Talk:8½/Archive 1

Working title
The film's working title was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion).

Meaning 8½ or the SF film being worked on in 8½? (I think the former is meant.) | Utilitaritron
 * You are correct, it's the former that is meant. BLANKFAZE | (&#1095;&#1090;&#1086;??) 00:21, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Ok, I fixed that then. | Utilitaritron

Unsupported claim
"It is critically accepted as one of the finest films ever made"

Needs some sort of source for this and some other spots in the article. As it stands right now, the article talks about how great the film is without bringing much support in. Could easily be interpreted as biased, in my opinion. Opblaaskrokodil 07:22, 26 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Please view the Awards section. Ron g 19:09, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

- I agree - I also disagree that of often ranks in the top 10 of all time lists - not in many I have seen. Also awards alone are not a great indication of greatness and if they were many films owuld beat this film. ---I think you're very wrong. It is in all the lists. And those in which it isn't are insignificant. It is the greatest film of all time bar none.

Title Math
"The title refers to the total number of films Fellini had previously directed: six films plus three collaborations (each counting for one-half of a film), making this one 8½."

6+(.5*3)=7.5 previous films. Leviathon32 02:32, 8 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Plus one more (this one) makes 8.5. Lakata 71.141.234.180 06:29, 13 February 2007 (UTC)


 * This essay considers it an 'opus number'. This essay says, "When it came time to choose a title, he picked the cabalistic 8 1/2, which should have corresponded to the number of movies he had shot, although this isn’t even accurate." HTH. - mako 08:22, 8 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Answer:The film is named 8½ because Fellini was superstitous of the number 9, and this would be his ninth film. He named it 8½ so it wouldn't be unlucky. -Daniel Montanarini


 * Even this masterpiece has a bit of "product placement"; in the scene at the bar where for the first time sandra milo meets the wife, a huge advertising of coca cola appears several times. [enzo]

Maria Antonietta Beluzzi
Maria Antonietta Beluzzi is credited as "Bit part". Does anybody know what does "Bit part" mean and what does she actually do in this movie? 10 years after this movie she had a big part (pun intended) in Amarcord, but what about this movie? -Lwc4life 23:53, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Trivia/In Popular Culture/Influence section
The Influence section in this article has some longstanding unsourced assertions. The existence of a disorganized, unsourced, and unselective list in such a section encourages further random, unsourced items to be added in list fashion. A well written and well sourced section on 8½'s influence would be a genuine asset to this article. This list of random and unsourced assertions of other films that contain an echo of something that occurs in 8½ is not the way to encourage the writing of such a section. I have moved the entire section here to consider if there is anything that might be salvaged in the building of a new section.  SilkTork  * SilkyTalk 15:59, 17 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree. Luigibob (talk) 08:15, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Influence
The musical Nine and the Canadian television series More Tears are both based on 8½.

The movie A Cock and Bull Story, has some thematic parallels to 8½, and features music from the film.

Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil had the working title of 1984½. This signified both the influence of Fellini and the George Orwell novel 1984 on Gilliam's film.

Peter Greenaway's 8½ Women is a nod to Fellini's film. Woody Allen's Stardust Memories is modeled on 8½, as is Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.

A scene in Paul McGuigan's Wicker Park, when Lisa (Diane Kruger) tells Matthew (Josh Hartnett) that her shoe size is 8½, Matthew responds, "like Fellini".

"A little bit of love", a 2007 music video directed by Remi Rybicki for the Irish-Canadian celtic-punk band The Mahones, is based in part on the Saraghina dance scene. The video is also black-and-white.

In Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes's Ghost World, in a sterile Blockbusteresque video store ironically named "Masterpiece Video", the clerk is approached by a customer (played by Daniel Graves) who requests a copy of 8½. Befuddled, the clerk asks if it is a new release. The customer informs him that it is a classic. The clerk obliges and starts a search on the store's computer. Confidently, the clerk says, "Yes. Here it is. 9½ Weeks with Mickey Rourke. It is located in the 'erotic drama' section." The clerk smiles pleasantly. The stunned customer corrects him, "8½ not 9½! The Fellini film." The clerk stares blankly.

