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type
TVTItem
 
label
 
page
EightAndAHalf
 
comment
A pseudo-autobiographical 1963 film by Federico Fellini dealing with a director, Guido Anselmi (portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni), trying to make a film, but suffering from “director’s block.” To make things worse, his personal life is also going under a lot of stress: his health is not ideal, he doesn’t know where he is standing right now and he has problems with both his wife Luisa (Anouk Aimee) and his lover Carla (Sandra Milo). In other words, everything is conspiring to make his film sink like the Titanic.One of Fellini’s better-known works, it’s a favorite of film directors for showing the trials and tribulations of their career. The movie is generally straightforward, but full of flashbacks and daydream sequences, practically without any warning (sometimes you don’t realize you’re watching a fantasy until later). The title comes from the fact that before making the film, Fellini realized that he had made six features and three shorts (each short being "half"), which added up to seven-and-a-half films. So, obviously, the next movie would be film number 8½.Claudia Cardinale plays Claudia, Guido's "ideal woman" that he casts in the film. Nino Rota composed the soundtrack.Later remade as the stage musical Nine (Musical), which itself was later adapted into a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis.Compare/contrast with All That Jazz, Wild Strawberries and Celebrity.
 
fetched
2023-07-20T03:31:46Z
 
parsed
2023-07-20T03:31:47Z
 
isPartOf
DBTropes
 8½ / int_10f35f3a
type
Creator Breakdown
 8½ / int_10f35f3a
comment
Creator Breakdown: invoked Guido, the director, has trouble making his movie because his own personal issues keep getting in the way. Eventually, he cancels his film altogether because it's stressing him out.
 8½ / int_10f35f3a
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_10f35f3a
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_10f35f3a
 8½ / int_118a41d5
type
Daydream Surprise
 8½ / int_118a41d5
comment
Daydream Surprise: Some of the Imagine Spots aren't clearly marked off as imagine spots for a while. The opening sequence looks like like Guido stuck in a traffic jam—until he floats up into the sky out of the car.
 8½ / int_118a41d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_118a41d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_118a41d5
 8½ / int_1439161f
type
Heroic BSoD
 8½ / int_1439161f
comment
Heroic BSoD: When Guido finally accepts to himself he cannot make the film.
 8½ / int_1439161f
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_1439161f
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_1439161f
 8½ / int_15e3a6c2
type
Sexy Man, Instant Harem
 8½ / int_15e3a6c2
comment
Sexy Man, Instant Harem: That’s what Guido’s harem fantasy is all about. Played with when they all start calling him out, but then everything goes back to “normal”.
 8½ / int_15e3a6c2
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_15e3a6c2
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_15e3a6c2
 8½ / int_1dea3034
type
Cool Shades
 8½ / int_1dea3034
comment
Cool Shades: Guido wears them because he is a well-known director.
 8½ / int_1dea3034
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_1dea3034
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_1dea3034
 8½ / int_234fa9ba
type
May–December Romance
 8½ / int_234fa9ba
comment
May–December Romance: Discussed with Mezzabotta and Gloria. Not only Guido confuses her with his daughter, but Mezzabotta also fears she is with him only for his money.
 8½ / int_234fa9ba
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_234fa9ba
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_234fa9ba
 8½ / int_27e9edc
type
Undercrank
 8½ / int_27e9edc
comment
Undercrank: When the priests are chasing young Guido.
 8½ / int_27e9edc
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_27e9edc
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_27e9edc
 8½ / int_2e6a41e0
type
Gratuitous English
 8½ / int_2e6a41e0
comment
Gratuitous English: Gloria, Mario's hot young girlfriend who chatters in English from time to time for no obvious reason, is played by British actress Barbara Steele.
 8½ / int_2e6a41e0
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_2e6a41e0
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_2e6a41e0
 8½ / int_3cb6468e
type
Bad Liar
 8½ / int_3cb6468e
comment
