8 1/2 Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 335

Average Rating: 3.2/4

# of Ratings: 149

Theatrical Release Date: 06/25/1963

Language: Italian

Genre: Drama

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Federico Fellini

Actors: Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Marcello Mastroianni, Rossella Falk, Barbara Steele

Plot: A movie director, who become delusional, engulfs him self back to the old
times - in his old movies and films - while living completely out of
reality.

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 06/04/2019

Fellini's surreal and unconventional masterpiece that gets into the heart and mind of a filmmaker.

Matthew Brady - wrote on 11/28/2016

8½ is one of the best movies about film making, within a fantasy that clashes with reality. Short answer = It's a masterpiece

Camper - wrote on 02/13/2016

This movie is so trippy and brilliant. It needs to be watched multiple times to pick up on all the little details. "I'm sorry, but how can you not care if an audience understands?" I don't think we're even supposed to fully understand, but the entire experience of just watching it is enough for me.

SteelCity99
Director

8 1/2

SteelCity99 - wrote on 04/25/2018

No matter how complicated and uncommon may accurately portraying metafilm be, few directors have accomplished to totally comprehend what filmmaking really means. The power of the words in a well-developed script, a cinematography and an editing that can go beyond our own words, a sublime direction like the one that could only come from a "giant of cinema", performances that are so great that they end up seeming extremely natural and the use of a beautiful original musical score that works for every scene of the film are characteristics that rarely can be found in a single movie. Federico Fellini, being one of my favorites "giants of cinema", directs what for many people's opinion (including mine) is his definitive masterpiece and the most representative sample of his visionary capacity …

memento_mori
Producer

Fellini in Wonderland.

memento_mori - wrote on 11/24/2013

Already halfway through 8 1/2, I was taken aback by its absolute genius. I loved the costume design, the cinematography, the dream exhibitions and the wonderful colors… Then I realized the film was in black and white.
And it's because I said that to myself, that I know this film is wonderful in every regard.

It leaps out at you in an ultra-expressionistic manner and takes you into a queer, little world in the mind of a man plagued by writer's block and a creative illness otherwise unknown.
The film begins astonishingly, with a man attempting and succeeding in escaping his fume-filled car during his wait among other vehicles on a boat. This so perfectly sets the tone of escape and redemption for the rest of the film.

The way shots, sound, light and actions are synchronized in …

Looneymanthegreat
Producer

Wonderfully Original

Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 03/25/2013

There are movies that wander spotlessly through Images with little plot to speak of, only a weak premise or free association. Some of the more familiar examples are films such as Mullholand Drive. There are other movies that we common film goers are more familiar with that have a clear plot and message. 81/2 seems to have somehow combined the two; there is a plot, but only just.

The movie flashes between reality and fantasy, sometimes without the audience noticing. In the end it doesn’t particularly matter what’s really happening and what is only in the main characters imagination, because the plot is not confined t either world. The plot revolves around Guido, both External and internal.

It is a character study, but not in the same way that films like
Citizen Cane or …