Fellini's 8 1/2
by Federico Fellini
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Anouk Aim?e, Claudia Cardinale, Marcello Mastroianni, Rossella Falk, Sandra MiloDirector: Federico Fellini
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language); Italian (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 138 minutes
Release Date: 1988-06-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Mpi Home Video
Studio: Mpi Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Fellini's 8 1/2
Movie Review: Classic, but not quite great
Summary: 4 Stars
8? is suffused with the fictive childhood memories of Fellini's onscreen doppelganger, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), which- if the DVD experts on Fellini, and those I've scanned in gathering background information, are correct- are merely Fellini's own true memories transferred to film. They can result in some interesting themes and scenes for the film, but often, most manifestly in the Saraghina and Cardinal digressions, they make far too much of points that could more easily and poetically been conveyed onscreen. Both of these motivs waste a good twenty or more minutes of the film's running time....As for the famed narrative- or meta-narrative. Let me give a brief rundown of what 8? is about. The film opens with shots of 43 year old married filmmaker Guido Anselmi in a traffic jam. It is obviously a dream sequence- or is it a scene from the film that he is to make, the one this film is about? It is clearly a set piece, and after escaping from his car window, as if from the uterus, he takes to the air, and becomes a kite, pulled back down to earth by whom we later recognize as the filmic representatives of Claudia Cardinale (playing herself), the actress who is to star in Guido's film within this film. As he falls to earth he wakens at a health spa where he is recuperating from a breakdown of some sort, along with his screenwriter, a dense film critic named Daumier (Jean Rougeul). Outside the spa he has a vision of a virginal white clad goddess, also played by Claudia Cardinale- although she is a separate character from the Claudia Cardinale who later appears as an actress in 8?. She manifestly represents an idealized vision of love and femininity to Guido. Daumier then criticizes Guido's ideas for his upcoming film as immature and self-indulgent, as Fellini obviously is striking the first blows for his film's claim to greatness.
He then spots Mario Mezzabotta (Mario Pisu), an old friend who is squiring around a dark, sexy young American girl he intends to marry. Her name is Gloria Morin (Barbara Steele, Mario Bava's horror film diva). Guido then heads to the train station to meet his gauche and buffoonish married mistress Carla (Sandra Milo). He already regrets asking her to come, until that night they play a game of hooker and john, and she eagerly plays her naughty role to sexual perfection. Guido falls asleep and dreams of his parents at a cemetery, His father (Annibale Ninchi) is dead, and his mother (Guiditta Rissone) kisses him lasciviously, then pulls back to reveal it is his wife, Luisa (Anouk Aim?e). Later, Guido tries to avoid movie types and reporters who are after the story of what his next film will be about. Some entertainment ensues at the hotel, and Guido is reminded of a mysterious childish saying from his past, asa nisi masa. This nonsense phrase is the film's equivalent of Citizen Kane's Rosebud. How this all turns out is well known and detailed by others.
Incidentally, there is some confusion over why the film is called what it is called. The truth is that the film's final title 8? refers to the number of films Fellini directed to that point- six features, two short (?) films, and his first film, half a feature, Luci del Varieta, which he co-directed with Alberto Lattuada, thus totaling 7? films. This was therefore his 8?th film. As for the critical reception and continuing misconstruals this film receives, both positive and negative, it is easy to see why. Much of this confusion is recapitulated in the film's original title La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion). It is not clear whether or not this internal artistic confusion was genuine, in Fellini's case, but it does not matter to his puppet, Guido Anselmi, for intent is meaningless in art. The end result is all, always all. Thus, 8 ? is a weird m?lange of Freudian pop nonsense (id, ego, superego), and Salvador Dal? lite imagery, that badly dates the film intellectually. All of it is well handled, in beautiful black and white cinematography by Gianni de Venanzo, with an intriguing and well-placed musical score by Nino Rota, to enhance the artificiality of it all, but all the personal references, which in the film do little to enhance an understanding of Guido, even as they may lend obsessive critics insight into Fellini's life, drag the film down by its own overblown heft....8? improves with rewatching, but it's still too long, filled with clumsy satire- Saraghina and the Cardinal, pointless digressions, and the like.
Summary of Fellini's 8 1/2
Federico Fellini's 1963 semi-autobiographical story about a worshipped filmmaker who has lost his inspiration is still a mesmerizing mystery tour that has been quoted (Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland) but never duplicated. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido, a director trying to relax a bit in the wake of his latest hit. Besieged by people eager to work with him, however, he also struggles to find his next idea for a film. The combined pressures draw him within himself, where his recollections of significant events in his life and the many lovers he has left behind begin to haunt him. The marriage of Fellini's hyperreal imagery, dreamy sidebars, and the gravity of Guido's increasing guilt and self-awareness make this as much a deeply moving, soulful film as it is an electrifying spectacle. Mastroianni is wonderful in the lead, his woozy sensitivity to Guido's freefall both touching and charming--all the more so as the character becomes increasingly divorced from the celebrity hype that ultimately outpaces him. --Tom KeoghArt House & International VHS Video
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