Bad Liar: Guido, according to his wife. In one scene Guido’s lover is seated nearby, and Luisa and her friend find astounding how Guido keeps lying about not knowing her when they both know she’s his lover.
 8½ / int_3cb6468e
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_3cb6468e
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_3cb6468e
 8½ / int_44f5d199
type
Pretty in Mink
 8½ / int_44f5d199
comment
Pretty in Mink: Claudia is wrapped up in a stylish mink when she meets Guido again near the end of the film.
 8½ / int_44f5d199
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_44f5d199
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_44f5d199
 8½ / int_4a3e547f
type
Leaning on the Fourth Wall
 8½ / int_4a3e547f
comment
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The screenwriter, talking about Guido's film, basically describing Fellini's film.
 8½ / int_4a3e547f
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_4a3e547f
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_4a3e547f
 8½ / int_4d395e81
type
Harem Seeker
 8½ / int_4d395e81
comment
Harem Seeker: Guido, of course. Just watch his harem imagination.
 8½ / int_4d395e81
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_4d395e81
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_4d395e81
 8½ / int_5e23d518
type
Dunce Cap
 8½ / int_5e23d518
comment
Dunce Cap: Young Guido is punished by the teacher and forced to wear this in class.
 8½ / int_5e23d518
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_5e23d518
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_5e23d518
 8½ / int_5e2e55e4
type
The Casanova
 8½ / int_5e2e55e4
comment
The Casanova: Guido, although in this case you could say it’s a deconstruction.
 8½ / int_5e2e55e4
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_5e2e55e4
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_5e2e55e4
 8½ / int_6627695f
type
Author Appeal
 8½ / int_6627695f
comment
Author Appeal: Deliberate. After all, it’s a movie based on Fellini trying to make a movie.
 8½ / int_6627695f
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_6627695f
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_6627695f
 8½ / int_66755d29
type
Author Avatar
 8½ / int_66755d29
comment
Author Avatar: Guido, a celebrated director who can't come up with a story for his next movie, was created by Federico Fellini, a celebrated director who created this script because he couldn't come up with a story for his next movie.
 8½ / int_66755d29
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_66755d29
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_66755d29
 8½ / int_6bda9a30
type
Meaningful Name
 8½ / int_6bda9a30
comment
Meaningful Name: This is the 8½ movie made by Fellini (before, he made 6 movie, 2 shorts and one co-collaboration).
 8½ / int_6bda9a30
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_6bda9a30
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1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_6bda9a30
 8½ / int_6ca72c26
type
All Take and No Give
 8½ / int_6ca72c26
comment
All Take and No Give: Guido's affairs with women trouble him, but at the same time he is too preoccupied with himself and his own past to properly invest in others.
 8½ / int_6ca72c26
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_6ca72c26
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_6ca72c26
 8½ / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 8½ / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: Guido in the press conference. It's implied to be a daydream sequence since he appears again in the next scene.
 8½ / int_6d332aea
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_6d332aea
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_6d332aea
 8½ / int_80d875bd
type
Naughty Nurse Outfit
 8½ / int_80d875bd
comment
Naughty Nurse Outfit: Claudia in one of his daydreams. Well, not exactly naughty - it's a regular nurse outfit and she's meant to symbolize ideal purity, but there's definitely a sexual overtone there. Like you needed Claudia Cardinale to be even hotter…
 8½ / int_80d875bd
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_80d875bd
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_80d875bd
 8½ / int_82accf22
type
Gainax Ending
 8½ / int_82accf22
comment
Gainax Ending: Guido abruptly announces that the movie is cancelled. He and Luisa make a tentative recreation. Suddenly all the characters in the movie, including the dead ones like his parents, come out from behind a curtain. As a band of circus clowns play music everyone dances in a circle around the abandoned set. Then all the characters are gone, leaving only the band, which walks off stage. The end.
