8 1/2

(Otto e mezzo)

Film to Table dinner follows the February 15 screening

8 1/2 also screens Wednesday, March 18, with a lecture by Russell Merritt.

featuring

Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo,

After the screening on February 15, enjoy a Film to Table dinner at Babette, the cafe at BAMPFA. Join an intimate group of fellow filmgoers for a four-course, prix-fixe meal in a convivial, dinner-party atmosphere. Purchase dinner tickets in advance at babettecafe.com (film tickets must be purchased separately).

A traffic-jam nightmare, a literal flight of fancy, nuns and whores and more: 8 1/2 follows the dreams and visions of a jaded director (Marcello Mastroianni) as he bemusedly attempts his next great film, which may or may not take precedence over his own sexual desires. Fellini’s masterpiece, Seymour Chatman wrote, “brought an entirely new dimension to the cinema: no fiction film had ever used dream and fantasy images for a serious examination of the psyche in so smooth, seamless, and uncontrived a way. The events in 8 1/2 are galvanized and made profound by startling representations [whose] sudden and unmarked entrance into the film becomes essential to a depiction of the crucial moments in the life of [an] artist who, despite his confusion and uncertainty, is making a supremely honest effort to understand himself and the springs of his creativity.” In the end, Fellini’s protagonist and alter ego recognizes himself as “an artist who can do nothing better—indeed, nothing other—than what he wants and needs to do, namely, to put through the hoops of his own aesthetic sensibility the lovable beings who have shaped his life.”

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Federico Fellini
  • Tullio Pinelli
  • Ennio Flaiano
  • Brunello Rondi
Cinematographer
  • Gianni Di Venanzo
Language
  • Italian
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W
  • DCP
  • 138 mins
Source
  • Cinecittà
Permission
  • Janus Films
Additional Info
  • Restored by Cinecittà