A film director is stuck with creative block and retreats to a spa. There, his memories, his fantasies and what is really happening blur into each other. It's Fellini's most personal film, and it uses the tools of cinema to look at what it means to be an artist who has run out of things to say.
8½ is a 1963 drama film directed by Federico Fellini. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative and 2 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Lost Highway uses several of the same techniques.
Arranging scenes the way a dream moves, where one image leads to the next by feeling or association. Events don't follow normal cause and effect.
How this film uses it
Fellini moves between Guido's present, his childhood memories, his fantasies about women and his recurring harem dream. He gives you no warning and no transition when he switches. The way the film is put together copies the director's state of mind. That is, every time period and every desire is in his head at once, and he can't organize them into a film.
Where to see it
The harem sequence. Guido fantasizes about controlling all the women in his life. The dream gives him what he wants, then the women rebel and spoil it right away.
Keeping it unclear what is real and what is imagined in the film's world. You end up as unsure as the main character.
How this film uses it
At any moment, what you're seeing could be Guido's memory, his fantasy, his anxiety or what is really happening. Fellini gives you no reliable signal when he moves between them. The film is about a man who can't separate his imagination from reality. It shows you that in the story, and it also makes you feel it through the way it is put together.
Where to see it
The screen test sequence. The actors are real and the procedures for the film inside the film are real. Even so, it feels like Guido's imagination and nothing like a documentary.
Ending the film where it started, or with a scene that echoes the opening. The repeat shows what has changed, or suggests the cycle will keep going.
How this film uses it
The film opens with Guido's dream of suffocating. It ends with the director inside the film ordering all his characters to dance together. Coming full circle settles something. Guido starts out paralyzed and ends up at peace with it. The film he couldn't make becomes the film Fellini made about not being able to make it.
Where to see it
The final dance. All the characters join hands. Guido gets past his creative crisis by accepting that the film can't be made.
Pairing the main character with a second character who mirrors them. The double shows what the hero wants, fears or secretly is.
How this film uses it
Guido's wife Luisa and his mistress Carla are romantic rivals, and they are also 2 sides of his divided self. Luisa is what he respects and can't live up to. Carla is what he desires and can't respect. Neither is complete. Together, they make up the impossible ideal woman Guido keeps trying to make films about.
Where to see it
The scene where Luisa and Carla appear together. Both halves of Guido's divided mind are now physically in front of him at once.
Questions
8½: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does 8½ use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in 8½ (1963): Dream Logic Structure, Unreliable Reality, Circular Structure and Psychological Doubling.
Who directed 8½?
Federico Fellini directed 8½, released in 1963. CineCode also covers I Vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960), Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Fellini Satyricon (1969).
What films are similar to 8½?
Films that share techniques with 8½ include Lost Highway (1997), The Tenant (1976), City of Women (1980), Stalker (1979).
