Why should one watch 8 ½ ? For the sake of Fellini, of Marcello Mastroianni. For the sake of cinema.
Because, the more you watch it, the better it gets.
Because, the youngest movie buffs will discover here something they will never see again : cinema as an art apart, with a unique vision, with a budget that no producer will ever give to any director again for this kind of movie.
What Fellini accomplishes here, he couldn't have written, composed or painted it. Indeed, most films can be seen as novels, plays, comics, musicals, operas and they often are adaptations. 8 ½ couldn't be anything else but a movie where photography, music, editing, acting have their own peculiar language. Very few directors have managed to do such a thing. Maybe Welles, Murnau, Tarkovski, a few others.
After 5 minutes, in 90% of all the movies, you know who's is going to win, to die, to survive, to love. What is at stake ? The hero has to lead an investigation, fulfill a vengeance, save the planet/country/community, kill the Beast, seduce the Beauty. Always.
None of all this in 8 ½. What is at stake ? Making a movie. Period.
From the very beginning Fellini takes us by the hand and leads us in a strange country : his brain.
The dream scene which opens the movie brings down the whole Hollywood industry of the last 30 years to what it is : a video game, most of the time very ugly. Whoever has dreamt one day knows, watching Inception (this is just an exemple), that this has NOTHING to do with dreams or even nightmares. It's a game where you have to win to change levels.
8 ½ is a constant surprise and wonder. Memories, life, dream, imagination, fantasies mix to create a maelstrom of pictures, feelings and emotions.
Eventually, a child, alone on a stage, in a halo of light, puts an end to this fantastic parade.
Curtain !
Bravo !
Ciao Federico !
I miss you terribly.