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Eight And A Half (1962) 
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Monday, March 26, 2001
Federico Fellini's Oscar-nominated 8 1/2 is a masterpiece of storytelling and cinema. The most autobiographical of Fellini's films, the plot of which concerns a 43-year-old film director who is having a midlife crisis, it is a career benchmark for this magnificent Italian New Wave director. Beautifully choreographed with flashbacks, dream sequences, exaggerated fantasy scenes, and magical surrealist episodes, 8 1/2 is one of the richest, most exuberant movies ever made, in the mode of Fellini's artfully abstract LA DOLCE VITA and AMARCORD. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is at a crisis point in his life and his work; in the opening sequence, Guido, suffocating, is caught in traffic with the windows of his car locked shut. He climbs out of the sunroof and literally rises up over the highway into the clouds, seemingly free, when he realises there's a rope tied around his ankle that is violently pulling him back to earth. Cutting from this dream to the health spa where Guido is trying to recapture his creativity and write the screenplay for his next film, his vices become clear: Guido is self-absorbed, and he's distracted by the fabulous cast of actresses, intellectuals, and eccentrics who have joined him at the spa. Additionally he struggles with Freudian complexes about his wife (Anouk Aimee), his lover (Sandro Milo), his ideal woman (Claudia Cardinale), and his dead parents; and his repressive Catholic guilt follows him everywhere like a haunting mist.
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Sigh... couldn't follow it...
Colm from Dublin, 29 Feb 2008
I'm sure this is a masterpiece on some level, but bugger me if I couldn't make hide nor hair of it... I really liked 'Dolce Vita', which is easy to follow, but I found this utterly non-sensical. It's the cinematic equivalent of watching a Dali painting. After taking some really strong hallucinogens. It probably didn't help that I was really tired when watching it, and should have been zoning out on something like 'Good Luck Chuck', so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt points wise.
1 people out of 2 found this review helpful
Interesting
Gary from Cork, 13 Oct 2009
A classic it was billed as and it certainly was interesting. Some very good performances
0 people out of 0 found this review helpful
Eight and a half
Brian from Dublin, 22 Aug 2007
Slow, disjointed and a little confusing. But looks very nice. The end saves it
0 people out of 1 found this review helpful
Eight and a half
Una from Kildare, 08 Jan 2012
Need to be a fellini fan
0 people out of 0 found this review helpful
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