Gen’s Film Review #2
I’m Genevieve, a writer and filmmaker based in Naarm. The greatest source of escapism I’ve found over the past two years has been in watching films that not many others have seen. To reprieve my friends from my endless lists of recommendations, I write reviews of the obscure (and admittedly not so obscure) films I think you should watch
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8 ½ dir. Federico Fellini 1963
When you begin Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2, you may be certain that you are watching a film about another film. By the time it has finished, however, you will be thinking something else entirely, as it would seem that you have just watched the creation of the film itself. It’s this surreal and self-referential conundrum that makes 8 1/2 so beloved well after it’s conception.
It’s been touted as the greatest film about filmmaking ever made, and you can definitely sense why. But what makes 8 ½ relevant still? Is it still the post-modern masterpiece that it is referred to as nowadays? Or should we turn to modern films to satiate our curiosity, ones more in tune with our post post-modernist society? I wonder.
In the film, an acclaimed (fictional) director named Guido Anselmi is misguided. He has completely lost interest in the sci-fi feature he has promised his impresarios, actors, and financiers. He finds himself without a story, a premise, or an idea of any sort, but is being consistently pressured by everyone in his life for another great feature. While he meanders through self-help methods and recommendations from friends and doctors, Guido’s mind traces back to his childhood memories, and divulges deep into fantasy and daydreams, as he becomes more and more disinterested with his film. Dream and reality become so entwined in this film that sometimes it can be difficult to keep up, often trickling into downright surrealism, bordering the avant-garde. Watching this, you will feel the disquieting whisperings of Lynchian ideas, and it is no surprise that 8 ½ is one of David Lynch’s favourite films.
But it’s this car crash of realism and fantasy that entices me more than anything toward 8 1/2. Guido never says much, but he feels more real than most male characters I have seen on screen. He is uncaring, devious and above all, insufferable. He cheats on his faithful and endearing wife, Luisa, with the tacky and frivolous Carla. And he is caught purely because he does not care enough to hide it. When confronted, Guido retreats into a fantasy. He envisions all the women in his life, loving and doting on him as he wishes. “Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without ever hurting anyone.” he muses, seated at the dinner table like a king. Of course, when he comes back to reality there are more interrogations from the women he has hurt.
But what’s all this got to do with post post-modernism – if that is even is such a thing? As much as I love watching movies, I’m also very good at wasting time on TikTok. I scroll through this infinite spinning wheel of online garbage when I feel the need to retreat from my reality, just as Guido soaks into his daydreams when in need of escape. There’s so much mindless crap on TikTok, but amongst it, one creator caught my attention.
It begins as a normal TikTok – some teenager partaking in some current trend – then the image melts away and becomes bombarded with surrealist imagery that viciously swims across your screen. Isolated Wikipedia quotes float by, vaguely pertaining to the initial idea. All of these images, and sounds coagulate into a bizarre, dream-like sequence. It felt like I had stumbled across a painting by Salvador Dali in a supermarket aisle. And when you click on this creator’s profile, there’s rows and rows of these same video collage-type things. It’s dizzying and scary. It alerts you just to how brain-frying TikTok and the whole internet, the news, and our lives, really are.
Maybe I’m just chronically online, and maybe this film and this TikToker have absolutely nothing to do with each other. But to me, they both seem to exist on this disturbing tightrope that blends reality and surrealism. I read recently that the new film Everything Everywhere, All at Once is a reflection of our minds on the internet – constantly flickering and over-stimulated, until the online world envelopes us completely. I agree with that comparison (although I didn’t like that film very much, surprisingly). If there was a 20th century equivalent to Everything Everywhere, I think it would be 8 ½. Instead of the internet, it explores the frenzied mind of the artist – namely, filmmaker – spinning out of control in a world without any.
Just before the conclusion of the film, Guido’s writer says to him: “We’re stifled by words, images, sounds, that have no reason to exist… they come from nowhere and are going nowhere.” And if that was true in 1963, it is no less true in 2022. Put your phone down. Watch 8 1/2.
