8 1/2 lobby card

“I really have nothing to say but I want to say it anyway.”

Guido Anselmi

Although less widely popular than La Dolce Vita, it is with very good reason that Fellini’s is so beloved by film critics, a permanent fixture in greatest film lists. Yes, it is probably the best film about filmmaking, with a director crippled by creative block and desperate for inspiration, but its influence on the language and landscape of cinema is profound. Indeed, so pervasive is its influence that its pioneering surrealism can now seem almost mundane, with Fellini blurring the line between fantasy and reality as Vito becomes untethered. Meanwhile, Fellini uses this canvas to explore more profound ideas about the search for happiness amidst fragmented personal relationships. Imitations of as a whole are routine⁠ — such as Rob Marshall’s Nine⁠ — but none have come close to supplanting it.

10/10