Federico Fellini gets Marcello Mastroianni to play him. Yes. Right? Of course. The artistic block is something that Fellini dealt with all his life - Orson Welles once said that Fellini was a great artist with very little to say - that's part of Mastroianni/Fellini's block - He knows where he wants to go but he doesn't know if he has what it takes to get there - then of course the the distractions or excuses whatever you prefer, they are muses, mothers, loves, wives. I was overwhelmed by the access Fellini provides to his own heart and mind and by the audacity and poetry of the film. 8 1/2 stands alone in the virtual mausoleum of world cinema.

I could not bring myself to sit through the entire movie. Life is too short to waste any of it on such self-indulgent, pretentious nonsense. I rated this film as high as I did only because the technical qualities are excellent. Visually it is wonderful. But it takes a lot more than great cinematography to make a worthwhile film.

The discussion of inspiration exhaustion is not new. But it is valuable to see the mental struggles became a succesful dramatic story. When the course of searching for meaning eventually ends, the artist decides to create an emotional carnival with the fragments of his private memory. Therefore, with strong rhythm and beautiful cinematography, Federico Fellini used the craftsmanship of cinema to restore the essence of spirit, using rational analysis to negate rationality itself. Now that it's a beast in the cage, try to perform a perfect circus.

Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a famous Italian film director, is suffering from "director's block". Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes thinly veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amid artistic and marital difficulties.While attempting to recover from his anxieties at a luxurious spa, Guido hires a well-known critic (Jean Rougeul) to review his ideas for his film, but the critic blasts them as weak, intellectually spineless, and confusing. Meanwhile, Guido has recurring visions of an Ideal Woman (Claudia Cardinale), which he sees as key to his story. His vivacious mistress Carla (Sandra Milo) comes from Rome to visit him, but Guido puts her in a separate hotel and mostly ignores her.The film production crew relocates to Guido's hotel in an attempt to get him to work on the movie, but he evades his staff, ignores journalists, and refuses to make decisions, not even telling actors their roles. As the pressure mounts to begin filming, Guido retreats into childhood memories: spending the night at his grandmother's villa, dancing with a prostitute (Eddra Gale) on the beach as a schoolboy, and being punished by his strict Catholic school as a result. The film critic claims that these memories are too sentimental and ambiguous to be used in Guido's movie.Granted the rare opportunity to have a personal audience with a Cardinal in a steam bath (a scene which Guido plans to replicate in his movie), Guido admits that he isn't happy. The Cardinal responds with quotes from the catechism and offers little insight into his condition.