Frederico Fellini's masterwork 8 ½ is difficult to approach largely because of its reputation. Many critics also state that the film is so complex that it requires multiple viewings to understand, and this is likely to intimidate many viewers. But the truth is that, in spite of its surrealistic flourishes, 8 ½ is more straight-forward than its reputation might lead you to believe.
The storyline itself is very simple. A famous director is preparing a new film, but finds himself suffering from creative block: he is obsessed by, loves, and feels unending frustration with both art and women, and his attention and ambition flies in so many different directions that he is suddenly incapable of focusing on one possibility lest he negate all others. With deadlines approaching the cast and crew descend upon him demanding information about the film-information that the director does not have because he finds himself incapable of making an artistic choice.
What makes the film interesting is the way in which Fellini ultimately transforms the film as a whole into a commentary on the nature of creativity, art, mid-life crisis, and the battle of the sexes. Throughout the film, the director dreams dreams, has fantasies, and recalls his childhood-and this internal life is presented on the screen with the same sense of reality as reality itself. The staging of the various shots is unique; one is seldom aware that the characters have slipped into a dream, fantasy, or memory until one is well into the scene, and as the film progresses the lines between external life and internal thought become increasingly blurred, with Fellini giving as much (if not more) importance to fantasy as to fact.
The performances and the cinematography are key to the film's success. Even when the film becomes surrealistic, fantastic, the actors perform very realistically and the cinematography presents the scene in keeping with what we understand to be the reality of the characters lives and relationships. At the same time, however, the film has a remarkably poetic quality, a visual fluidity and beauty that transforms even the most ordinary events into something slightly tinged by a dream-like quality. Marcello Mastroianni offers a his greatest performance here, a delicate mixture of desperation and ennui, and he is exceptionally well supported by a cast that includes Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, and a host of other notables.
I would encourage people not to be intimidated by the film's reputation, for its content can be quickly grasped, and when critics state the film requires repeated viewing what they actually seem to mean is that the film holds up extremely well to repeated viewing; each time it is seen, one finds more and more to enjoy and to contemplate. Even so, I would be amiss if I did not point out that people who prefer a cinema of tidy plot lines and who dislike ambiguity or the necessity of interpreting content will probably dislike 8 ½ a great deal; if you are uncertain in your taste on these points you would do well to rent or borrow the film before making a purchase. For all others: strongly, strongly recommended.
**EDIT 10/4/11: ADDED REVIEW OF 2009 CRITERION BLU-RAY**
The most obvious achievement in 8 1/2, Fellini's mind-boggling piece of self-examination, is its audacious mixture of dreams and reality in order to show the protagonist Guido's whimsical mind state. Dream sequences come and go without warning, depicting Guido's pain, yearning, frustration, guilt that can pop up at any instant. The first time we see Guido's face, it is his mirror image, hinting to us the unreality we are about to face. Some of the dream sequences have a Bunuel-like surrealism. Some of them, however, blend almost seamlessly into scenes of reality, intentionally confounding us. Some are nightmarish, yet some are warm and hopeful. Some are brief flights of fancy, and some are lengthy, elaborate, wild visions that reflect Guido's heightened sense of confusion and anxiety. Although the film is often called the best film ever made about a filmmaker, its theme is universal in that it is a vivid picturization of a person's (and by extension, any person's) mind, which is often haunted by the past, tormented by the present, and apprehensive about the future and the unknown...
The Criterion Blu-ray edition duplicates all the content in the bonus features and booklet of the DVD edition, but offers a high-def picture and lossless uncompressed mono track. The 1080p video transfer seems to come from the same high-def source that created the DVD edition (which looks very good itself), so you get the inherent advantage of high-def over standard-def, which is 2-3 times higher resolution horizontally and vertically. The uncompressed audio track is encoded at a bit rate of 1152 kbps, which is 6 times higher than that of the DVD's Dolby Digital mono track. In short, this is the best the film has ever looked and sounded on home video. Of course, the better your audio and video equipments (especially screen size), the better your experience. I viewed mine on a 50" screen. As is usually the case in viewing black-and-white films on Blu-ray, you see more optimal black and white levels than the DVD counterpart. But be sure to calibrate your screen properly, such as with the "color bars" screen that comes with all Criterion discs. Proper calibration is quite important for serious viewing of Blu-rays because of the format's ability to show a lot more subtleties and nuances in the picture than DVDs ever can.
