8 1/2 (Feb 12th Mon)

This surrealistic film made me quite confused from the beginning. This confusion presents the making of a movie as a hectic and stressful process. Director Fellini mixes the reality with unrealistic events to portray the extent to which the main character Guido is mentally overwhelmed. It is hard to find the exact line between the real and unreal. Nothing is as clear as black and white, yet the film itself is black and white giving the film irony.
8 1/2 is a satire about filmmaking with an ending where everybody is singing and holding hands to mock the common narrative film from Hollywood where there is usually an unrealistic ending. The happy ending comes after the climax of the movie where Guido “shoots himself” to escape the real world. The idea of one shooting himself or anyone else is a play on words because the director “shoots” a film. The actors are creating a pretend world in the movie leaving the real world while shooting, so the director decides to shoot himself to leave the real world.
Another major aspect of filmmaking this movie presents is the view of women in films. We see the use of women for sexuality in film with the fantasies of Guido the Director. It is much harder for women to continue in the movies for a long time because most directors want young and beautiful women like Claudia to play roles. The older women must “go upstairs” and leave the spotlight with another woman taking her place. After dreaming about the women, he realizes that woman have caused his downfalls and decides to leave all of the women in his life.