It is no exaggeration to say that "Eight and a Half" is one of my favorite movies and a masterpiece in my heart.
I don't study movies, let alone make movies. I don't even think I'm a fan of movie fans, but that doesn't prevent me from liking this movie that many people say is incomprehensible or even pretending to be forceful. Yes, first The second time I watched it, I was also confused, what is this doing? But later facts proved that I couldn't understand it, not because it was difficult to understand, but I had never seen this kind of movie before, it gave me a great sense of strangeness (to give people a sense of extreme strangeness should be the highest of all artists Pursuit), it also proves my short-sightedness from the side. Later, I read a lot of analysis and comments, and also gave the literal interpretation of this movie in my own way. Don’t worry, if you really find it difficult to understand, please compare After the movie patiently read my article, I guarantee that you can understand the literal meaning of "Eight and a Half", that is, what story it tells, and I guarantee that you will not find it difficult to understand after reading it.
Let's take a closer look at it play by play, follow me!
1. The first shot of the film is a very crowded traffic jam scene, everyone is bored sitting in the car, the protagonist Guido (played by Marcelo Mastroianni, because he likes this great actor very much, in the next In this article, I always write Marcelo not Guido.) In the car, he seemed very suffocated. At this time, the car seemed to be broken down and smoked. He tried to open the door, but he couldn't open it. In fact, all this is very It's normal, but then a very surreal shot may make you feel something is wrong, see the picture below, and from here, everything is not normal.
Marcelo finally escaped from his car, but flew into the sky. If you experience it carefully, you can understand that this may be a dream. He flew so high, and he was finally caught with a rope on his foot, and he could not break free. If he didn't open it, he was directly pulled down and fell into the sea. Marcelo finally woke up, proving that it was indeed a dream. Looking back, you can see that the direction of this dream is very clear. It shows that Marcelo's life is in trouble, whether it is career or marriage. He tried hard to escape, but it was impossible. To achieve this, the irony is that he is equally restless in his dreams.
2. After Marcelo woke up, everything was restless. First, the doctor helped him check his body (he was resting in a sanatorium), then the screenwriter came in and the two made an appointment to meet and talk at the hot spring. Finally, Marcelo looked in the mirror alone, his face The close-up finally appeared, the eye sockets were sunken, and the state seemed rather decadent, and then he went to the hot spring to line up for water, and during this period, a big beauty appeared.
Pay attention to Marcelo's expression in the picture above. His eyes are slightly slanted downward. This is an expression that occurs when thinking or imagining, not a man's expression when he sees a beautiful woman. This also explains why The next big beauty will suddenly appear, everything is Marcelo's imagination. The eight and a half films must be carefully read and read carefully, every detail of the master is not given for nothing. Next, Marcelo chatted with the screenwriter about the movie, and also happened to meet his friend Mario and his slightly neurotic girlfriend, whose name is Claudia.
3. Marcelo came to the station to pick up his mistress, and while waiting, he threw the advice the screenwriter gave him on the ground, and later picked it up and put it in his pocket. A small gesture that reflects Marcelo's out of touch with reality without the real courage to knock it down. After receiving the mistress, she begged Marcelo to find a job for his husband, and then the two went to the hotel to play sex games. Marcelo also helped the mistress thrush.
Later, Marcelo fell asleep. The mistress was eating and reading books alone. She glanced in the direction of Marcelo inadvertently. I think this action is Lao Fei's film language, implying that something will happen in that place. There is indeed a person in that position in the next scene, but the audience who are familiar with the opening routine must know that they are about to enter Marcelo's dream again.
4. Marcelo meets his parents in a dream, this scene is obvious, the father is dead, so he went underground, which also corresponds to the mother's sadness and Marcelo's face and crying at the beginning of this dream.
