8 1/2 (1963)

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8 1/2 (1963) Movie Review

8 1/2 is a 1963 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and it one of the most famous and critically acclaimed movies ever to come from Italy.

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“My Dears…

Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone.“

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It follows a man who has a writer’s block and the film uses the dramatic structure interrupted casually by fantastical sequences. It is an awfully boring story that supposedly has multiple clever themes and ideas, but I failed to recognize any of them how badly they were executed or how non-existent they were. Not to mention that the film lasts for more than two hours due to bloated running time and is, to make matters worse, tedious and annoying from start to finish like all of his films. I am not a fan of Fellini honestly and I could never get why his films grew reputation because to me they are so boring, annoying and literally repulsive at times. This is not as bad as ‘La Dolce Vita’ but it still comes close to that travesty of a picture. His earlier films from the fifties were infinitely better as both ‘La Strada’ and ‘Nights of Cabiria’ are masterpieces in comparison to this one.

It is, like the aforementioned film, similar in structure in that it is very full of itself but in reality not clever or interesting at all and literally contains sequences that make no sense whatsoever and that are useless in its actions entirely and a total waste of time.

The character development is awful with each and every character being immensely annoying and despicable. The protagonist is once again played by Marcello Matroianni and is once again repulsive, annoying, weakly developed and all around awful to follow. And all the other characters and their actions are the same story.

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As for the acting, it is nothing to write home about as well. The directing is of course the worst because Fellini is the one responsible for all of this with no professionalism or skill whatsoever. There are maybe some good technical aspects regarding the cinematography and the costumes, but that is about all there is to it. It is once again an excuse to venture into bad habits, bad people and excessive hedonism instead of a good story and quality filmmaking with good ideas it was supposed to have.

With awfully unlikable characters, uninspired acting, bad directing and boring and incredibly frustrating story, 8 1/2 is another Fellini’s frustrating movie with repulsive people, bad approach and no story, themes or points present whatsoever. It is a bad film by all means, an excuse to venture into bad habits and hedonism, a boring snoozefest and one of the most overrated films made by the most overrated film director ever.