Fellini’s Otto e mezzo

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5 word format

document in english

film studies

term papers

date published 19/11/2007

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Summary

Since the dawn of cinema, there have been numerous film directors who have garnered the reputation of innovator, auteur, even genius of the medium. Only three directors, however, have created such unmistakably identifiable styles as to warrant film terminologies based on their very names. Alfred Hitchcock, with his unparalleled techniques of suspense and intrigue gave birth to the term Hitchcockian. In recent years, the phrase Spielbergian has found its way into the film-language lexicon, referring to Steven Spielberg’s ability to weave stirring, emotional themes into massive-budget, blockbuster films. Perhaps the most-coined phrase taken from a filmmaker’s name, however, is Felliniesque; based on the work of Italian director Federico Fellini. Felliniesque applies to the way Fellini masterfully blends fantasy and reality in many of his films; most notably in his revolutionary Otto e mezzo (1963). Upon its release, Otto e mezzo, which translates to 8 ½, garnered massive critical acclaim and won numerous prestigious awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Acclaim for the film has only grown over the years, and Otto e mezzo has, today, become routinely known as one of the greatest films ever made. While Federico Fellini’s career is full of landmark films, Otto e mezzo, stands out as one of his most undeniably intriguing films, as well as his first and clearest foray into the style that would later lead to the term Felliniesque. That Otto e mezzo would, in part, lead to such an often-coined phrase in film terminology is ironic, as the film itself is, among other things, the single greatest movie ever made about making a movie.

Otto e mezzo deals with the internal and external pressures placed on a film director named Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastoianni) to repeat the success of his last project.
At times when Guido feels most pressured, most at conflict with himself or others, he slips into daydreams and recollections
In what is perhaps the film's most somber daydream sequence, Guido imagines having a conversation with his dead father.
The way Fellini presents the artistic process of an unsure film director is one of the reasons Otto e mezzo is regarded as the greatest film ever made about filmmaking.
The film's longest fantasy scene is the famous sequence in which all the women of Guido's life, past and present, occupy a Harem together.
Specific themes and images repeat themselves in Otto e mezzo, and the more the audience sees something in the film
The result of the pressures placed on Fellini was a truly postmodern; Otto e mezzo is, in essence, a film about Fellini struggling to come up with an idea for a film.
This brings about a very important, and sometimes overlooked aspect of Otto e mezzo.
The way Fellini uses imagery and dreams in Otto e mezzo is hypnotically beautiful, and part of the reason the film works so well is the score by Nino Rota.
Federico Fellini was a filmmaker of the highest order. He truly understood the magical possibilities of the medium.