Shoot the Glass

8½ (1963, Federico Fellini)

In 8½, which is an autobiographical film of Fellini’s, we meet Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a film director. Guido can’t find any inspiration for his upcoming movie, and his life is spiralling out of control. He can’t get a moment’s peace, as he keeps getting accosted from all sides: actors want to know what the story’s about, his mistress and wife are at him about his romantic life, the producer is pressuring him to come up with a script, and so on.

While wrestling with these things, his mind retreats into his memories, as he reminisces about his life, past loves, his career and more, all in a quest to find the inspiration he needs for his next film.

This movie is about the trials and tribulations of film making, and Fellini based the character of Guido on himself, and took a lot of his own experiences and put them in the movie. It’s very dreamlike, for obvious reasons. I never quite knew for sure if we were in one of Guido’s dreams or not, and I liked that.

Mastroianni is very good in this role, better than in La Dolce Vita (read my review) I thought. I liked the supporting cast too, even though I found it hard to distinguish between the many women at times. And speaking of the women, my favourite scene in the movie is when Guido imagines himself as the master of a harem, which harbours all the women in his life. It was surreal, but beautiful.

All in all, this is a good film about filmmaking, but I realise it’s not for everyone. I was in fact pretty surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

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