4
Italy10 Essential Italian FilmsStop 4 of 10
8½
A celebrated film director, creatively blocked and besieged by producers, actors, his wife, and his mistress, retreats into memory and fantasy as he struggles to make a film he no longer understands. Federico Fellini's dazzling, self-reflexive masterpiece.
Why it’s here
A central modernist film about art, memory, performance, and creative crisis.
- Runtime
- 139 min
- Genre
- Drama
- Mood
- thoughtful · dreamlike · dark
- Entry
- some context
- Best for
- film history
Content notes: suicide or self-harm Non-exhaustive