8½

PostED ON OCTOBER 12

8½, and the films of Federico Fellini more generally, could be to cinema what Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, namely the fantastically subjective description, led by a narrator, of a society constantly shifting between extreme elegance and stark triviality. 

Made in 1963, just after the stunning La Dolce Vita, 8½ is a parade imagined by the aptly named Guido, an aging filmmaker played by Marcello Mastroianni and an onscreen version of the maestro. The airy Italian actor never stops looking up, to sniff out the passing of time, to find the inspiration he is lacking, and to escape the women-creatures he cannot do without.

Huit et demi, 1963

Both passive and active, Guido aspires to extreme lightness, to the point of taking flight himself, dreaming of making the ultimate film, which would come straight out of his head and embody itself without him having to speak. Fellini proceeds in flamboyant visual and sonic bursts, without apparent logic, where time is abolished. Childhood memories jostle cruel fantasies and reminders of the present. The hero's egotism is combined with the rather plaintive, and often justified, demands of the other characters, between overworked collaborators and more or less neglected women. Fellini brings them all together in a mixture of grotesque melancholy and unbridled joy. In order not to feel the weight of his body, he pushes everyone to have fun, while he waits...

Virginie Apiou

Screenings:

8½ by Federico Fellini (8 ½, 1963, 2h13)

UGC Astoria ma12 16h | Pathé Bellecour me13 16h | Comoedia di17 16h45