8 1/2 – Criterion Collection Review
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Frederico Fellini’s masterwork 8 ½ is difficult to come largely because of its reputation. Many critics also space 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 gain.
The storyline itself is very simple. A celebrated director is preparing a current 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 state all others. With deadlines approaching the cast and crew tumble 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 challenging is the method 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 conceal 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 understanding become increasingly blurred, with Fellini giving as mighty (if not more) importance to fantasy as to fact.
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The performances and the cinematography are key to the film’s success. Even when the film becomes surrealistic, improbable, the actors manufacture 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 graceful 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 befriend people not to be intimidated by the film’s reputation, for its inform can be fast grasped, and when critics place 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 bask in and to notice. Even so, I would be amiss if I did not point out that people who buy a cinema of super region lines and who hate ambiguity or the necessity of interpreting yelp will probably abominate 8 ½ a expansive deal; if you are dangerous in your taste on these points you would do well to rent or borrow the film before making a win. For all others: strongly, strongly recommended.
The most sure achievement in 8 1/2, Fellini’s mind-boggling allotment of self-examination, is its gallant mixture of dreams and reality in order to point to the protagonist Guido’s whimsical mind region. Dream sequences near and go without warning, depicting Guido’s hurt, yearning, frustration, guilt that can pop up at any instant. The first time we peruse 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 cherish, and some are lengthy, explain, wild visions that assume Guido’s heightened sense of confusion and fear. Although the film is often called the best film ever made about a filmmaker, its theme is universal in that it is a lustrous picturization of a person’s (and by extension, any person’s) mind, which is often shy by the past, tormented by the show, and paralyzed about the future and the unknown…
The unusual Criterion DVD of 8 1/2 has a stunning video transfer. A frame-by-frame cleanup of the describe 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 acquire they are normal. The 1.0 mono audio track is indistinguishable in quality from that on the LD — it is mostly super and bright, 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.
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There is one limited 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 fresh Italian version, retaining all of its modern 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 glowing well-rounded audio essay covering the film’s notion, 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 amusing tale of how the director goes about making a film. The video/audio quality of this fragment is abominable, 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 gain from the 1957 film FORTUNELLA to fabricate the theme for THE GODFATHER, an act that would cost him the Oscar nomination. The DVD extras also include 3 original 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 inviting 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 collected photos from the location of the film, some of which were taken from deleted scenes.
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