8

Directed by Federico Fellini Cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo Studio: Citerion Length: 138 min. Format: Black and White Theatrical Release Date: 1963 DVD Release Date: 2001 Language: Italian

CAST LIST
Marcello Mastroianni Claudia Cardinale Anouk Aime Sandra Milo Rossella Falk Madeleine Le Beau Mario Pisu Barbara Steele Neil Robinson Mino Doro Eugene Walter Gilda Dahlberg Annie Gorassini Ian Dallas Guido Alberti Mario Conocchia Guido Anselmi Claudia Luisa Anselmi Carla Rossella French Actress Mezzabotta Gloria Morin Agent for French actor Claudia's agent The Journalist Journalist's Wife Producer's Girl Friend Mindreader The Producer Producer

Excerpted from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 259: Fellini created a remarkably personal cinematic confession in this film about a director who is mentally unable to commence work on his latest production. Suffering from a psychosomatic liver ailment, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) takes to a spa for physical and spiritual rejuvenation, only to be haunted by the specter of his professional and personal life. In the black-and-white-tiled world of the spa, Anselmi confronts his problems, his boyhood memories, and his lusty fantasy world. Yet interruptions keep coming at himfrom his producer, who wants to get the production of an outer-space adventure underway, and from his wife Luisa, upset about his mistress. His imagination serves as his escape: in imaginary sequences, he brandishes a whip instead of a megaphone to orchestrate his actors, and he also fantasizes that he is the master of a harem of women demurely under his control.

The containment of 8 1/2 within the artificial world of the spa manifests a subjective, self-created reality, one that Fellini populates with priests, journalists, and Saraghina, the mythical prostitute who initiated Anselmi into the self-created mysteries of sex in his youthful days. Like Anselmi's incomplete film script in the story, 8 1/2 relied a great deal on Fellini's gift for improvisation. The film's title represents the total number of films made by Fellini before this production: seven plus three collaborations (each counting as one-half). This uniquely autobiographical work is enhanced by a musical score written by Nino Rota.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN WATCHING THE FILM . . .

The self-reflective style and content of the narrative and the main character The main characters personal examination and soul-searching The visual portrayal of the psychological journey to the inner self The examination of the past and the present How the main character deals with and resolves his problems The films presentation of fantasy/escape The use and meaning of symbolism The specific use of the Pinocchio symbolism The presentation and commentary of the world of the director and the world of filmmaking If you watched Manhattan, compare Fellinis main character as representative of Fellini to Allens main character as representative of Allenare these roles just thinly veiled personal examinations? Are they self-indulgent?
Other films by Fellini:

La Dolce Vita Amarcord And the Ship Sails On La Strada

Satyricon Nights of Cabiria Spirits of the Dead City of Women