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Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Classic, but not quite great
8½ is suffused with the fictive childhood memories of Fellini's onscreen doppelganger, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), which- if the DVD experts on Fellini, and those I've scanned in gathering background information, are correct- are merely Fellini's own true memories transferred to film. They can result in some interesting themes and scenes for the film, but often, most manifestly in the Saraghina and Cardinal digressions, they make far too much of points that could more easily and poetically ... Read More
Rating:  - The Last Great Fellini Film
After 8 films, having acquired the status of an Italian icon (a much criticized one, of course, as with all Italian icons, which Italians - and Italo-Americans like me - take particular joy in tearing down) and overwhelming international fame, Fellini felt himself trapped, boxed in by demands and expectations and unable to create. So he shattered the box, threw away his script and wrote this outrageous, self regarding, egoistic, surreal and utterly brilliant meditation on ....himself! His predicament, ... Read More
Rating: - Italian Film Classic
Excellent Film by Fellini. A bit of a break from Italian Neo-Realism, but it works and it must be seen numerous times in order to get further into the meaning of what he is projecting or attempting to get across to the audience.
Rating: - Beautifully honest depiction of ones struggle to create...
Federico Fellini's `8 ½' is a film about film. It carries the very essence of art in it's most entrancing form and delivers a beautiful interpretation of the glories as well as the tragedies of creating that said art. I think that may be why `8 ½' is considered to be one of the finest films ever made, because it truly fleshes out the angels and demons involved in getting a directors vision off the ground. It attacks the distress and anguish over desiring to create something meaningful and original without ... Read More
Rating: - One of my favorites...
They say that this is Federico Fellini's best work alongside LA DOLCE VITA. This is true. This is one of the most honest, personal works from any film director that you'll find. It is an intimate and captivating experience filled with some of the most beautiful moments that I have ever seen on film. To view this film is an experience unlike any other, and a film that I will never forget. Everything about it is perfect.
SEE IT! By the way, the score by Nina Rota is wonderful.
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