Hitchcoc I have to admit that my love of movies has always allowed me to endure those which demand a lot of me. When I watched my first Fellini movies, I have to admit I was confused. I was young and they were intimidating. And, yes, there were a lot of pretentious people around, acting as if they understood every second. What films like "8 1/2" did for me was to stretch my own thoughts and intellectual being. Those of you who write such angry commentary on movies thought to be classics by the vast majority critics seem to think that Fellini was making art so people could sit around pontificating. To give this a one out of ten shows a kind of petulance and childishness. It simply shows that you have disdain for people that don't agree with you, not with the director or his product. It would be like disliking "Ghandi" because people who see it sit around with their friends and pretend to be compassionate. There are numerous parts of this film that are very accessible and gripping. Fellini was attempting to show how difficult it is to make films that give us the soul of the director.

oOoBarracuda My twentieth year was the most transformative of my life, so far. The same year that I discovered Mulholland Drive (which led to Eraserhead) and Jules and Jim, I also attended a screening of Federico Fellini's 1963 film, 8 1/2. Seeing two films that still hold top spots on my list of cinematic favorites would have been enough to satisfy me all year. It's a bit unfathomable to me now, knowing how much that one professor exposed me to that have become permanent mainstays in my life, that it all happened in a year. 8 1/2 represented a world that I didn't know existed. The story of a creative, seeking respite after success, only to be met with the immediate expectation that he will bring about another success as there are now a number of other creatives and business personnel that depend on him was instantly intriguing. A filmmaker, played exquisitely by Marcello Mastroianni, unable to come up with a new idea and faced with the possibility that he may be a disappointment to those dependent on him for the first time, he begins to reminisce on the people of his past and imagining the various trajectories his life could have followed. Losing artistic direction for the film at hand, the director retreats completely to his dreams.Fellini didn't just create a world through 8 1/2, he also created a mood, a feeling, and an appreciation for a side of filmmaking that the average movie-goer will never experience. When considering my favorite worlds of cinema, those places wherein we feel so comfortable entering that provide such genuine enjoyment, 8 1/2 always tops the list. It's not simply the sets and overall production design that make me so eager to revisit Fellini's masterpiece, but it is the exuberance for film that he is able to project. Other filmmakers have made stand-out films about the behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking, Francois Truffaut's Day for Night and Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain come to mind. Fellini's 8 1/2 embodies the same spirit of honoring the movies while showing the struggles of the creative minds behind the films we love. Fellini invites you to this world anew each time you watch his film. No matter how many times I see 8 1/2, I am forever mesmerized by its power and emotional impact. Much of the humor in the film I missed when I was 20, and many of the situations I couldn't relate to as I can now, making each successive rewatch all the more worthwhile. I had to stop counting the number of perfect shots in the film, shots that I would gladly frame and fill my house with because there are simply too many to highlight. Gorgeous, robust, and spellbinding, 8 1/2 is one of those films I can watch anytime, and still marvel at its existence as if it was the first viewing.

charlesem At one point in 8 1/2 an actress playing a film critic turns to the camera and brays (in English), "He has nothing to say!", referring to Guido Anselmi, the director Marcello Mastroianni plays and, by extension, to Fellini himself. And that's quite true: Fellini has nothing to say because reducing 8 1/2 to a message would miss the film's point. Guido finds himself creatively blocked because he's trying to say something, except he doesn't know what it is. He has even enlisted a film critic, played by Jean Rogeul, to aid him in clarifying his ideas, but the critic only muddles things by his constant monologue about Guido's failure. Add to this the fact that after a breakdown Guido has retreated to a spa to try to relax and focus, only to be pursued there by a gaggle of producers and crew members and actors, not to mention his mistress (Sandra Milo) and his wife (Anouk Aimée). Guido's consciousness becomes a welter of dreams and memories and fantasies, overlapping with the quotidian demands of making a movie and tending to a failed marriage. He is also pursued by a vision of purity that he embodies in the actress Claudia Cardinale, but when they finally meet he realizes how impossible it is to integrate this vision with the mess of his life. Only at the end, when he abandons the project and confronts the fact that he really does have nothing to say, can he realize that the mess is the message, that his art has to be a way of establishing a pattern out of his own life, embodied by those who have populated it dancing in a circle to Nino Rota's music in the ruins of the colossal set of his abandoned movie. The first time I saw this film it was dubbed into German, which I could understand only if it was spoken slowly and patiently, which it wasn't. Even so, I had no trouble following the story (such as it is) because Fellini is primarily a visual artist. Besides, the movie starred Mastroianni, who would have made a great silent film star, communicating as he did with face and body as much as with voice. It is, I think, one of the great performances of a great career. 8 1/2 is also one of the most beautiful black-and-white movies ever made, thanks to the superb cinematography of Gianni Di Venanzo and the brilliant production design and costumes of Piero Gherardi. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)

leandro216 A movie with no story. A full immersion into the memories and the psychological face of the director. The great idea is that Fellini after the success of "La Dolce Vita" didn't know what to do. So he made a movie talking about a Director who has a lack of inspiration. After that we can appreciate the surreal scenes from the beginning to the end. This is one of my favourite movie, even if there isn't a specific reason. I dislike the character of Mastroianni, the typical snooty Italian intellectual, but the way Fellini, directs the dreams is so gorgeous. I think he is inspired of the Welles's way of moving the camera. Cinema of the Dream, from Bergam to Lynch, from Chaplin to Antonioni, this is one of the best example.