Number 154 on IMDb's Top 250
Guido is a film director, trying to relax after his last big hit. He can't get a moment's peace, however, with the people who have worked with him in the past constantly looking for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left. Hilarity ensues. An autobiographical film of Fellini, about the trials and tribulations of film making.
Trivia: The title refers to the number of movies Federico Fellini had directed up until that point - six features, two short (1/2) films and "half a picture" ("Luci del Varieta'" his first, co-directed with Alberto Lattuada), for a total of 7 1/2. So this one is number 8 1/2.
Well the description above is a lot easier to understand then the movie itself. I couldn't really find much of a plot in it. It's not even really a movie about making a movie, it's more a movie about thinking about making a movie. Guido has an affair, gets a "treatment" at a spa, tries to deflect all these people who happen to be at the spa with him and who want to be in his next movie, has his wife show up, with her sister who isn't completely enamored with him, keeps adding little bits to the movie, starts to fantasize about things including creating his own harem with all the women in his life (by the way, his wife is the one who cleans up after all the other women, cooks the food, washes the dishes, and dresses like a servant when all the other women are in glamorous clothing with feathers and jewelry and stuff, or, in one case, just bed sheets...now that is a healthy relationship there, isn't it? And I didn't even mention the girls *rebellion* and Guido having to go to the whip), before ultimately committing suicide...or is it? We hear a gunshot, but Guido is in the very next scene closing down the movie and sending everyone home after sets have been made and a lot of money had been spent. Could the gunshot have been Guido killing his career, figuratively? Fellini made 11 films after this so his career went pretty okay.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment