8 1/2 by Erik Wallin

Title: 8 1/2


Year: 1963


Federico Fellini, Italy, 1920 (imdb.com)

Budget: n/a

Gross: 98,760

Synopsis: A film director is in the midst of making a new film. He is trying to balance his life and career at the same time all while trying to find the perfect ending to his fim.

Narrative and Visual Keywords: Infidelity, dreams, love, humour

Characterization/ Dialogue: The characters were very goal driven. They knew exactly what they wanted and weren't afraid to speak their minds. They were very forthcoming with what they were saying. The whole film is spoken in Italian so it is up to the subtitles to convey the actual words, but there was a lot of subtext within the dialogue.

Camera/lighting/editing technique: Fellini likes to utilize camera moves. He tends to follow an actor across the space. He likes to introduce characters with a camera move instead of someone walking onto screen. He also utilizes blocking very well. He reveals things through abnormal means. The lighting seemed very noir. The film was in black and white so it already gives a noir feel to it, but the way that the lighting was set up in almost every scene tended to have long shadows that aded to the feel of dreams. The editing jumped from reality to dreams quite often.

Political/ Social Commentary: Fellini tackles the question of monogamy. Should people really be with just one other person or with multiple people at the same time, without regard to each others feelings.

Historical Relevance/ Recognition: A literary collective of the neoavanguardia composed of novelists, reviewers, critics and poets, founded Gruppo '63 that was inspired by 8 1/2. (wikipedia.org)

Notable Collaboration: Leo Cattozzo was Fellini's editor that he used on almost every single film he made.

Random fact: Fellini put a note on the bottom of the eyepiece of the camera that read "Remember, this is a comedy." (imdb.com)


1. It is very easy to tell objective and subjective reality in "8 1/2". The movie is centered around Guido's dream states. An example of this is towards the beginning when he is dreaming of his parents. In his dream state they are very warm and accepting, but in reality they were not.


2. The film is about a director who is trying to balance the two relationships he has with his wife and his mistress. The film treats romantic commitment like it is nothing. The main character is in the middle of two relationships throughout the film. The film was taking the approach of nothing is wrong with having multiple affairs.


3. The character of Guido is Fellini's alter-ego. He is everything that Fellini wasn't, but wanted to be. Fellini's take on society was that there are a lot of people always telling you what to do but you need to listen to yourself and just go on doing what you are doing without the influence of others around you.