Otto e ½ – Fellini's masterpiece celebrates 50 years in Hollywood

Otto e ½ like the number of films he had directed until that moment; Fellini’s masterpiece is a dreamlike portrait of contemporary society seen through the eyes of the protagonist, film director Guido Anselmi, interpreted by Marcello Mastroianni.

 

Anselmi seems to have in mind the perfect film, something similar to a dream of the modern man decadence. But the truth is that Anselmi has nothing to say, his project is more similar to a farce and reveals a lack of content, which leads the director to a profound crisis. His career is falling apart, but this is only the last of the symptoms revealing a deeper moment of loss; he has to face his past and his present, find himself again and defeat his growing emptiness. Different characters that surround him are the personification of his issues: his wife, his lover, the priests, his colleagues.

 

Anselmi confuses the seeking for the truth –a stereotyped feature of the intellectual – with the seeking for perfection. He has found himself imperfect and therefore unacceptable. His long trip through life, populated by dreams and reality, characters and spirits, is just a long way to the acceptance of himself as a human being: imperfect and mortal. A simple discovery that will finally make him happy and will bring him back to the circus of life.

 

Released in 1963, Fellini’s film is an ingenious parabola; the man who wants to make a movie on the contemporary world has lost his inspiration, and by exploring its loss he is able to give the best portrait of the modern man.

 

This pleasant psychoanalytic session of a man and of a society flows through episodes and characters, through obsessions and dreams of the Italy of the Sixties, portraying a small world of fabulous characters.

A great Marcello Mastroianni at his best becomes one thing with Fellini (Guido Anselmi is film director’s alter ego), surrounded by the unforgettable Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aiméè.

 

Otto e ½  won two Academy Awards, one for Best Foreign Language Film and one for Best Costume Design, becoming a symbol of the great era of the Italian Cinema. Fellini’s masterpiece can now be enjoyed on the big screen of the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood as part of the American Cinematheque series Motion Picturesque: Cinema at its Beautiful. Don’t miss this unique chance!

 

Otto e ½ is screening on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at the Egyptian Theater, at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be found at www.americancinemathequecalendar.com