Let me warn you- I approach this movie with far too much trepidation, to give a good review... the only reason I am doing this, is that I saw it listed in the site -with no review on it.
Reviewing this movie-is like trying to review the Mona Lisa or Michael Angelo’s David- a Foolhardy effort to be the critic of art that transcends the Human intellect and emotion.
So all that I can do with Fellini’s 81/2 is to Keep praising it till I go numb-Here I go!
81/2 was Italian Director’s magnum Opus-Fellini had completed 8 1/2 movies so far in his career (the 1/2 being two shorts which sum up to 1/2!)
The Director searched his mind for an inspiration to shoot the next-but in vain-The creative juices had run out...the demands of maintaining his high standards of excellence had squeezed him dry
81/2 is now a story of a Director who like Fellini has shot 81/2 movies and is looking for some inspiration to shoot the next one
The plot or the storyline is extremely complex to be described in simple words
The director dives in and out of his various memories of childhood, youth, fears and dreams-hunting for that elusive idea that would get him going again and the movie tries to show us how his mind works while he plods through life-his thoughts busy in the creative process
He has the producers swarming around, the actors and the actresses anxious to get themselves into a movie by the great man-yet, there’s no tale to tell...
People. places, events -all are viewed through the eyes of the artist-and they take the shape of works of art without warning
Fact and fiction combine and fuse-everytime the director’s creative mind starts to work
A park, suddenly transforms into a procession of priests and hags- the setting for some scene in the auteur’s mind...
old memories of school, mother, dead father all crop up and go...
Will his story be about a child-growing up?
is it going to be about a young man’s faith and religion?
Is it going to be about all the women in the director’s life?
The movie’s scenarios drift and turn-as each idea surfaces in the director’s mind-converting the world around him into his fancies-as he directs the scene he imagines in his mind
keeping a track of what’s going on in the mind of the artist is impossible and the viewer is hence left with a stream of visual pieces to watch and absorb
Felliniesque images abound-full of absurdity and yet compelling by their sheer visual style and inventiveness
The scene where every woman in the director’s life-is in his Harem now and there’s rebellion-is typical Fellini-dark, cynical, absurd to an extreme and yet moving....
The great Italian actor Marcello Mastrioni plays Fellini’s alter ego.
It’s hard to imagine any other actor in his place handling a subject of such unconventional themes and treatment-you hardly notice the actor as anythingelse but as the director in search of an elusive truth...The ability to integrate himself into a movie where the actor as an individual himself is lost-in my opinion-is the greatest achievement any actor can wish for-such is the prowess of the Thespian!
81/2 is an extremely complex, visually stunning movie that revolutionised cinema and established it as an indisputable art form in the sixties.
However the movie can be confusing for the casual viewer and demanding to a high extent
Yet...if you are a creative mind-the kind, who has slipped away from reality often, ...while that strange power called creativity siezes control of the soul- Dont let this movie pass you by! You will see yourself reflected there!