8 1/2 - Criterion Collection

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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 Keogh

Description

One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (Otto e Mezzo) turns one man's artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a director whose film-and life-is collapsing around him. An early working title for the film was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion), and Fellini's masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the 1963 Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign-Language Film-one of the most written about, talked about, and imitated movies of all time-in a beautifully restored new digital transfer. Disc two features Fellini's rarely seen first film for television, Fellini: A Director's Notebook (1969). Produced by Peter Goldfarb, this imagined documentary of Fellini is a kaleidoscope of unfinished projects, all of which provide a fascinating and candid window into the director's unique and creative process.

Customer Reviews:

Make the Effort & You Will be Rewarded.......2007-09-04

On my list of 10 greatest movies I've ever seen. Beautifully filmed and endlessly creative. Fantasies within fantasies and an incomplete movie within an incomplete movie. Fellini always tried to provoke, to challenge and move beyond the accepted standards and cliches of moviemaking and storytelling. Be forewarned, Fellini is not casually approached. First time viewers who have little or no experience with Fellini's other work may be baffled and put off. 8 1/2 takes a few viewings to sort it all out, put it all back together and get an understanding of the various themes, fantasies, memories, & ideas. It might be helpful to watch 8 1/2 then several other Fellini movies then come back and rewatch it with fresh eyes and an understanding Fellini's methods and themes. It really is worth the effort because the reward is a wonderful cinematic experience.

One of the Best Films.......2007-08-26

I have to say that I have watched a lot of movies, probably like everyone else on this page. However, I consider myself to be sort-of a film buff and I think 8 1/2 is one of the best movies ever made. I can completely understand why some people do not like the film, or feel that others who do are trying to be stuck up, superior, artsy fartsy jerks. But, make no mistake, 8 1/2 is an amazing movie; and, even though you may not understand everything, that does not make the film "bad". Some movies take patience, maybe even some research, and sometimes a few more viewings, before the viewer can fully appreciate what the director is trying to accomplish. Some of my favorite movies I hated the first time I watched them. Yet, I gave those movies another try because I thought that I must have overlooked something, that for some reason I was not glimpsing the true vision of the Director.
Most people want to see movies that they have already seen. Many movies are just repeat plot tricks, with the same characters and heros and anti-heros. Doesn't anyone want to see a movie that attempts to unveil a part of the soul, not one that simply aims at that base desire to be entertained. Just give 8 1/2 a try, I don't think It could hurt!

Self-indulgent, although somewhat entertaining.......2007-08-14

You know when you watch a film where the characters are filmmakers, you've entered the vanity zone. It's just a basic conceit that anyone who wants to create should avoid... don't make the creation about the act of creating it.

Yet, time and again it's an irresistible lure... the grand tell-off tell-all that creative people can't resist. It always stinks, and this wasn't really an exception. Things are constantly "told" rather than shown... from politics, to philosophy, to love, this is more of a director's essay disguised as a story, than a story. Fellini throws in lively dream sequences, and tries to doll the whole thing up as a righteous attempt at clearing the skeletons out of his personal closet by blurring the lines of film and barely disguised confession. Yet, like any artistic adventure so audacious, in the end you feel a little sick that he felt the need to share so personally and so indifferently to the fact people might rather see a good plot, than the weak wailing of his self-abased soul.

For all that, the movie is rather beautiful sometimes, just in looks and music. I'm just at a loss as to where people think this even a "great" piece of art though. The revelations in it are nothing if not weak, and "The Director" in the fictional sense seems to make out ok in the end without truly atoning for a lifetime of treating his women like garbage.

Does not hold up well.......2007-07-18

Self-absorbed and vain, the movie was novel for it's time, taking a "critical" look at the movie making process and it's often shallow
and materialistic nature. Unfortunately, this is a well worn theme
by now. It's egotistical self-fawning is reminiscent of Woody Allen's
Stardust Memories, which is also an annoyingly narcissitic work. I love "art movies", but along with Bergman, Truffaut and others, Fellini
is often overrated.

Not to all tastes, and sadly not quite to mine.......2007-06-15

Unfortunately, for the most part 8½ left me cold, one of those films where you get what is being done but it's just not on your wavelength. It's pointless to complain about it being hit-and-miss or confused, since erratic confusion is the nature of the beast as Fellini becomes possibly the first man to film his own nervous breakdown (or at very least his crisis of creativity). In many ways the turning point in Fellini's career where fantasy and grotesquery would become an increasing part of increasingly disjointed phantasmagorias with a design style as cluttered as a tart's dressing table, there are moments that strike home and the latter scenes with his wife and with Claudia work because there's a sense of self-awareness of Fellini's limitations not just as an artist but as a human being. But overall I was just left with the feeling that I'd got on the wrong train by mistake.

(Incidentally, to strike a timely note, it's amusing to note that the producer's brainless bimbo girlfriend is the spitting image of Paris Hilton!)

It's a shame Criterion's otherwise excellent 2-disc DVD couldn't locate the deleted sequences, although they are represented in the excellent stills galeries. Alongside the 50-minute 'Director's Notebook' documentary TV special by Fellini, the 45-minute German Nino Rota documentary is interesting and has a wonderful moment where the composer accepts a proffered cigarette only to turn down a light because he doesn't smoke!

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