Rock band R.E.M.'s music video for "Everybody Hurts", was largely inspired by the opening sequence of the film.

The opening sequence in Joel Schumacher's Falling Down is an homage to 8½. Just like 8½, the film starts with the protagonist sitting in a car in a traffic jam on a very hot day.

The scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", when Mr.Blonde enters the warehouse and lowers his shades is an Homage to "8 1/2's" lead character. It just so happens to mirror a similar sequence in "8 1/2", where the protagonist drifts into a vision of a woman handing him a glass of water.

Themes
The themes section of this article is absolutely horrible. The referenced article hardly seems notable and, even if it is, doesn't corroborate the theory put forth in the section at all; the only reference to 8 1/2 in it is as dramatis[ing] above all the rise and triumph of the "information industry"in Italian culture. This is hardly related to alienation due to modernization. Even if it was, though, the argument is unsubstantiated and entirely subjective, and lends itself to the anarchical conclusion that all interpretations ought to be given credence. My suggestion is to either entirely rewrite the section or kill it altogether.Benladen (talk) 07:35, 17 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay. Change it, and do it super!!  Looking forward to it! Oh, yeah, don't forget to add the references. Best -- Luigibob (talk) 19:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I know I'm new to this, but it seems pointless to kill the section all together as the flick is pretty tough to pin down into any specific genre. This film is noted as one of the finest films ever made, and since there's no explanation as to what genre this is specifically, I find the 'Themes' section vital to a better understanding of the film.– Easternseaboard (talk) 22:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree that the source does not explain what 8 1/2 has to do with modernization. That sentence should be explained or removed.--68.46.187.78 (talk) 07:04, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Origin of Film Titile
The article states that the tiltle "8 1/2" refers to the number of films the director had made at the time: six features, two shorts, and one collaborative effort. The article then days the last three counted only 1/2 each. However, if that was true the film would have been entitled "7 1/2". I suspect that only the collaborative film was assigned a value of 1/2.

65.104.100.176 (talk) 19:07, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The article states "The film's title refers to 8½ being Fellini's eighth and a half film as a director." He previously had directed 7½ films.Kernel Corn (talk) 00:16, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

message of the film
Don't try to understand the people in your life. Just love them. 95.91.141.200 (talk) 14:58, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Translations
Archiving two Italian quotations (added by another editor) attributed to Italian novelist Alberto Arbasino for anyone interested in improving on my English translations included in article footnotes.

1) Arbasino, review of 8½, in Il Giorno, March 6th, 1963:

2) Pedullà & Arbasino, "Interviste - Sull'albero di ciliegie" ("Interview - On the Cherry Tree") in CONTEMPORANEA Rivista di studi sulla letteratura e sulla comunicazione, Volume 1, 2003: --Jumbolino (talk) 13:03, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

German
There's hardly any German-language dialogue in 8 1/2 (is there any? there's one song, sure...) - does it really belong on the list of German-language films? (87.202.191.204 (talk) 18:23, 18 July 2013 (UTC))

Plot
The plot is too short and needs to be expanded.--Paleface Jack (talk) 06:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Math
8½ is a half of 17. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.244.204.166 (talk) 11:04, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

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6 + (3 × ½) ≠ 8½
The article says
 * Its title refers to its being Fellini's eighth and a half film as a director. His previous directorial work consisted of six features, two short segments, and a collaboration with another director, Alberto Lattuada; the latter three works are each counted as "half" films.

That is an accurate summary of the source cited. It's wrong.


 * 6 features
 * "other works", counted as ½ film each:
 * two short segments :
 * a collaboration with another director:
 * subtotal 1½ "other works"
 * total 6 + 1 + ½ =  films
 * 7½ ≠ 8½
 * Q.E.D.

I'm deleting it, keeping it intact here in case someone finds a use for it.

--Thnidu (talk) 21:15, 30 November 2019 (UTC)