The 52-minute short film "Fellini: A Director's Notebook" in the Blu-ray's bonus feature section actually has better picture quality than that on the DVD edition. It still looks severely battered and scratchy, but the colors are much brighter, whereas on the DVD they look very faded. Criterion has obviously found a different video copy of the film for the Blu-ray, as indicated by the opening logo that does not exist on the DVD.
For my opinions on the quality of the bonus features, please see my original DVD review below.
**BELOW IS MY REVIEW OF THE 2001 CRITERION DVD EDITION, originally posted Dec-05-2001**
The new Criterion DVD of 8 1/2 has a sparkling video transfer. A frame-by-frame cleanup of the picture has been done, so this DVD is significantly better-looking than Criterion's laserdisc version in 1989. There are momentary freeze frames during the opening scene, but since they also appeared on the LD, I assume they are normal. The 1.0 mono audio track is indistinguishable in quality from that on the LD -it is mostly clean and sharp, although loud sound shows some distortion. The image is anamorphic. The disc is region-free. The audio is supported by newly-translated optional English subtitles.
There is one slight discrepancy between the LD and the DVD. The LD contained the American release version of the film in which some scenes, such as the one in which Guido first meets his wife, had altered music cues. The DVD, however, is the original Italian version, retaining all of its original music.
The DVD's audio commentary comprises of scene-specific comments (whose authorship is unclear), and additional comments from critic Gideon Bachmann and NYU professor Antonio Monda. The result is a pretty well-rounded audio essay covering the film's conception, production details, themes, and artistic significance, as well as personal recollections, anecdotes, and abandoned concepts and scenes. Other extras include two 1-hour films on the filmmakers. The first is "Fellini: A Director's Notebook", directed by and starring Fellini himself. It is a sort of Fellini-style DAY FOR NIGHT, a fictional, somewhat humorous account of how the director goes about making a film. The video/audio quality of this piece is poor, and there are no subtitles or closed captioning. The second film is a documentary made by German filmmakers in 1993 titled "Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert". It offers an intimate yet enigmatic portrayal of Nino Rota through his personal recordings, film footage of him working with Fellini, clips of some early films scored by Rota, and interviews of his associates and students. One segment is about how Rota recycled his score from the 1957 film FORTUNELLA to create the theme for THE GODFATHER, an act that would cost him the Oscar nomination. The DVD extras also include 3 new interviews. Sandra Milo speaks candidly about her experiences, both personal and professional, with Fellini. Linda Wertmuller lavishes praises on Fellini's genius while offering a fascinating appraisal of Fellini's psychology that figures prominently in 8 1/2. And Vittorio Storaro pays tributes to the achievements of 8 1/2's cinematographer, Gianni di Venanzo. Rounding out the extras are 100 or so still photos from the set of the film, some of which were taken from deleted scenes.
Buy 8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) (1963) Now
First off, its one of the 10 greatest movies. If you have any interest in the history of cinema, its a must-view. However, the Image Entertainment single disc edition suffers from a decent transfer of a mediocre print, with much distracting dust and emulsion chipping present. The Criterion 2 disc version, while weighed down by a second disc of less interesting documentaries issue appears to have far fewer print defects. IMHO the commentaries and better transfer make the Criterion disc a better purchase.
Read Best Reviews of 8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) (1963) Here
Semi-autobiographical self-analysis mixed with fantasies in a movie? It worked for Fellini to the point that it yielded him his third Oscar for best foreign film, the other two being La Strada and La Dolce Vita. It's a unique testament to his vision.
The opening scene itself is memorable. In it, Guido Anselmi is inside a car surrounded by traffic. He tries to get out but can't, frantically rapping on the window, unable to breathe. The occupants of the other cars stare expressionlessly at him. It's a brilliant symbol of the oppression of society and conformity. The allegory continues with him soaring into the sky and being a human kite, after which authority orders him to be brought back down to earth instead of being in the clouds. How repressive!
