Fellini's 8 1/2 *****
This is very much the younger sibling of La Dolce Vita. Black and White and featuring beautiful well dressed people including Marcello Mastroianni (who featured in that other film) and the amazing looking Claudia Cardinale. This is a film about making a film. Ordinarily that would be reason enough for me to hit the eject button (I site Adaptation Adaptation, as an example of a film about making a film which is clever but leaves me feeling like I've been taken advantage of), but this for me is a mind-blowing piece of art.
I often think about the film I might write. As this film progresses I realise that, if I were able, this could be it.
There is the recurring idea that if you are not part of something, you are against it, you cannot exist satisfactorily without attaching yourself to ideas, principles or causes, without believing in things, "....happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without ever hurting anyone..." so says Guido the confused film-maker.
I notice that I have been enjoying films about people in crises; American Beauty and Citizen Kane (which I will be posting about soon) for example. They are quite theatrical (both the latter films were made by first time directors whose previous experience had been the stage). This surprises me a great deal. If you had told me that I would love a meandering, sometimes surreal wander about the very staged life of film maker experiencing a mid life crisis, I would have told you that it was more likely that DFS's sale had ended. At one point it even plays about with being a musical. As for what attracts me to this so much, I suppose that self recognition seems to be the most likely candidate. I am therefore exposing myself to accusations of being fanciful, but I can pick the elements I aspire to, as well as recognise those facets that I might be less happy about, but that does not diminish my identification with themes, even if I don't exist in the 'A' list stratosphere. Perhaps the whole idea is helped along by some small references such as the fact that it was released in the year I was born and that the leads drive about in a Porsche 356, not to mention the Italian thing.
Imagine being offered the chance to watch a film that was made by a film maker with no script who decided to go ahead and make a film about a film maker asked to make a film with not script and without a plot, about a film maker who has been asked to make a film that has no plot, and there you have it. Despite all of this, I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next.