Then Marcelo hugs and kisses his mother, and then the camera turns, the mother becomes his wife, and the dream continues. The wife said to Marcelo, I'm your wife, don't you remember me? In the next scene, Marcelo disappears, leaving only the lonely figure of his wife. A question and a shot reflect the extremely alienated relationship between the two.
5. Back to reality, Marcelo talks about various issues with various people, but all topics are inseparable from his own movies, scripts, actors, hotels, I counted, this scene and horses There are a total of 18 people Celo met, and each of them has only one or two lines of dialogue. You must be confused at first glance, so congratulations, you have begun to enter the world of "Eight and a Half", because the protagonist Marcelo is with you Just as confused. I don't know how to make movies, and I don't know anything about the internal process, but I think this part is also very symbolic. It shows Marcelo's inner chaos, and he needs to deal with all kinds of people, all kinds of things, all kinds of relationships, and all kinds of clues. It's been overwhelmed, and the cutting is constantly messing up. As a digression, I don't know if there are people who aspire to become directors who gave up their dreams after watching "Eight and a Half". I think there should be. I think it is difficult for people who are not good at communication to become directors. The things that need to be dealt with are real. There are too many, and it is undoubtedly more difficult to achieve art or make a big box office on this basis.
Another point, "Eight and a Half", apart from the shuttle back and forth between reality and dream fantasy, there is another point that makes people feel difficult to understand. I think it is also the most real part, that is, his lines follow the logic of life ( Fragmented), rather than movie logic (integrated). For example, in the next scene, Marcelo and some people were eating and chatting casually. They started talking about religious beliefs. An old man (one of them is the producer) was talking about the spaceship in the movie, and then the producer suddenly asked (the camera did not specify who was asked): "Are your cholesterol still high?" This scene Audiences who are used to watching ordinary movies must be confused again. What are they talking about? So congratulations, you finally saw a different movie. In fact, I don’t think it’s difficult to understand. Don’t be too rigid in the routine of ordinary movies. Just imagine that you are eating and chatting with your wife at home. Would it be like an event in a normal movie? Talk from start to finish? Everyday ordinary chats are generally illogical. It is not uncommon to say that this dish is delicious one second, and the next second it may become that you have to attend the wedding of so-and-so tomorrow. This is not uncommon, while ordinary movies In order to clarify a certain matter or to advance the plot, the content of the conversation will be deliberately set, and the logic of the movie will be followed step by step, and the audience will be embedded in it step by step. In fact, it is not true. In "Eight and a Half", Lao Fei just put This kind of common thing in life has only been moved to the movie, but it has caused a large part of the audience who watched this work with inherent thinking to be stunned.
Here I will say responsibly that when you watch "Eight Parts", you must abandon your previous inherent thinking and experience this movie with a broader perspective. Only then can you taste the taste of it. Otherwise, I advise you not to watch it. waste time.
6. Then a clown-like character appears. He does magic with an old woman (we have seen similar performances on TV shows), the clown asks the people present what is on your mind, or what is in your wallet, the old woman is blindfolded But he could say it clearly, and finally it was Marcelo's turn. The old woman wrote three words on the blackboard: ASA NISI MASA (Marcelo's inner thoughts), the clown asked what it meant, and then came to the horse logically. In the scene of Celo's childhood. The adults asked Marcelo to take a bath, but the little Marcelo was naughty and didn’t want to take a bath. It was not influenced by "Eight and a Half", Bernini starred in Lao Fei's last work "Moon Song"), when the mystery was revealed when he went to bed at night, those three words seemed to be a spell to open a treasure, refraction There is a certain inner desire of Marcelo in reality.
7. Then Marcelo had an argument with an old man (the one who talked to the producer about the spaceship issue before), Marcelo told the old man that you are still the same you, but the old man said to Marcelo that you are not the old you. , once again highlighting Marcelo's incompatibility with reality. Next, Marcelo returned to the room, and the great beauty who was first imagined appeared again. Marcelo had a sweet dream, but received a call. The other party said that his mistress was ill, and he was still dreaming of the white moonlight just now. Immediately after a grain of sweaty rice came, the mistress asked Marcelo "Why are you with me?" While Marcelo was thinking about other things, disconnected from reality again.
