Overview
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
Telling about the biography of Federico Fellini is not an easy task, and only the Italian master himself can do it. He places his reflections on the meaning of life and creative fragility in the fictional director Guido, exhausted and immersed in memories and fantasies. "8½" is a work about one's own creativity, where the main character rushes from fiction to painful reality and back again. "Your Eminence, I am unhappy," the hero complains to the holy father and immediately receives a discouraging response.: "Why should you be happy? That's not your purpose." Guido's character is very afraid of professional failure and depends on the expectations of the public and the horror of his own creative failure.
Previously, Fellini had staged funny screen parades, but in 1963 he decided to drop the mask and present a sad masterpiece. At that time, Fellini shot six full meters, two short ones and half of the film in conjunction with Albert Lattuada. "Eight and a half" is the number of films he has made. For the ninth time, he decided to talk about his own creative crisis. Personal therapy for the director, public revelation for the audience − everyone was left in a winning position.
But you can only watch it as a historical digression.
It's just that even the KVN guys who didn't watch Fellini came up with dozens of numbers from the series: and let's show the number, as we can't come up with a number. The modern audience will not see anything new, except for the beautiful actors.
It's a good thing that Khrushchev fell asleep during the screening, even though he offended Fellini with it... It would have been worse if I had watched it... Then I would call Fellini the same as the avant-garde artists. 😅
And that would be more insulting .