8 1/2 (1963)

Several male actors make a movie about rivalry and honour. Remove all beautiful male actors but one and the movie is about loneliness. Add a beautiful actress and the picture is about the lack of understanding between sexes. Add some more beautiful actresses and the picture is about difficult choices and still the lack of understanding. Remove all beautiful actors and actresses altogether and the picture is a flop. In contrast, if a character played by a beautiful (broadly construed) male actor stays with the character played by the most beautiful actress, then the movie typically succeeds. In this sense, 8 1/2 has got at least this right, whereas other merits of the picture are debatable, which is not to say absent.

A good narrative requires certain detachment or at least a semblance of detachment. Therefore, it is hard for an artist to create a work of art about the plight of an artist. This does not stop artists from trying or indeed succeeding in doing so. Federico Fellini in 8 1/2 largely succeeds.

La Saraghina is one of the most powerful scenes in the film. It captures the essence of the movie: to live is to question.

The film is a collection of images---often Dali-like images---and musical fragments that can be taken in the order presented, or after being permuted, or absorbed only selectively. In this sense, the movie is closer to a painting rather than a novel. It is left up to the viewer if to scan the picture from left to right, from top to bottom or the other way around, from a distance or close up, with glasses on or while squinting.