Federico Fellini Scores a Cinematic 10 with 8 1/2

 

           One of the most personal, honest and experimental self-portraits by a major filmmaker, 1963’s 8½ allows Federico Fellini the platform to explore his art and personal life in semi-autobiographical fashion, providing viewers with insight into how the legendary director’s relationships and actions influenced his artist path. Detailing a critical juncture in the life of Fellini’s alter-ego, Guido Anselmi, who is taking a rest cure at an upscale resort to rejuvenate his creative facilities in order to attempt to oversee his latest project involving a spaceship built to take a large populace to outer-space safety during the atomic age, the multi-layer, non-linear screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi ingeniously combines the use of flashbacks, dreams and a more straightforward narrative design to convey the many demands and inner conflicts inhabiting the mindset of a talent of Fellini’ stature. A playful score by Nino Rota enlivens many scenes as comic moments are frequently inserted to grant a light touch and offset the more introspective themes concerning the nature of art, religion and politics. Truly phenomenal black and white cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo, showing a masterful knowledge of shadow and light to create unforgettable cinematic images, impactfully highlights the equally astounding art direction and costumes by Piero Gherardi, who utilizes black and white design as brilliantly as even seen on a screen. A top cast, led by Marcello Mastroianni at his most charmingly urbane and weary, captures the many moods of a rich collection of players who coexist in the chaotic and fascinating world surrounding Guido.

          At the height of his abilities after getting his start in Italian films as a screenwriter in the 1940’s, with an Oscar nomination as co-writer of Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of neorealistic cinema, Open City, before rising to prominence as one of the most gifted filmmakers with the moving, enduring classics La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, which allowed wife Giulietta Masina a Best Actress Cannes award for her indelible portrait of the title character and a Best Foreign Film Oscar for each film, before starting the new decade with the worldwide success of La Dolce Vita, which placed a spotlight on the idle upper-class. After these three seminal works, Fellini was clearly prepared to dive deep for an internal look into his life and career, pushing his distinct talents to the limit in bringing this highly original and entertaining work to the masses, with Fellini carefully balancing an array of diverse plot elements and personalities while unfolding his uniquely surreal tale.

Fantasy sequences add much flavor to the involving storyline, with Fellini showing the full range of his imaginative gifts from the outset of the film, wherein Guido appears trapped in a car filling with smoke as other passengers in nearby vehicles look on with detachment, before Guido escapes and floats heavenward. A later sequence concerning Guido controlling his “harem,” which consists of nearly all the women in the cast, shows Fellini fearlessly poking fun at his chauvinistic tendencies as Guido’s matter of fact, condescending behavior comes face-to-face with rebellion from the fairer sex. In another revealing passage, Guido’s wife claims he is painting an altruistic image of himself with his project, while a viewer is being shown through this scene and others Guido has many flaws to weigh against his more understanding and likable traits, providing Fellini was willing to grant the audience a full-bodied take on his complicated persona. After 8½ Fellini would continue to put his individual mark on films often featuring increasingly bizarre content, while gaining two more competitive Oscars and a 1992 honorary Academy Award for his unsurpassed contributions to the cinema.

            Mastroianni, who started in films as a teen, then after two decades in the business gained international superstardom with La Dolce before cementing his position with an Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning comic turn in Divorce, Italian Style, scores again with an ennui-laced portrayal as the blasé, forlorn Guido, while also using his comic gifts to add a sophisticated bemusement to Guido in the character’s more playful and imaginative moments. Also, Fellini must have been pleased to have himself represented onscreen in such a glamourous manner as, with wavy, peppered locks and his chiseled movie star countenance, Mastroianni is one of the most attractive ruminators ever caught on film. He incorporates a likeable low-key, urban quality to Guido that allows a viewer to connect with the sometimes detached and self-centered catalyst as he works his way through a myriad of setbacks, instilling the role with humane aspects that make Guido more relatable than off-putting. Following 8½, Mastroianni would remain a leading light in Italian cinema, with several fruitful collaborations opposite ideal costar Sophia Loren to his credit, gaining acclaim with two more Best Actor Oscar nominations, two Cannes Best Actor wins, two British Academy Awards, two Venice Film Festival acting prizes, and five David di Donatello Best Actor awards, including one for his reunion with Fellini, 1986’s amusing Ginger and Fred, opposite Masina. Mastroianni would pass in December of 1996 at 72, leaving behind one of the most formidable lists of film credits, with his work for Fellini aiding in ensuring his legacy. 

            As the image of Guido’s idealized woman for his film, the elegant, serene Claudia Cardinale holds the screen with a dreamy magnetism in her brief appearances, leading to a more pronounced sequence with Guido as her radiant same-named star arrives to take part in the film. 1963 would prove to be a banner year for Cardinale, with 8½ preceding her work in Luchino Visconti’s equally-esteemed epic The Leopard, before her successful move, after five years of honing her craft in Italian films, into international stardom via The Pink Panther, leading to more success during the decade in major films, specifically The Professionals and Sergio Leone’s terrific 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West. Anouk Aimée was also witnessing a period of career highs in the 1960s, after making a film debut at 14 in 1947 and establishing herself in the French Cinema during the 1950s, before breaking out alongside Mastroianni as his paramour in La Dolce, then finding an iconic role as the alluring, bewitching title character of Jaques Demy’s Lola. With 8½ Aimée intelligently brings a knowing jadedness to her portrayal of Guido’s conflicted, bitter wife Luisa, who understands her husband’s faults and assets as well as anyone, while memorably sporting ultra-chic specs in a movie featuring top eyewear across the board. After 8½ Aimée would reach her film apex with Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe and British Academy Award winning work via director Claude Lelouch’s 1966 critical and box-office smash A Man and a Woman, then reunite with Demy at the close of the decade for Model Shop, working periodically thereafter, including more collaborations with Lelouch for the Man and a Woman sequel in 1986 and her final role in a 2019 Man and a Woman follow-up, The Best Years of a Life, before passing at age 92 in 2024.

Barbara Steele, in perhaps her best role outside of the horror genre wherein she made her greatest claim to fame via 1960’s Black Sunday, brings her singular screen presence, angular offbeat looks and a perverse sensibility to her role of Gloria Morin, the mysterious young girlfriend of Guido’s close friend Mario (Mario Pisu, happily sweating through the character’s midlife crisis as he seeks to hold onto some semblance of youth through his affair with Gloria). In one of the film’s most entertaining set pieces, Gloria twists and sensually undulates with and then perplexedly away from Mario at an outdoor dance forum in joyful rhythm with the music’s upbeat tempo. Sandra Milo also lends highly original shadings to the movie as Carla, Guido’s spirited, impish mistress who seeks to get her husband a job with Guido amid her trysts with the powerful director. Madeleine Lebeau is tellingly on point as Madeleine, the alert, desperate actress cast in the project and looking for more attention from Guido, along with an expanded role. Rossella Falk has cosmopolitan flair and an appropriately caustic tone as Luisa’s loyal friend Rossella, while Eddra Gale possesses one of the most unforgettable visages in a Fellini picture as the robust, lustful La Saraghina, who puts over a few lively dance moves of her own on a beach in possibly the richest and most entertaining flashback sequence. Additionally, providing takes of their actual roles in Fellini’s moviemaking endeavors, Mario Conocchia, Bruno Agostini and Cesarino Miceli Picardi offer insightful takes on certain colorful types of moviemaking production figures.

Wide acclaim and high audience interest in Fellini’s most innovative and flamboyant work to date allowed 8½ to rank with the top praised and highest profile of the 1963 cinematic crop. During awards season 8½ was often cited, with Best Foreign Film awards from The National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, a nomination for Fellini from the Director’s Guild of America and inclusion on The New York Times list of 1963’s top ten films. Five Academy Award nominations (rare at the time for a non-American film) were allotted to 8 ½, including a Best Director nod for Fellini, who would go home with another Best Foreign Film Oscar and one of the most warranted Best Costume Design (Black and White) wins for Gherardi. The lasting legacy of the film has led to a hit, Tony Award-winning 1982 Broadway musical adaptation, Nine, and regular placement of the imposing work on “All-Time” list of the greatest movies ever lensed, including regular placement inside the top ten on the Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films, conducted every ten years (achieving its highest rank of #4 in 1972, and coming in at #32 on the 2022 poll). For a stunning behind-the-scenes take of an artist seemingly at the peak of his career and abilities, but at a professional and personal crossroads simultaneously stunting his progress, film connoisseurs looking to be rewarded with a rich, funny and provocative viewing experience need only stop at 8½.