8 1/2 Otto e mezzo
A movie directed by Federico Fellini
Restored Classics Program
Limited Seating Available | Registration Required at: https://cs-27august21program.splashthat.com/
Organized by Cinema Space in collaboration with our Institute and the Embassy of Italy in Abu Dhabi
August 27, 7:00pm: Manarat Al Saadiyat
***NOTE: AL HOSN APP GREEN PASS STATUS REQUIRED FOR ENTRY***
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée
Italy | 1963 | 138 minutes | In Italian with English Subtitles
Synopsis: One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8½ marks the moment when the director’s always-personal approach to filmmaking fully embraced self-reflexivity, pioneering a stream-of-consciousness style that darts exuberantly among flashbacks, dream sequences, and carnivalesque reality, and turning one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Struggling with the follow-up to his recent hit, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life, as he retreats into a realm of reminiscence, anxiety and fantasy that reflects his feelings about the film folk constantly pestering him and the women in his life: his wife (Anouk Aimée), his mistress (Sandra Milo) and his ideal actress (Claudia Cardinale). Cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo’s striking black-and-white camerawork blends realist observation with an evocation of Guido’s inner dreamworld, Mastroianni invests the self-centred protagonist with charm and a degree of dignity, and Nino Rota’s score brings coherence to the freewheeling circus that is Guido’s chaotic routine. An early working title for 8½ was “The Beautiful Confusion”, and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. Fellini’s extravaganza – now restored – blends autobiography, fantasy, satire and self-critique into a feverish invention.