8 1/2

Reception

Critical response

First released in Italy on 14 February 1963, 8+1⁄2 received universal acclaim, with reviewers hailing Fellini as "a genius possessed of a magic touch, a prodigious style".[25] Italian novelist and critic Alberto Moravia described the film's protagonist, Guido Anselmi, as "obsessed by eroticism, a sadist, a masochist, a self-mythologizer, an adulterer, a clown, a liar and a cheat. He's afraid of life and wants to return to his mother's womb ... In some respects, he resembles Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses, and we have the impression that Fellini has read and contemplated this book. The film is introverted, a sort of private monologue interspersed with glimpses of reality .... Fellini's dreams are always surprising and, in a figurative sense, original, but his memories are pervaded by a deeper, more delicate sentiment. This is why the two episodes concerning the hero's childhood at the old country house in Romagna and his meeting with the woman on the beach in Rimini are the best of the film, and among the best of all Fellini's works to date".[26]

Reviewing for Corriere della Sera, Giovanni Grazzini underlined that "the beauty of the film lies in its 'confusion'... a mixture of error and truth, reality and dream, stylistic and human values, and in the complete harmony between Fellini's cinematographic language and Guido's rambling imagination. It is impossible to distinguish Fellini from his fictional director and so Fellini's faults coincide with Guido's spiritual doubts. The osmosis between art and life is amazing. It will be difficult to repeat this achievement.[27] Fellini's genius shines in everything here, as it has rarely shone in the movies. There isn't a set, a character or a situation that doesn't have a precise meaning on the great stage that is 8+1⁄2".[28] Mario Verdone of Bianco e Nero insisted the film was "like a brilliant improvisation ... The film became the most difficult feat the director ever tried to pull off. It is like a series of acrobats [sic] that a tightrope walker tries to execute high above the crowd, ... always on the verge of falling and being smashed on the ground. But at just the right moment, the acrobat knows how to perform the right somersault: with a push he straightens up, saves himself and wins".[29]

8+1⁄2 screened at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival in April to "almost universal acclaim"[30] and was Italy's official entry in the later 3rd Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Grand Prize. French film director François Truffaut wrote: "Fellini's film is complete, simple, beautiful, honest, like the one Guido wants to make in 8+1⁄2".[31] Premier Plan critics André Bouissy and Raymond Borde argued that the film "has the importance, magnitude, and technical mastery of Citizen Kane. It has aged twenty years of the avant-garde in one fell swoop because it both integrates and surpasses all the discoveries of experimental cinema".[32] Pierre Kast of Les Cahiers du cinéma explained that "my admiration for Fellini is not without limits. For instance, I did not enjoy La Strada but I did I Vitelloni. But I think we must all admit that 8+1⁄2, leaving aside for the moment all prejudice and reserve, is prodigious. Fantastic liberality, a total absence of precaution and hypocrisy, absolute dispassionate sincerity, artistic and financial courage these are the characteristics of this incredible undertaking".[33] The film ranked 10th on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1963.[34]

Released in the United States on 25 June 1963 by Joseph E. Levine, who had bought the rights sight unseen, the film was screened at the Festival Theatre in New York City in the presence of Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni. The acclaim was unanimous with the exception of reviews by Judith Crist, Pauline Kael, and John Simon. Crist "didn't think the film touched the heart or moved the spirit".[30] Kael derided the film as a "structural disaster" while Simon considered it "a disheartening fiasco".[35][36] Newsweek defended the film as "beyond doubt, a work of art of the first magnitude".[30] Bosley Crowther praised it in The New York Times as "a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game ... If Mr. Fellini has not produced another masterpiece – another all-powerful exposure of Italy's ironic sweet life – he has made a stimulating contemplation of what might be called, with equal irony, a sweet guy".[37] Archer Winsten of the New York Post interpreted the film as "a kind of review and summary of Fellini's picture-making" but doubted that it would appeal as directly to the American public as La Dolce Vita had three years earlier: "This is a subtler, more imaginative, less sensational piece of work. There will be more people here who consider it confused and confusing. And when they do understand what it is about – the simultaneous creation of a work of art, a philosophy of living together in happiness, and the imposition of each upon the other, they will not be as pleased as if they had attended the exposition of an international scandal".[38] Audiences, however, loved it to such an extent that a company attempted to obtain the rights to mass-produce Guido Anselmi's black director's hat.[35]

