8 1/2 - Criterion Collection

Starring:Bruno Agostini, Anouk AimÃ©e, Guido Alberti, Caterina Boratto, Claudia Cardinale, Yvonne Casadei, Mario Conocchia, Ian Dallas (II), Mino Doro, Rossella Falk, Eddra Gale, Madeleine LeBeau, Marcello Mastroianni, Sandra Milo, Cesarino Miceli Picardi, Mario Pisu, Jean Rougeul, Nadine Sanders, Barbara Steele
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

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:

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!

Fabulous Fellini in all his glory. .......2007-05-13

What else can I say? It's Fellini at his best. It's the antithesis of a Hollywood movie, which is to say that it't thought provoking and demanding of the viewer.

Very personal, very interesting.......2007-02-22

I wrote originally wrote this as a comment on one of the negative reviews, but thought it might be beneficial to expand it and post as a review in its own right:

I can understand why this movie might appear pretentious.... I'm not saying it's especially esoteric, but because the method of expression contrasts with traditional film-making it can appear pretentious until you get the feel for it. This isn't something that requires special technical knowledge, it just has to be developed intuitively---once you get it, it's like "ah-hah!" and it suddenly seems very down-to-earth and human.

This film doesn't follow traditional narrative structure, it is more a series of vignettes or impressions that relate to Fellini's improvisational and personal style. I can still understand why someone might not relate to Fellini himself, but that doesn't render his art worthless. It is a highly personal, accurate, and outstanding expression of his self, and that is why it is great--- not because of the hype that has been forever associated with Fellini's films and larger-than-life persona.

This film represents a good place to start if one wished to begin understanding other works of art that make use of subjective or surrealist methods in their presentation. I think some David Lynch films use a very similar technique, though applied to specific characters which are not strictly auto-biographical.

8 1/2, does a very good job of blending subjectivity and "objectivity" throughout. It is an interesting portrait of a person's psyche---his psyche shapes his reality, and vice versa. In this light, every person's reality is truly their own, though I can't know if Fellini really intended to make any larger implications such as these. Fellini knows himself best, his own bank of experiences and perceptions form the basis of the content. All great art is highly personal like this, whether it admits to it or not.

It is important to stress that this is not a film that makes use of dynamic narrative tensions. It has basically one situation: the main character. It explores that one situation as fully as possible--- all of the things that make him who he is and in turn shape the way he perceives and approaches his circumstance. The film is highly unique in the skill with which it does so, and the loose, almost improvisational nature of this film-making is suited to presenting its subject.

Relying on circumstance to intervene in the creative process allows aspects to manifest that could not have if he were trying to write a film of this nature. Subconscious and unintentional aspects could reveal themselves, giving the film a psychological weight that contributes to the feeling of personal depth. These aspects may not be picked up consciously by the viewer except on repeated viewings...this is what I mean when I say you have to develop an intuitive feel for the way these kinds of films work.

Until you develop that feel and understanding, more emotional than intellectual, these and other films (like those of the aforementioned David Lynch) will just appear pretentious. I do not deny that there are a lot of folks who act like they understand these kinds of movies more than they do, contributing to the pretentious vibe.

There can still be differences of opinion in terms of interpretation, but the essence of the film is not intellectual---varying interpretations can simultaneously be accurate given the layers of ambiguity and complexity that great minds (and subsequently great works) possess. People and works with one simplistic message are not nearly as compelling.

The Emperor has no clothes.......2007-02-06

It's really quite amusing reading all of the fawning encomia to this pretentious piece of garbage. Because this film's reputation is based on a top-down critical diktat rather than on inherent quality, most of these reviews either cite some sort of authority (Roger Ebert, the Academy Awards, some frou frou list of the greatest "films" of "cinema") to justify their adulation, or they seem to be quoting accolades and analysis from some film-history textbook. The sheep can't bleat their loyalty to received judgement fast enough. After two viewings, I have found nothing of value in 8 1/2. This movie consists of glamourous Italians going here and there talking about_nothing_, with occasional surrealistic hallucinations interspersed. This entire movie is a cheap trick, and that will be acknowledged in a more honest era. In the meantime, it is our duty, like the little child, to proclaim very loudly that the Emperor is naked! I give this movie negative 8 1/2 stars.

The Reviewer Below Doesn't Get The "Art" ; ).......2007-01-25

There was a challenge in the review below to offer an essay for why 8 1/2 truly is a great film. I offer Roger Ebert's essay in his The Great Movies archive. It can be found on his website. There are some great reasons brought up on why 8 1/2 works so well and I really enjoy his observations about the movie.

Criterion also makes a great dvd package.

Great film, great picture quality, great extras, and a great book of essays to go with it all.

This one is worth picking up, hands down.

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