 8½ / int_82accf22
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_82accf22
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1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_82accf22
 8½ / int_8c9e724c
type
Big Beautiful Woman
 8½ / int_8c9e724c
comment
Big Beautiful Woman: La Saraghina, a chubby prostitute.
 8½ / int_8c9e724c
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_8c9e724c
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_8c9e724c
 8½ / int_94e4c8ab
type
Betty and Veronica
 8½ / int_94e4c8ab
comment
Betty and Veronica: Guido with his voluptuous, slutty mistress, and his bitter, angry wife—the wife being angry of course because of his constant infidelity.
 8½ / int_94e4c8ab
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_94e4c8ab
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_94e4c8ab
 8½ / int_9b0ecf33
type
Title by Number
 8½ / int_9b0ecf33
comment
Title by Number: This was indeed Fellini's tenth movie in his catalogue, but three of them (two shorts and one co-authored) he only counted as halves, so here you are.
 8½ / int_9b0ecf33
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_9b0ecf33
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_9b0ecf33
 8½ / int_9c550e26
type
Word Salad Title
 8½ / int_9c550e26
comment
Word Salad Title: Of course, it’s not even a word.
 8½ / int_9c550e26
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_9c550e26
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_9c550e26
 8½ / int_a63cfe4a
type
Meta Fiction
 8½ / int_a63cfe4a
comment
Meta Fiction: This is a surrealist movie about a director having trouble creating a coherent movie.
 8½ / int_a63cfe4a
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_a63cfe4a
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_a63cfe4a
 8½ / int_a7382a73
type
Imagine Spot
 8½ / int_a7382a73
comment
Imagine Spot: Guido often thinks of his past, which causes flashbacks. But he also daydreams surreal things, like the moment when he imagines himself floating away in the air from the traffic.
 8½ / int_a7382a73
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_a7382a73
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_a7382a73
 8½ / int_abad35b4
type
Soundtrack Dissonance
 8½ / int_abad35b4
comment
Soundtrack Dissonance: Playing "Ride of the Valkyries" to the sight of the resort for the elderly and frail? Check. The music is eventually revealed to be diegetic, but this rather makes the whole thing even more absurd.
 8½ / int_abad35b4
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_abad35b4
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_abad35b4
 8½ / int_adbbb5c5
type
Writers Suck
 8½ / int_adbbb5c5
comment
Writers Suck: Well, the writer is an insufferable intellectual who looks down on Guido’s work. Fellini must have tried to say something there, right?
 8½ / int_adbbb5c5
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_adbbb5c5
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_adbbb5c5
 8½ / int_b09bf442
type
Whip of Dominance
 8½ / int_b09bf442
comment
Whip of Dominance: During Guido's harem fantasy, he uses a whip against the girls to "keep them in line" when they start rebelling, although one of them is just Too Kinky to Torture.
 8½ / int_b09bf442
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_b09bf442
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_b09bf442
 8½ / int_b1e8a3b3
type
Coming of Age Story
 8½ / int_b1e8a3b3
comment
Coming of Age Story: Guido is 43, but it still counts, since he looks back on his life and decides he has to change.
 8½ / int_b1e8a3b3
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_b1e8a3b3
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_b1e8a3b3
 8½ / int_b7bc7d28
type
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
 8½ / int_b7bc7d28
comment
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Carla comes off this way a lot of the time, first evidenced in the way she jumps from topic to topic in conversation. When Guido is applying her makeup, she keeps looking up at an eye-catching lamp, causing him to mess it up.
 8½ / int_b7bc7d28
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_b7bc7d28
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_b7bc7d28
 8½ / int_c190165
type
"How I Wrote This Article" Article
 8½ / int_c190165
comment
"How I Wrote This Article" Article: As early as The '60s, Federico Fellini makes a film about making a film when you've run out of ideas.
