8 1/2
These surreal visuals! Claudia Cardinale! The italianness of the movie! The jazzy soundtrack! (I want it!) The overture to Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia! Oh God, only 8 minutes into it and I loved this movie already.
Ahhh, die Zuckerfee! I remember watching the beginning of “Stardust Memories” and was surprised that it was a direct reference and homage to the beginning of this film. These kinds of details: the music, the actors and especially the visuals are distracting me a little bit from the story, but that one is suprisingly lovely too.
Except for La Strada, Fellini’s movies are long, sometimes surreal portraits of life, society and people without a real plot. Unsurprisingly, this one is not too different from that even though it is centered around the main character and his struggles to make a movie. But the storyline is not all that obvious, which is where my surprise came from. Usually, Fellini’s later movies are a plain borefest for me even though there are aspects that I have liked, but why is it that I like this one so much? Is it the great actors? Is it the deep focus of a main character?
So I have seen two movies with Chiara Mastroianni now, and I am seeing my first one with Marcello Mastroianni. Wow, she really took after him, and not after Catherine Deneuve at all! They look exactly the same when they smile.
There is one thing I am really wondering about: The movie is supposed to be somewhat autobiographical and the women are playing an important role here. I also know that he married Giulietta Masina at age 23 and was with her until his death. “8 1/2” really makes me wonder about whether they had a relationship like Guido and Luisa here – just looking at Giulietta Masina’s face makes it impossible for me to believe.
Due to the non-existence of a plot and since I don’t really want to get into detail when it comes to the meaning of the film, I find it difficult to talk about more than directing craftmanship and the actors. The film deserves better, yet I don’t even feel all that pressured; considering the high acclaim of the film, I can just leave the analysis and dissecting to others. This movie definitely deserves this high acclaim in my opinion, and it was much less of a bore than some other Fellini’s. I recommend it… unter Vorbehalt. No plot is always a bad thing. Finally: why is this movie’s name 8 1/2 after all?
PS. The movies in the title are the ones from the Sight and Sound Critics list that I have yet to see.