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MOVIES / ON DVD / 8 1/2
8 1/2

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8 1/2 (1963)

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Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 31  Rotten:0 Average Rating: 8.7/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins
Synopsis:
Federico Fellini's Oscar-nominated 8 1/2 is a masterpiece of storytelling and cinema. The most autobiographical of Fellini's films, the plot of which concerns a 43-year-old film director who is having a midlife crisis, it is a career benchmark for this magnificent Italian New Wave... [More]
Federico Fellini's Oscar-nominated 8 1/2 is a masterpiece of storytelling and cinema. The most autobiographical of Fellini's films, the plot of which concerns a 43-year-old film director who is having a midlife crisis, it is a career benchmark for this magnificent Italian New Wave director. Beautifully choreographed with flashbacks, dream sequences, exaggerated fantasy scenes, and magical surrealist episodes, 8 1/2 is one of the richest, most exuberant movies ever made, in the mode of Fellini's artfully abstract LA DOLCE VITA and AMARCORD. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is at a crisis point in his life and his work; in the opening sequence, Guido, suffocating, is caught in traffic with the windows of his car locked shut. He climbs out of the sunroof and literally rises up over the highway into the clouds, seemingly free, when he realizes there's a rope tied around his ankle that is violently pulling him back to earth. Cutting from this dream to the health spa where Guido is trying to recapture his creativity and write the screenplay for his next film, his vices become clear: Guido is self-absorbed, and he's distracted by the fabulous cast of actresses, intellectuals, and eccentrics who have joined him at the spa. Additionally he struggles with Freudian complexes about his wife (Anouk Aimée), his lover (Sandro Milo), his ideal woman (Claudia Cardinale), and his dead parents; and his repressive Catholic guilt follows him everywhere like a haunting mist. [Less]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Mario Pisu, Barbara Steele

Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi
Producer: Angelo Rizzoli
Composer: Nino Rota

DVD Info

Release:

Oct 8, 2002

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep case
  • Aspect Ratio - 1.78

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital Mono - Italian

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Ratings Image

It's Fellini's last black-and-white picture and conceivably the most gorgeous and inventive thing he ever did.

Full Review | Comment
07/09/07 12:10 PM
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Here is the author-director picture par excellence, an exciting, stimulating, monumental creation.

Full Review | Comment
07/09/07 12:08 PM
Variety Staff
Variety
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Amiably spiking all criticism through a gloomy scriptwriter mouthpiece, Fellini pulls a multitude of rabbits out of the showman's hat.

Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 04:20 AM
Time Out
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a true masterpiece

| Comment
06/06/06 04:09 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
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No review available.

| Comment
11/14/05 09:39 PM
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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Fellini's manic, larger-than-life 8 1/2 rules as the king of all Italian movies.

Full Review | Comment
08/29/05 03:15 AM
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
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No review available.

| Comment
07/14/05 08:12 AM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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Fellini was so incredibly creative that when he was mentally blocked, he turned his inner struggle into a phenomenal masterpiece of introspection.

Full Review | Comment
05/20/05 07:47 AM
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
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Astute beyond words.

| Comment
11/25/04 09:42 PM
Gregory Weinkauf
New Times
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Fellini's flights into the surreal are his self-examination and confession. Alas, unlike Bergman, his confession is without moral rigor; he wants to be indulged, not absolved.

Full Review | Comment
11/22/04 03:12 PM
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide
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No review available.

| Comment
10/11/04 11:04 AM
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
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Most overrated film of all time.

| Comment
08/22/03 12:33 AM
John Esther
Pasadena Weekly
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No review available.

| Comment
08/19/03 03:08 PM
Brandon Judell
PopcornQ
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Brilliant Fellini film -- probably his best.

| Comment
07/21/03 06:34 PM
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
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No review available.

| Comment
07/01/03 03:23 AM
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central
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Here is a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game.

Full Review | Comment
05/20/03 05:16 PM
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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No review available.

| Comment
03/31/03 12:03 PM
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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No review available.

| Comment
02/25/03 12:08 PM
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire
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8 1/2 is widely regarded as Federico Fellini’s masterpiece, though it is an abstract admittance of failure. (The film, however, has few faults it does not itself admit – a benefit of a film containing its own critic).

Full Review | Comment
01/28/03 11:57 AM
Rumsey Taylor
Not Coming to a Theater Near You
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No review available.

| Comment
12/16/02 07:50 AM
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
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