obvious attempt to escape from reality, to otherwise direct their own destiny. Guido’s desire to film his life as a movie, where everything will obey his will, can be traced in pseudo-real inserts based on his thoughts. At the same time, Guido is looking for a muse personified by an actress named Claudia. She appears to him invisibly throughout the film. But only her real appearance on the set allows Guido to accept life as it is and regain inspiration.
Federico Fellini is a recognized classic of world cinema. Tragicomedy 'Eight and a Half' became one of the main achievements of his directorial skills. In this film, Fellini skillfully showed the world of the artist, borrowing much from himself. The inner contradictions and the flight of the creative person’s thought are emphasized by the structure of the film, woven from the episodes. Fellini deftly sends us to the childhood of the protagonist and brings us back, diluting the narrative with Guido’s fantasies. A slight madness and expression is served by the characters of Carla and Gloria. For the excellent shooting is worth thanking Gianni Di Venazo, whose camera work was a true revelation. I was really struck by the talent and Marcello Mastroianni, who played the main character. In addition, I would like to mention the game Anuk Eme (Louise) and Sandra Milo (Carla).
'Eight and a Half' - a truly author's film, completely filled with philosophy and personal experiences. Fellini’s masterpiece belongs to the cohort of films in which with each new viewing you can discover something new.
9 out of 10
“8 1/2” is one of the most significant, monumental and iconic works of world cinema. The picture was created just at that personal stage, when Federico Fellini had not quite departed from the canons familiar to the world. It is logical even to consider the film as conditionally central in the entire filmography of the Italian master, dividing his works into “before” and “after”. After all, if before he tried (or just did not forget) to comply with any accepted norms of the construction of the film and, to a greater extent, the plot, then - in modern language, scored on everyone and everything, and began to shoot just his movie, though not in all cases.
8 1/2, like many of his other works, is autobiographical and full of personal experiences. The original intention was to make a good and fun picture. At the stage of the script, Fellini wrote to the producer: “I am only convinced that the film should be made joyful, festive, imbued with humor, in the pictorial plan it should be unusually subtle, light.” But, no matter how hard the director tried (even gluing reminders “You’re shooting a comedy!”), he did not quite what he expected in genre terms. "8 1/2" was more serious than planned, despite the ironic scenes. However, if we consider the finished product, all this seems completely insignificant.
Guido's central character is a filmmaker who, as Fellini himself described, "thought to make a movie and forgot which one." But it's not just that, of course. Guido is tormented by doubts, contradictions, a creative and personal crisis, the loss of professional ambitions and the resulting tomno-melancholic depression. In addition to this internal pressure, there is also external – the contracts have been signed, the filming is about to begin and everyone around is eager to learn at least some details. No details, no script. In the end, there is only one idea.
Guido lacks not only inspiration, new ideas, but also basic “intelligent oxygen”, food for the mind. It's like a depleted battery, which can no longer perform its functions, but has not yet oxidized, it just needs to be charged. In time, the personal crisis that has arrived makes the main character also doubt himself, in what he needs from life. Guido realizes that he can’t take everything (characteristically this is reflected in women), he needs to make up his mind, but he just can’t. His desire to take everything and immediately results in the famous scene with a harem, after which it becomes obvious that the director got lost in the wilds of his own mind completely.
And here, of course, begs the comparison of 8 1/2 and Sweet Life. On the surface, yes, the similarities are obvious. In both tapes, the heavy Marcello Mastroianni walks back and forth, there's something going on, a lot of women and a personal crisis. A more in-depth comparison shows the absurdity of any comparison between the two works. The key point is that the hero of Sweet Life is, by and large, a society, a bohemian. Through the main character, the viewer watches the events happening around, and in the process, the hero himself. In "" 8 1/2, "" the protagonist is Guido, and he's the one who gets all the attention, the central figure. This difference, of course, is not the only one, but it is fundamental, and allows you to press the idea of comparison in the bud.
It is noteworthy, by the way, that Guido is the only hero in Fellini, who never smiled in the whole film. It means a sincere, uninhibited, honest (!) smile, and not those polite, mannered and short, which he from time to time can give someone. And that's pretty telling, given that there were no more heroes like that. Fellini smiled gloomy man Zampano, enough laughed Cabiria, cunningly grinned Augusto ... For all the many characters, you can remember only Moraldo from Mama's Sons - a closed introvert, who in terms of external emotional stinginess could well compete with Guido. At the end of the film, Moraldo becomes the only one who decides to leave everything and go to Rome. Just like Fellini himself did. It is amazing how much the author’s personality manifests itself from film to film. The exception only confirms the rule.
It is considered that “8 1/2” is an innovative film, priceless for world cinema and its significance is incredibly high. That's the question. Praise is by default, so to speak. And whatever arguments are brought, they will somehow pass by. Yes, the idea of the film, the elaboration and display of the inner world, of course, at the height. Yeah, actors are good. Yes, the inclusion of Wagner, Tchaikovsky and the rest played into the hands. Yes, masterful production of mise-en-scene, in-frame editing, high-quality camera work and all that. But is that enough? What is innovation?
Here's the thing. In "8 1/2" were mixed four narrative "layers" - reality, fantasies, memories and sleep. The transitions between them were not marked either plot or technically. Such jumps, carried out with the help of standard gluing without any effects, created a semblance of surrealism (which is still attributed to the picture), because it is unclear what is happening now and generally “where we are”. Prior to this, the transition from reality to something else (for example, memories) was always accompanied by appropriate stylistic effects, whether it is the influx of the camera, shooting through special filters, distorted proportions and so on. The image itself prompted and chewed the viewer, where reality is and where it is not. The method used by Fellini was predicted by Sergei Eisenstein and partially discovered by Ingmar Bergman in the film “Transmithing glade” (and in the picture “Persona” he managed to bring it to a logical conclusion).
And that's actually innovation. And it is terrible to think what a shame it would be if the jury of the IFF in 1963 was awarded the main prize of this film.
"8 1/2" should not be taken as an author's confession. These are not complaints of the creator of the series “this is how it is difficult for me”, no, in no case. Fellini treats his hero very ironically and is able to put him in ridiculous situations. Apotheosis is the scene in which Guido climbs under the table in an attempt to shoot himself - the subtle and light humor of the great Italian. And then there is a show sermon, which Fellini seems to present to himself through the mouth of a critic, a friend of Guido. The catchphrase, "Do you think anyone would be interested in a wretched catalog of your mistakes?" is like the director asking himself if anyone would want "8 1/2." The question seems rhetorical.
It’s hard to analyze this movie – it’s great. "8 1/2" is so perfect that it seems superfluous to talk about it. The idea is to make a film about a director who makes a film, and to make this film in his own — who, except Fellini, is capable of such a thing? This is an example of cinematic art, when a film is impossible without the masterful work of directors, cameramen, sound directors, actors and the entire film crew, but more importantly, it is impossible without the viewer. From the first shot to the final steps of the boy with the flute, you feel that you are a participant and co-author of this work.
By the way, the first scene is very interesting for its allegory and method of presentation: how skillfully Fellini conveys the psychological state of a person who has fallen into a creative crisis - he is stuffy, lacks air, he suffocates, and the surrounding crowd only watches the development of the event with interest, everyone is insanely interested in what will happen to him, and no one even tries to pull the director out of a terrible situation; the Roman "Bread and circuses!" will be relevant, it seems, at all times. Actually, this is the plot of the film - the creative crisis of the director, his environment, his life and fears, which led him to this state and how he tries to get out of it.
While watching, I often caught myself thinking that a play was played out in front of me and the main character - the extra often deliberately looks into the camera, moves in the frame completely unnaturally, the emotions of the characters (except the main one) seem to be played. And then there are shots, as if torn from everyday life. Throughout the film, Fellini plays with the viewer, does not let him come to his senses, make it clear what he sees - reality or not. The whole film is stitched with some fantastic threads: the transitions from stage to stage are so smooth that you do not notice them, each frame stands in its place, there is nothing to add and add – it is impossible to understand how the director achieves such an effect; it seems that Fellini is a cinematic wizard, I have no other explanation.