 8½ / int_c190165
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_c190165
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_c190165
 8½ / int_c27d3939
type
Soap Opera Disease
 8½ / int_c27d3939
comment
Soap Opera Disease: Carla periodically runs 100-plus-degree fevers with no explanation. She admits, while suffering a bout of such illness, that she and her husband have learned to live with them.
 8½ / int_c27d3939
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_c27d3939
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_c27d3939
 8½ / int_d51158ee
type
Revised Ending
 8½ / int_d51158ee
comment
Revised Ending: The original ending scene featured Guido and his wife sitting together in the restaurant car of a train bound for Rome. Lost in thought, Guido looked up to see all the characters of his film smiling ambiguously at him as the train entered a tunnel. Fellini then shot an alternative ending set around the spaceship on the beach at dusk but with the intention of using the scenes as a trailer for promotional purposes only. He and his co-writers, however, decided that this alternate sequence served as a more harmonious and exuberant ending to the film.
 8½ / int_d51158ee
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_d51158ee
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_d51158ee
 8½ / int_d6653787
type
Sudden Musical Ending
 8½ / int_d6653787
comment
Sudden Musical Ending: The film ends with all the people from the protagonist's past coming together to dance around him on a circus stage, while he is the ringmaster in the middle.
 8½ / int_d6653787
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_d6653787
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_d6653787
 8½ / int_dc335a04
type
Ear Worm
 8½ / int_dc335a04
comment
Ear Worm: Once Guido hears the famous overture to Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville played by the orchestra, he just can't get it out of his head. It only lasts about a day though.
 8½ / int_dc335a04
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_dc335a04
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_dc335a04
 8½ / int_e1c796e9
type
Diegetic Switch
 8½ / int_e1c796e9
comment
Diegetic Switch: "Ride of the Valkyries" kicks up when Guido is futzing around in his bathroom. It's ridiculous enough in that setting, but it gets more bizarre when the film cuts to the garden of an old folks' home and the music is revealed to be coming from a band there.
 8½ / int_e1c796e9
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_e1c796e9
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_e1c796e9
 8½ / int_e63270bc
type
Mr. Imagination
 8½ / int_e63270bc
comment
Mr. Imagination: Guido. He's often lost in an Imagine Spot, like when he has a vision of his dead parents, who chat with him.
 8½ / int_e63270bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_e63270bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_e63270bc
 8½ / int_e7d5124d
type
"Everyone Comes Back" Fantasy Party Ending
 8½ / int_e7d5124d
comment
"Everyone Comes Back" Fantasy Party Ending: All the people from Guido's past come back near the end to join him in a dance number set on a circus stage, where he is the ringmaster.
 8½ / int_e7d5124d
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_e7d5124d
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_e7d5124d
 8½ / int_f1641c35
type
Ridiculous Procrastinator
 8½ / int_f1641c35
comment
Ridiculous Procrastinator: Guido uses any excuse available to skip working on his new film. Of course, the reason is because he doesn’t have a clue of what to do.
 8½ / int_f1641c35
featureApplicability
1.0
 8½ / int_f1641c35
featureConfidence
1.0
 
hasFeature
8½ / int_f1641c35
 8½ / int_name
type
ItemName
 8½ / int_name
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 8½ / int_name
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 8½ / int_name
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hasFeature
8½ / int_name
 8½ / int_name
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 
hasFeature
"Everyone Comes Back" Fantasy Party Ending / int_d5a45112
 
hasFeature
"How I Wrote This Article" Article / int_d5a45112
 
hasFeature
N+1 Sequel Title / int_d5a45112
 Nine
seeAlso
 
hasFeature
Recursive Adaptation / int_d5a45112
 TheyShootPicturesDontThey
seeAlso
 
hasFeature
Title by Number / int_d5a45112
 
hasFeature
Whip of Dominance / int_d5a45112
 
hasFeature
Word Salad Title / int_d5a45112
 9 (Theatre)
seeAlso
 9 (Theatre)
seeAlso