Otto e mezzo

After the critical and public triumph of La Dolce Vita (1960), Federico Fellini obtained even more freedom and made this film, which is undoubtedly his most personal, and one of the most brilliant in the history of cinema. The title has been interpreted in various ways, with Fellini simply stating that it refers to the total number of his films, including medium-length features. After deconstructing the narrative in La Dolce Vita, Fellini further shook up the language of film by proposing a fragmented narrative, mixing the real and the imaginary, the past and the present, and multiplying the recursion, with a rich and complex reflection on the profession of filmmaker and the doubts of the artist. In a definitive break with his neo-realist period, which had produced powerful but classic works such as La Strada (1954), Fellini gives us a story that is openly autobiographical, with the character of Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) clearly his double. Like Guido, Fellini was going through a mid-life crisis and was plagued by many questions, both about his art and his personal life. (Gérard Crespo; avoir-alire.com)