8 1/2

Pros: Fellini's Direction, Script, Look, Cinematography, Music, & Cast including Mastroianni.
Cons: None.

Following the success of 1960's La Dolce Vita, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini seemed to have it all in his acclaim and international success. Following-up the film though, proved to be harder than he thought it would be. While contributing ...

Pros: An incredibly visual experience punctuated by perceptive, engaging dialogue.
Cons: The final half hour doesn't introduce enough new information or imagery to maintain interest.

I understand what you want the film to say. You want to show the confusion that man has inside himself. Just be sure that what interests you, interests everybody. Remember, the audience has to understand the film.

I first saw...

Pros: Strong psychological themes, extraordinary images, highly original construct
Cons: Some will find it boring, mystifying, or excessively narcissistic

All the confusion of my life has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I’d like to be. But that no longer frightens me! The truth is: I do not know . . . I seek . . . I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive ...

Pros: direction, cinematography, certain individual scenes.
Cons: non-linear, dreamlike storyline will confuse or annoy many.

Sometimes those classic foreign films can be rather difficult to understand or to flow with. Naturally, this could be because the international films from decades past were much different and radical compared to the classics from Hollywood. While...

Pros: Magnificent, creative cinematography, tight writing and composition
Cons: A minor annoyance was the fact that some of the subtitles were difficult to read

It's been many years since I first watched 8 1/2... too many years. I become thoroughly engrossed from the opening dream sequence to the final dance on the beach. No one does black and white imagery as effectively as Fellini, and this film...

Pros: An absolute masterwork, 8 1/2 could hardly be better.
Cons: Some of the scenes nearing the end are hard-going.

By Max Scheinin.

8 1/2 is the single most unlikely masterwork in the history of cinema, an endlessly inventive chronicle of a director suffering a creative block. Federico Fellini's most autobiographical work? Absolutely. A self-indulgent one?...

Pros: It's a wonderful work of art.
Cons: It can be confusing at times.

You don't necessarily have to have a passionate love for the art of film to enjoy this movie, although it certainly helps. 8 1/2 is a very clever and complex movie because it is not only about movies in general, but about this movie in particular -- in...

Pros: Rich array of dreams, fantasies and figuratives
Cons: None

The easiest way to write about 8 1/2 is to say that there is so much to write about it that I can't write. But this will be an 'Easy escape' and will dishonor 8 1/2's art. 8 1/2 is a classic art masterpiece. 8 1/2 is about a movie about a movie about a ...

Pros: Clever plot
Cons: Strange fantasies that are hard to follow

Ever since I took my first film class in college, I have heard nothing but rave reviews about Fellini’s 8 ½. So, do to the hype I had been hearing, I have always had some desire to see it. Well Last night I finally got the chance to see it and I...

Pros: Excellent director! Superior cast! Beautiful film!
Cons: NONE!

When a director examines himself, it makes for great art. And I don't mean the nebbish navel gazing of Woody Allen. I mean FEDERICO FELLINI! He's the reason why Felliniesque is a part of our vocabulary. He's the reason why I even became interested in...

Pros: Chiarascuro cinematography, Nino Rota music, visionary and iconic imagery, terrific performances.
Cons: Frustrating non-plot (about frustration). Beware English dubbing.

Prepare to be baffled if this is your first Fellini exposure. Fellini's densely-personal masterwork is so named because the great filmmaker reckoned that - factoring in his short subjects - he had completed seven-and-a-half features before making this...

Pros: Fellini!
Cons: None!

This is one of the most beautiful, touching and also funny movie I've seen. Fellini and Mastroianni are, as usual, superb. Anouk Aime is great and beautiful.
The story is full of visual poetry and from time to time it plunges in surrealism. The...

Pros: Cinematic, visceral, highly original, uplifting, masterfully crafted, revealing, keen
Cons: Demanding

Marcello Mastroianni stars as Fellini's alter-ego, successful and egocentric movie director trapped in a writer's block. Certainly not for all tastes and requires multiple viewings (first one is often very frustrating) but this is Fellini's greatest picture, masterfully crafted, filled with a rich symbolism and personal statements. None of the main character's fantasies, dreams and memories is just pure "confusion". Every one of them is very insightful, meaningful, with the strong relation to his childhood and psychologically very precise, convincing and important. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Movie and Costume Design. A Masterpiece.