With all this, Fellini does not tolerate falsehood – it is difficult to describe, but even when you see the playfulness (I emphasize: special playfulness) of the episode, you feel how natural it is in this playfulness. This is for the viewer, but one cannot help feeling Guido's disgust at his deceitful and hypocritical surroundings. The director (as well as the main character) is alien to formality, he will never do as others want - he will do as he wants and make others want the same. In general, many people call this film autobiographical relative to Federico himself, and it is easy to believe – such a film could not be made without passing through yourself.
As far as acting is concerned - as in Fellini's other films, every actor is in his place. Marcello Mastroianni is flawless - Fellini made him literally turn inside out for the role, and we see even in Mastroianni echoes of the life of the main character. Guido has a difficult fate, he is characterized by many fears - in childhood the boy was intimidated by the church, since childhood there is an ambiguous attitude to women: in his wife he sees the mother and vice versa, subconsciously wants to both obey women and subordinate them (a typical Freudian theory coupled with the Oedipus complex). The fear of being alone and the fear of being with someone - the hero is full of contradictions, and all his emotional experiences are skillfully conveyed by Mastroianni, as well as the director, passing through this movie.
Regarding the work of the cameraman Gianni Di Venanzo, in order not to repeat the various synonyms of the word “amazing”, I want to say this: try to stop the film at any moment, and you will get a perfect composition, cut-off pattern and psychological transmission of the atmosphere frame. I don’t think there would be a movie without this cameraman. Yes, of course, everything is interconnected, up to episodic characters that appear for a few seconds, to a glass of water that the beauty holds Guido and to the sparkling eyes of Saragina. And of course, the atmosphere of the film is difficult to imagine without sound accompaniment: the music of Wagner and Tchaikovsky sounds very organic, beautiful melodies of Nino Rota became like another hero of the picture.
Fellini talks about the genre of this film as a comedy - it is difficult to agree with this (as well as with Chekhov, who gave the same genre work to his works). Rather, it is a philosophical parable, and the main themes here are two, as in life in general: this film, no matter how banal it may sound, firstly, about the search for oneself and the meaning of life, and secondly, of course, about love. "Maestro!" Everybody join hands!, Guido shouts and enters an endless dance, inviting the viewer to join in.
“Warm, refined and sentimental. It sounds delicious.
Why in me this film caused a feeling of such inner comfort, and some inexplicable comfort, that I felt myself in the same bed with those children where there is this grumpy but loving grandmother, aunts, nannies ... and everything so peaceful, native, homely.
I wanted to go and kiss my baby, sleeping in the crib!
Perhaps Fellini had a happy childhood – he devotes so much space not just to memories, but to the feelings of childhood. It’s like trying to tell the viewer exactly how cinnamon buns smelled when we were kids. And, you know, I felt it!
You can also see that he loves women very much. Just women. Anybody. Young, old (by the way, they are always full in the film), beautiful, fat, different. All of them he necessarily dresses or beautifully, luxuriously, elegantly or like a tramp, but certainly sexy! The old Fellinis are something special! It's not offensive! The word “grandmother” will not suit them, but “old Fellini” sounds like something noble-bourgeois. That's amazing! I look at them every time I see them! They're full of footage! And, it can be seen that even at the edge of the frame they fall not by chance, but for beauty, for color, for its decoration and enrichment - in a luxurious hat or boa, or a dress in sequins ... Of course, on the surface lies the fact that the women in the film are secondary, are like a background for the male protagonist. He's a thinker! And they are mindless creatures living their earthly troubles. But with what respect he treats them! In fact, they wove this world for him, and, most importantly, his perception of the world.
Separately, I'll talk about phrases. How nice to hear this movie! All these: “What good perfume you have, how easy you are ...”, “your unbridled masculinity”, “If people read chocolate wrappers ...”, and other talking crickets of Pinocchio. It sounds as if words that produce the hormone of happiness were selected and all phrases, dialogues, monologues, even replicas were written from them.
I wasn’t looking for meaning or anything serious in this picture, I was just enjoying what I saw and heard. It was as if I had been offered a drink of expensive Italian wine with the most aromantic exquisite cheese, and in addition offered a stunning, elegant interlocutor. Having talked with him, I felt like a real woman, mother, keeper of the hearth, and most importantly, how important it is and how beautiful it is in the eyes of men.