Guido is a film director in his stride who's onto a rough start with his current project. Yet his collaborator Daumier finds several flaws. There is no fundamental guiding principle, no philosophical premise, and ambiguous intention. One thing that Guido wants for sure is an angelic woman dressed in white, symbolizing innocence, purity, and salvation. Ironically, in the end, it is she identifies his problem for him. The reason why there isn't a coherent project going on is that the movie is more scenes from Guido's childhood, and many of those are played throughout the film. He wants to make a film that is honest, helpful to everyone, and that will bury everything dead in everyone. But does he really have anything to say? In the meantime, he is hounded by his producer to stick to schedule, hire actors, and start shooting.
He also has a mistress Carla, who's extravagant, sexy, a bit loquacious, being at an impasse in his marriage to Luisa. But it's the fantasy-world and the past that he retreats to in times of stress that's the real wonder here. We learn of his encounter with the hefty and sensuous Saraghina, who lives on the beach and who teaches the local Catholic school kids forbidden dances. The scene of having his own harem, full of the women whom he has encountered, is nothing more than a big booster shot to his male ego. I need to daydream something like that more often.
In the scene between Guido and the Catholic cardinal, I found a line there that reminded me why I quit going to church. Guido complains of not being happy. The cardinal replies, "Why should you be happy? That is not your task in life. Who said we were put on Earth to be happy?" He then quotes from Origenes: "There is no salvation outside the Church."
A question from Guido to Claudia, the stunning actress tapped to play his pure angel is also one to us all: "Could you choose one single thing and be faithful to it? Could you make it the one thing that gives your life meaning, just because you believe in it?"
Marcello Mastroianni is well-placed as Guido, as is Sandra Milo as Carla and Anouk Aimee as Luisa. Barbara Steele plays someone usually out-of-character compared to the horror films she did during this time, as Gloria, the poetic young fiancee of Guido's friend Mario. She has a wonderful line: "The cruel bees have sucked the life from these poor flowers."
This movie was called 8-1/2 because Fellini had done seven films plus three collaborations in which he shot a short segment for an anthology, counting each collaboration as half, so he decided this film would be his 8-1/2th. One of those movies in a league by itself.
Want 8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) (1963) Discount?
One of my top five films of all time. I won't speak much about the film itself, under the assumption most readers have already seen it. You can be guaranteed a fantastic film if you haven't seen this yet.
As far as the BD itself, the transfer is absolutely fantastic! The DVD version itself already had a pretty pristine transfer, but of course with the BD upgrade the resolution and detail is so much better, and of course comes loaded with extras and an accompanying booklet that is actually quite thorough and should be considered an item in itself, and not just a supplement to the disc.
I haven't watched them all, but the extras that are bundled with the film are plentiful and quite informative. Often times with extras you feel as though it is just filler and fodder (let's be honest, it usually is) but at least Criterion makes a conscious effort to make it interesting. I'd say the extras are worthwhile, and also an upgrade from the DVD version.
The biggest difference I noticed from my first viewing is that the subtitles are slightly changed from the DVD version, and also theatrically. There are probably lots of different translations, but it IS different from the DVD but not drastically. The same point is made, but just using a different delivery. Not sure how I feel about some of the changes, but I probably just got used to the previous translation.
I'm not sure where some of these discrepancies or complaints are coming from that have surfaced recently, but my copy was packaged in the special made Criterion jewel cases, NOT the cardboard ones, and of course not the actual blue ones. For a while, with some of the earlier releases, Criterion was releasing its BDs in cardboard slip case and digi-pack format which angered a lot of customers who spoke their voice and got them to upgrade to the now standard jewel cases. A good move in my opinion, but now I'm stuck with Third Man and 400 Blows in cardboard. Reportedly, you can send in the old cases to get upgraded to new ones, but it'll cost you 5 bucks each, so... I think I can live with it.
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This production was a big success in Parma in 2010. The video and sound engineers needed all 6 performances of the run to piece together a perfect Ballo (they usually require 2-3 performances). Once the video and sound engineers were done they produced a Ballo too good to be true. I am ashamed to admit that I enjoyed it more than any Ballo I ever experienced in any form it's simply addicting.
