8½ self-referential

Kiley 2022-11-28 04:51:10

Three worlds: the real world, the world of memories, and the world of fantasy blocked between the screenwriter-producer mistress's wife.

Two films: the unsustainable sci-fi film and the film that Guido conceived, which was constantly rejected by the screenwriters. When Guido talks about the water girl and his childhood memories, it becomes a self-reference to 8½ at the same time.

Two kinds of illusions: illusions that can find corresponding clues (such as Guido's harem fantasy), and surreal elements (such as magic and circus) that have no reason within the film's inner scope, the magician's mind reading seems to be these two types of illusions The corresponding referents in the film, the mind reader himself cannot understand the technique and what is read, but can then find the counterpart to the mantra "asa nisi masa" in childhood. The visions in 8½ move between the stream-of-consciousness associations and the intrusion of dreamlike elements. The circus child in the light spot at the end is not only like an externally inserted element, but also points to the eternal memory, childhood, and the circus motif.

The imaginary fantasy, which often appears in predicament and confusion, seems to be both an escape from reality and an accurate representation of Guido's psychological reality, pointing (again as self-referential) to the truth in the sense of Fellini's film ( As the all-too-familiar saying, the supreme reality of dreams). And so we finally see 8½ as a film about creative crisis, the self-referentiality of its thematic structure itself, and at the same time the dialectics of Fellini's old film beyond the block: the solution lies precisely in the crisis itself; in turn, beyond the block The power of the old film does not come from outside but from within itself. Like the circle dance at the end, it's not the opposite of the ruins of the last movie that couldn't go on. On the contrary, the procession just emerges from the crevices of the ruins (the white plastic sheets that are suddenly pulled open), so the ruins of the last movie Collapsed from the inside, the "1" after the 7.5 that was never completed is gone, replaced by an "8½" pointing to itself.

(a super short review)

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Extended Reading

8½ quotes

  • Guido: Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.

  • Guido: I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film to help bury forever all the dead things we carry around inside. Instead, it's me who lacks the courage to bury anything at all. Now I'm utterly confused, with this tower on my hands. I wonder why things turned out this way. Where did I lose my way? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it anyway. Why don't those spirits of yours come to my aid? You always said they had lots of messages for me. Let them get to work.

    Rossella: I've already told you: your attitude is all wrong. You're curious in a childish way. You want too many guarantees.

    Guido: Fine, but what do they say?

    Rossella: The same as always. They're very reasonable. They know you very well.

    Guido: Well then?

    Rossella: They say you're free, but you have to choose. And you don't have much time. You have to hurry.