Storyline

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Year of Release
1963

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Genre(s)

Keyword(s)
Film/TV/Theater Drama Movie, Foreign Language Drama Movie, Re-Release Drama Movie, Relationship Drama, Movies Directed by Federico Fellini, Movies Written by Federico Fellini, Movies Written by Ennio Flaiano, Movies Written by Tullio Pinelli, Movies Written by Brunello Rondi, Movies Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Movies Starring Claudia Cardinale, Movies Starring Anouk Aimee, Movies Starring Sandra Milo, Movies Starring Rossella Falk, Movies Starring Barbara Steele, Movies from 1999, Movies from the 1990s, Movies from Italy, Italian Language

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Cast & Crew
Marcello Mastroianni
Guido Anselmi

Claudia Cardinale
Claudia

Anouk Aimée
Luisa Anselmi (as Anouk Aimee)

Sandra Milo
Carla

Madeleine Lebeau
French Actress

Mario Pisu
Mezzabotta

Director(s)
Dan Mirvish

Writer(s)
Daniel Moya (story), Dan Mirvish (story),

Film Festivals

Awards & Nominations

Academy Awards

Top Reviews
8 1/2
All Critics (55) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (1)
Though he can’t face up to the total case, we must be grateful to Fellini for having presented so much of it, and with such flair and exuberance.

February 11, 2020

Eric Rhode
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
Fellini keeps a grasp on his difficult form, creating some penetrating, witty, tragic moments.

June 26, 2018

James Powers
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
A carnival of the soul.

May 1, 2015 | Rating: 5/5

Ian Mantgani
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
Marcello Mastroianni becomes an avatar for the great Italian director Federico Fellini in the surreal cinematic self-interrogation that takes place in 8 1/2.

April 30, 2015 | Rating: 5/5

Kate Muir
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
It exerts an irresistible pull.

April 30, 2015 | Rating: 5/5

Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
8 1/2 is probably the most potent movie about film-making, within which fantasy and reality are mixed without obfuscation, and there’s a tough argument that belies Fellini’s usual felicitous flaccidity.

January 6, 2014

Derek Malcolm
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
With every screening, you discover more layers and further understand the film’s purpose, and its filmmaker.

February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4

Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
It remains dazzling and original, as ambitiously unfettered an exercise in navel- gazing as the movies have ever offered…

August 30, 2021

Dennis Harvey
48 Hills
It successfully portrays the passions, contradictions, and pressures of being an artist.

May 21, 2021

Allen Almachar
The MacGuffin
Overall 8 1/2 is a strange film but I like it and what it has to say about inspiration and film. It was a challenging to movie to watch and keep everything straight but I like movies that challenge me and make me ask questions.

March 24, 2021

Sarah Brinks
Battleship Pretension
No director has been as personal or vulnerable as Fellini is here– he taps into his past, his dreams, his quirks, faults and failures, to find the meaning in the madness of life.

January 10, 2021

Asher Luberto
L.A. Weekly
Made me prick up my eyes. After twenty minutes I began to suspect I might be in on a masterpiece, and after thirty I was sure of it.

August 13, 2019

Dwight MacDonald
Esquire Magazine…

Synopsis (Warning: Spoilers!)

Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director, is suffering from “director’s block”. Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes thinly veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amidst artistic and marital difficulties. While attempting to recover from his anxieties at a luxurious spa, Guido hires a well-known critic to review his ideas for his film, but the critic blasts them. Guido has recurring visions of an Ideal Woman, which he sees as key to his story. His mistress Carla comes to visit him, but Guido puts her in a separate hotel. The film production crew relocates to Guido’s hotel in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to work on the film.
Guido admits to a Cardinal that he is not happy. The Cardinal offers little insight. Guido invites his estranged wife Luisa and her friends to join him. They dance, but Guido abandons her for his production crew. Guido confesses to his wife’s best friend Rosella that he wanted to make a film that was pure and honest, but he is struggling with something honest to say. Carla surprises Guido, Luisa, and Rosella outside the hotel, and Guido claims that he and Carla ended their affair years ago. Luisa and Rosella call him on the lie, and Guido slips into a fantasy world where he lords over a harem of women from his life, but a rejected showgirl starts a rebellion. The fantasy women attack Guido with harsh truths about himself and his sex life.
When Luisa sees how bitterly Guido represents her in the film, she declares that their marriage is over. Guido’s Ideal Woman arrives in the form of an actress named Claudia. Guido explains that his film is about a burned-out man who finds salvation in this Ideal Woman. Claudia concludes that the protagonist is unsympathetic because he is incapable of love. Broken, Guido calls off the film, but the producer and the film’s staff announce a press conference. Guido attempts to escape from the journalists and eventually imagines shooting himself in the head. Guido realizes he was attempting to solve his personal confusion by creating a film to help others, when instead he needs to accept his life for what it is. He asks Luisa for her assistance in doing so. Carla tells him that she figured out what he was trying to say: that Guido can’t do without the people in his life. The men and women hold hands and run around the circle, Guido and Luisa joining them last.

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Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8%C2%BD
Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/8-12

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