Fellini's 8 1/2 [DVD] [1963] [2001]

Bravo Guido! Welcome to the wacky world of 8 and a half! Fellini goes less overboard than in his stranger works (Satyricon) and yet harder to decrypt than the more famous La Dolce Vita. Guido, a loveless and forlorn, yet suave and sophisticated film maker, played with amiable genius by Marcello Mastroianni, is surrounded by adoring females, desperate for a word, a part in his movies, some acceptance or completion for their longing. He in turn is stuck with an unmakeable film, against a ravishing backdrop of 1960's health-spa Italia, his wife Luisa (Anouk Aimée) joining him half-way along to add yet more casual Italian high-chic and designer angst, and more jealousy and pathos. Is this great and memorable film really about making movies? Or something more profound? We are treated to ravishing entertainments, a bewildering montage of images, including the extraordinarily cynical and mournful demolition of the Catholic Clergy and their role - yet the movie remains for all that strangely elusive. Perhaps it's about Italy, about modernity and the struggle for meaning. Perhaps it's about childhood and it's effect on the adult. Guido is obsessed with memories of the kindness he had from the women who looked after him in a pre-war orphange - but then he's also obviously untroubled and cheerful. Every now and then, the characters break out of their misery and do a little dance to themselves - look out for one of the sexiest moments in cinema when Aimee does this - yet the music track, full of circus and decadence, suggests decay and despair more than light and lively. The real problem with this, as with other Fellini movies, is the lack of guidance. Guido cannot guide us as to meaning, because he does not know himself; and we are supposed to just sit back and absorb the cinematic experience. But we cannot, because like all cinema audiences, we need something more, some revealed truth, which is more than the moment-by-moment shifting sands of Fellini's complex dances with meaning. Magnificent stuff, but ultimately deeply flawed.The DVD is not particularly great, quality is about the same as taped versions and there are no special features. The subtitles are still sometimes annoyingly invisible against Fellini's startling white backgrounds.

This film was an excellent introduction to Fellini for me. The opening scene alone just taps into your subconscious and if you feel the confusion of the chaos that sandwiches this strange film, then that opening scene acts as a kind of prelude on how to tune in to the feel of the directors passion and style which oozes from the screen. Like no other director I've ever seen the impossible becomes possible in everyday moments.It is confusing ....the antithesis of a director like Ozu I'd say....that camera just moves and moves and and moves. Like a stream of consciousness. Loved it also because the visuals are so high contrast and the whites often to over white. It imprints itself on you straight away because the narrative and visuals just rush by. Reminded me of the first time I watched Lego Movie...I know it affected me...but I could not keep up. Can't wait to watch again. This is proper movie history.

I rented this Cinema Classics Blu-ray from Lovefilm to check out the quality prior to purchasing it. To try and clear up the subtitle issue: I found that the subtitles were removable and not embedded as stated by another reviewer. My Panasonic machine enabled me to remove them or re-position them. I suspect that this is a machine based issue along with other problems that crop up particularly on the Blu-ray front. The subs are quite diminutive and therefore certainly not obtrusive. Looking at screen captures of the Criterion Blu-ray on DVD Beaver, this region A locked release certainly looks better in terms of the picture quality (detail, grain etc.). I'm going to wait until I purchase a code free machine before I invest in this film yet again! I should say that the Cinema Classics Blu-ray is a huge improvement on the Nouveaux Pictures DVD release which should be avoided at all costs.

Like many other people, I found the sub-titles extremely difficult to read and had to give up watching the film after a while. Recently my dvd player started to produce a white line along the base of the screen occasionally at he same time as a sub-title appeared. Extremely annoying as you never knew when it would appear. Not on any sub-title, just around one in ten. After fiddling around with the settings and seeking advice from many quarters, I eventually gave up and bought a new one. I immediately noticed that the picture quality, that I thought was good on the older player ( only about three or four years old, actually ), had improved dramatically with this newer model.I decided to dig out 8 1/2 and give it another try. Hey presto, I can now read the sub-titles even against the dramatic white backgrounds. This dvd player only cost me £29.99 ( I don't think that I'm allowed to mention the make, otherwise I would ) and I can now settle down and watch this film without any problems. On account of this I'm giving it the five stars that it deserves.

It is a pretty good film in parts but I did find it less enjoyable than La Dolce Vita or La Strada by the same director.

Such a truly wonderful movie. There is something absorbing and immersive in this film that draws you back in time and again. It becomes more like a place you can escape to rather than a movie / story that you watch to find out what happens. Having watched it many times over the years, the alternative ending really packed a punch. It was if the cast had come back together, just for a moment, to take up where they had left off. Very immediate and in the here and now.The Bluray picture did not seem different from the restored version DVD that I had already. Modern 4K players and screens upsample and interpolate the picture to the extent that the quality of the image is quite close. It will maybe come apparent when playing it on the big screen through a projector. As another reviewer mentioned, I have the Cinema Classics version and when a Region 2 Criterion version becomes available the ultimate copy will be played on UK players.

Liked it all; a masterpiece