When 8 1/2 showed here a few years back, I wrote: “One of the undisputed classics of modern international film, 8 1/2 (its title literally meaning that it was Federico Fellini’s eight-and-one-halfth film — seven full features and a couple short segments of omnibus films precede it) is the movie where the greatest of all Italian filmmakers moved completely away from traditional realism toward a more personal approach to cinema. His goal was to reach a greater reality by eschewing reality in the conventional sense. The degree to which that approach succeeds probably depends more on the viewer than the filmmaker. At bottom, 8 1/2 is a fantasy about a filmmaker, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), spending time at a health spa while trying to sort out his personal, artistic and spiritual life. Intensely personal, 8 1/2 basically depicts Fellini making a movie about trying to decide what movie he wants to make! ‘I really have nothing to say,’ Guido realizes, adding, ‘but I want to say it all the same.’ That may sound confusing, but it’s really not — it’s merely self-revelatory in a way that few filmmakers (Jean Cocteau, Ingmar Bergman, and Ken Russell come to mind) have ever dared to be.”
For full review go here: http://avl.mx/rx
Classic World Cinema by Courtyard Gallery will present 8 1/2 Friday, April 5 at 8 p.m. at Phil Mechanic Studios, 109 Roberts St., River Arts District, upstairs in the Railroad Library). Info: 273-3332, www.ashevillecourtyard.com
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