Fellini biographer Hollis Alpert noted that in the months following its release, critical commentary on 8+1⁄2 proliferated as the film "became an intellectual cud to chew on".[39] Philosopher and social critic Dwight Macdonald, for example, insisted it was "the most brilliant, varied, and entertaining movie since Citizen Kane".[39] In 1987, a group of thirty European intellectuals and filmmakers voted Otto e mezzo the most important European film ever made.[40] In 1993, Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert wrote that "despite the efforts of several other filmmakers to make their own versions of the same story, it remains the definitive film about director's block".[41] was voted the best foreign (i.e. non-Swedish) sound film with 21 votes in a 1964 poll of 50 Swedish film professionals organized by Swedish film magazine Chaplin.[42] The Village Voice ranked the film at number 112 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.[43] Entertainment Weekly voted it at No. 36 on their list of 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[44] In 2000, Ebert added it to his "Great Movies" list, calling it "the best film ever made about filmmaking", concluding "I have seen 8+1⁄2 over and over again, and my appreciation only deepens. It does what is almost impossible: Fellini is a magician who discusses, reveals, explains and deconstructs his tricks, while still fooling us with them. He claims he doesn't know what he wants or how to achieve it, and the film proves he knows exactly, and rejoices in his knowledge."[45] 8+1⁄2 is a fixture on the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' and directors' polls of the top 10 films ever made. The film ranked 4th and 5th on critics' poll in 1972[46] and 1982[47] respectively. It ranked 2nd on the magazine's 1992[48] and 2002[49] Directors' Top Ten Poll and 8th on the 2002 Critics' Top Ten Poll.[50] It was slightly lower in the 2012 directors' poll, 4th[6] and 10th on the 2012 critics' poll.[5] The film was included in Time's All-Time 100 best movies list in 2005.[51] The film was voted at No. 46 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008.[52] In 2010, the film was ranked #62 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema".[53]x It was also ranked number 1 when the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź asked 279 Polish film professionals (filmmakers, critics, and professors) to vote for the best films in 2015.[54]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 8+1⁄2 has an approval rating of 97% based on 61 reviews, with an average score of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Inventive, thought-provoking, and funny, 8 1/2 represents the arguable peak of Federico Fellini's many towering feats of cinema."[55] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 91 out of 100 based on 23 critic's reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[56]

Awards and nominations

8+1⁄2 won two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design (black-and-white) while garnering three other nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Art Direction (black-and-white).[57] The New York Film Critics Circle also named 8+1⁄2 best foreign language film in 1964. The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists awarded the film all seven prizes for director, producer, original story, screenplay, music, cinematography, and best supporting actress (Sandra Milo). It also garnered nominations for Best Actor, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design.

At the Saint Vincent Film Festival, it was awarded Grand Prize over Luchino Visconti's Il gattopardo (The Leopard). The film screened in April at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival[58] to "almost universal acclaim but no prize was awarded because it was shown outside the competition. Cannes rules demanded exclusivity in competition entries, and 8+1⁄2 was already earmarked as Italy's official entry in the later Moscow festival".[59] Presented on 18 July 1963 to an audience of 8,000 in the Kremlin's conference hall, 8+1⁄2 won the prestigious Grand Prize at the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival[60] to acclaim that, according to Fellini biographer Tullio Kezich, worried the Soviet festival authorities: the applause was "a cry for freedom".[35] Jury members included Stanley Kramer, Jean Marais, Satyajit Ray, and screenwriter Sergio Amidei.[61] The film was nominated for a BAFTA Award in Best Film from any Source category in 1964. It won the Best European Film Award at Bodil Awards in 1964. The film also won National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

List of awards and nominations
Award/Festival Category Recipient(s) Result
Academy Award Best Director Federico Fellini Nominated
Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi Nominated
Best Art Direction – Black-and-White Piero Gherardi Nominated
Best Costume Design – Black-and-White Won
Best Foreign Language Film Italy Won
BAFTA Award Best Film from any Source Nominated
Bodil Award Best European Film Nominated
Cahiers du Cinéma Annual Top 10 Lists Federico Fellini 10th place
Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Directing – Feature Film Nominated
Moscow International Film Festival Grand Prix Won
Nastro d'Argento Best Director Won
Best Screenplay Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi Won
Best Story Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano Won
Best Producer Angelo Rizzoli Won
Best Actor Marcello Mastroianni Nominated
Best Cinematography Gianni Di Venanzo Won
Best Score Nino Rota Won
Best Production Design Piero Gherardi Nominated
Best Costume Design Nominated
National Board of Review Best Foreign Language Film Won
Top Five Foreign Language Films Won
New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Foreign Language Film Won

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