This is just as well, because the character that Mastroianni plays is actually pretty unsympathetic. Nobody ever looked better in a suit and tie, or sunglasses. As in Fellini’s previous masterpiece, La Dolce Vita (in which Mastroianni played a jaded journalist) you can almost tell what he’s thinking from frame to frame. In 8½ Mastroianni acquired an almost telepathic relationship with the camera. As he said, one thing it taught him was ‘always keep the camera moving.’ Scorsese likened Venanzo’s restless camerawork to choreography, ‘cutting back and forth through time and memory.’ĭressed in the director’s trademark black suit and black Stetson, Mastroianni became Fellini’s alter ego in this intensely autobiographical film. Martin Scorsese saw 8½ a few weeks before he directed his first short film. Gianni Di Venanzo’s photography, for one thing. So what made 8½ such a great film, rather than the prize turkey it might have been? The small screen doesn’t begin to do justice to Fellini’s dramatic use of light and shade.įilm directors love 8½ - hardly surprising, given its subject matter – but this isn’t just a flick for moviemakers or film buffs. More than any film I can think of, 8½ demands a large canvas. No wonder Charlie Chaplin forbade his family from having a television in the house. Seeing 8½ on the big screen reminds you how much we’ve lost by seeing old black and white movies on TV or (even worse) on laptops. Martin Scorsese on the cinematography in 8½
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