Film Forum

Italy, 1963
Directed by Federico Fellini
Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo
Screenplay by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi
DCP. Approx. 138 min.

The ultimate Fillmaker’s Block: torn between mistress Sanfra Milo and wife Anouk Aimée, while caught idea-less on the verge of an ambitious new production, movie director Marcello Mastroianni escapes into childhood memories and sexual fantasies, until, in the course of a climactic ballet around his space-age set, he finally finds his subject. Fellini’s seemingly autobiographical, seamless interweaving of reality, memory and dream was perceived as a breakthrough at the time and has influenced a generation of movie-makers – but, of course, according to the maestro himself, “Of all my films, this has the least reference to personal facts…There is nothing in it beyond what can be seen.” With Claudia Cardinale. Music by Nino Rota. Academy Award for best foreign film.

Reviews

“8½ 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.”
– Derek Malcolm, The Guardian