8 1/2 (DVD) DOLBY DIGITL MONO/1.78:1/16X9 DVD

8 1/2
Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido Anselmi, a film director overwhelmed by the large-scale production he has undertaken. He finds himself harangued by producers, his wife, and his mistress while he struggles to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress plunges Guido into an interior world where fantasy and memory impinge on reality. Fellini jumbles narrative logic by freely cutting from flashbacks to dream sequences to the present until it becomes impossible to pry them apart, creating both a psychological portrait of Guido's interior world and the surrealistic, circus-like exterior world that came to be known as "Felliniesque." 8 1/2 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival, and was one of the most influential and commercially successful European art movies of the 1960s, inspiring such later films as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and even Lucio Fulci's Italian splatter film Un Gatto nel Cervello (1990). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Cast Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi Claudia Cardinale as Claudia Anouk Aimée as Luisa Anselmi Sandra Milo as Carla Rossella Falk as Rossella Barbara Steele as Gloria Morin Mario Pisu as Mezzabotta Neil Robinson as Agent for French actor Mino Doro as Claudia's agent Madeleine Le Beau as French Actress Eugene Walter as The Journalist Gilda Dahlberg as Journalist's Wife Annie Gorassini as Producer's Girl Friend Ian Dallas as Mindreader Guido Alberti as The Producer Mario Conocchia as Producer Cesarino Miceli Picardi as Production Inspector John Stacy as Accountant Mark Herron as Luisa's Admirer Rosellin Como as Friend Matilda Calnan as Older Journalist Eddra Gale as La Saraghina Georgia Simmons as Anselmi's grandmother Edy Vessel as Model Annibale Ninchi as Anselmi's Father Giuditta Rissone as Anselmi's Mother

Crew Piero Gherardi - Costume Designer Lina Wertmüller - First Assistant Director Federico Fellini - Director Leo Cattozzo - Editor Adrianna Olasio - Editor Nino Rota - Composer (Music Score) Otello Fava - Makeup Piero Gherardi - Production Designer Gianni Di Venanzo - Cinematographer Angelo Rizzoli - Producer Federico Fellini - Screenwriter Ennio Flaiano - Screenwriter Brunello Rondi - Screenwriter Tullio Pinelli - Screenwriter

8 1/2
After his international smash La Dolce Vita (1960), Federico Fellini found himself saddled with a case of director's block, inspiring him to make 8 1/2 (1963), about fictional director Guido Anselmi's case of director's block, that made visible the intimate workings of creativity. To reveal Guido's state of mind as he struggles with his filmmaking and multiple demands on his private life, Fellini seamlessly interweaves Guido's activities, fantasies, memories and dreams, doing away with any semblance of straight linear narrative structure in favor of Guido's surreally scattered psyche. In so doing, Fellini, like playwright Luigi Pirandello, reflexively examines the artistic process itself; Guido's turmoil paradoxically brings Fellini's eighth-and-a-half feature (the half stood for two shorts), to fruition. Internationally hailed as an innovative masterpiece, and a commercial success, 8 1/2 won Fellini his third Oscar for Best Foreign Film and inspired a generation of filmmakers with the singularly personal artistry that could only be described by the adjective "Felliniesque." Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979) and Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) were their own 8 1/2s; Nine was the 1982 Broadway musical version. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
 

Brunello Rondi: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Original Screenplay (nominated) Ennio Flaiano: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Original Screenplay (nominated) Federico Fellini: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Director (nominated) Federico Fellini: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Original Screenplay (nominated) Federico Fellini: Directors Guild of America, Best Director (nominated) Piero Gherardi: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Black and White Art Direction (nominated) Piero Gherardi: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Black and White Costume Design (winner) Tullio Pinelli: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Original Screenplay (nominated)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Foreign Language Film (winner) British Academy of Film and Television, Best Film - Any Source (nominated) Moscow International Film Festival, Grand Prize (winner) National Board of Review, Best Foreign Film (winner) New York Film Critics Circle, Best Foreign Film (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: Italian Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: Still gallery Press book DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1: Alternate Wide Screen MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 139 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Come Into the Light [5:32] 2. A Walk in the Park [7:00] 3. Meeting Carla [7:28] 4. Mother and Father [4:09] 5. Actors and Actresses [11:31] 6. Amusing the Bores [12:50] 7. A Hardworking Production Office [12:23] 8. Saraghina and the Rhumba [7:56] 9. The Bathhouse [3:18] 10. Luisa [1:31] 11. Doubts, Suspicions and Worries [4:37] 12. All My Mistresses [10:23] 13. The Final Performance [13:39] 14. Screen Tests [5:31] 15. Claudia [7:49] 16. In Business [6:07] 17. Out of Business [4:55] 18. Directing to the End [5:05] 19. End Credits [3:57]