Marathon Update8 1/2
If what you have to say is interesting, it must be so for everybody. How can you not care if audiences understand?
8 1/2 is a film no movie fanatic could hate…
Didn't like 8 1/2. Fellini pisses me off.
How do you solve a problem like Fellini?
I've been thinking for the last 3 days how to write this review. With The Third Man it was easy. I didn't think it was a good film and had some clearly defined points to back up my opinion. But 8 1/2 is much more frustrating because I do see the greatness in it (this time). There's a complex mixture of philosophy, debate, religion, self-analysis, and cinema love. You can see what an influential picture it is, and if this isn't the birth of meta-cinema, it's certainly one of the clearest examples.
I mostly found myself admiring the lighting, the clothes, the compositions and Marcello Mastroianni playing one of the most engaging detached characters I've seen. (I hate passive leads, but he's really magnetic.) Every now and then I felt like I understood what Fellini was going for, and sometimes I thought his direction was marvelous. But for the bulk of the film, I felt like the parade kept passing me by. Like Fellini himself was grasping for something, even though he didn't quite know what. While that's probably what helps to make 8 1/2 such an enduring film - the incompleteness that allows an audience to bring their own opinions in - it left me alienated a lot. Sometimes I enjoyed the magic, but more often I felt like the trick was being played on me. Like people couldn't see past the pretty suit and realize this film doesn't know where it's going.
There's a continuing debate on these boards about screenplays where every line is calculated to fit into a very precise puzzle. (Happens every time Christopher Nolan makes a film.) Some complain that it doesn't factor in the music of chance. That the structure is put together like a swiss watch, choking out all signs of life and humanity. Fellini films (and this one in particular) are the opposite of that. I (along with Bondo, Gotham and others) love the swiss watch screenplay. Really admire its structure. And that makes it difficult to enjoy something like 8 1/2, which caters more towards members like Sam and w@w. Both approaches are valid - and I don't care for the constant sniping when one type debates the other. I love some of the unstructured screenplays, but I definitely gravitate towards the swiss watch. Probably why I don't love 8 1/2. Though at least on a 2nd watch I do see its appeal.
While this is not a Top 100 Film for me, I have more respect for 8 1/2 than I did before, and I'm not done with Fellini yet.
To see my complete Fellini Ranks
Click Here.
Next Up:The Apartment