8. Marcelo asked his godfather for some questions. After a few words, he began to recall the scene when he was in the church school when he was a child. A few friends urged him to "let's go and see!"
As a result, Marcelo escaped from the school and went to the beach with them. The plot immediately reversed, from the holy church school to the prostitute's dilapidated house. A child gave the prostitute money, the prostitute began to dance, and Marcelo danced with her, He was immediately arrested by the school. Marcelo was shown wearing a high hat. Does it remind you of Ying Ruocheng in "The Last Emperor", or special props in that special era in China?
It's also worth noting that Marcelo's mother is extremely sad and disappointed after he did this wrong, but please note that his mother is exactly the same here as when he first appeared, so it stands to reason that the pony Selo is at most about 10 years old at this time (he is 43 years old in the movie), his mother more than 30 years ago should be very young, but she is as old as when she first appeared, which once again shows the unreliability of memories. A symbol, only responsible for coming out sad, not responsible for dressing up.
Next, there is a scene in the bathhouse. This scene is very obscure. I don't know exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe it's a scene from Marcelo's movie, maybe it's some kind of relationship between Marcelo and religion. , the bishop said, "The Lord will forgive your sins, some will go to heaven, some will go to hell." At this time, the steam covered the bishop, and the window was closed happily.
9. It was Marcelo's wife's turn to appear, and the two greeted each other very politely. They were like friends they hadn't seen for many years, but they didn't feel like a husband and wife. Marcelo asked his wife how long she had been here, and he replied that it's been 5 days. I'll go to the hotel. Looking for you, you are not there (I saw my husband for the first time after 5 days, is this normal? I will taste it myself), and the dialogue also proves that the two are inseparable.
Then the two dance, and the wife asks if Marcelo's work has progressed? The answer is no, and the wife asks what trouble Marcelo is in? Note that this is the first time in the film that it is possible to use Marcelo's own words to express his feelings, but then the wife encounters the dancer behind him, and the conversation is interrupted and turned to other topics.
10. Next, the producer waited for a group of people to come. Everyone went to the studio together. Note that Marcelo got into the producer's car alone and sat in the back seat. After he got up for a while, his wife also got in the car, but Sitting in the co-pilot, Marcelo sat next to his wife's friend, once again showing the sense of alienation between the two. On the set, Marcelo chatted with his wife's friend and faced his confusion for the first time. He said that he wanted to make a real movie, something meaningful to everyone, and a name that would last forever, so that he could be full of passion. But the reality puzzled him. In fact, he doesn't even know how to get along with his wife, and he has a tense relationship with the people on the set. What went wrong? Marcelo didn't know it himself. His wife's friends could only help him with a few words.
It is also worth noting that the title of this film is "Eight and a Half". Marcelo is a director, but you don't know the name of the film he made throughout the whole film, and there are very few movies about the content of the film. Speaking of which, I only mentioned the general plot of the movie through the mouths of others in this scene: the earth was destroyed by nuclear war, and humans were sitting in spaceships trying to take refuge on other planets. It may be a science fiction film with the theme of doomsday. I think the reason why "Eight and a Half" doesn't mention much about what the film that gave director Marcelo such a headache is because it's not the focus of this film. To put it bluntly, this film is about a person's predicament. The inability to resist in the face of the external world and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of the inner world are universal and all human beings. He will face the same problems, his problems, and each of us's problems. So what that movie itself is seems trivial.
11. The wife finally came to where she was supposed to be. As soon as she entered the room, Marcelo began to pretend to be asleep. After a while, the two began to quarrel. From the conversation, we can tell that the wife already knew about Marcelo's affair, and to put it bluntly. People are definitely not getting better.
12. The next scene is very interesting. Marcelo is drinking tea with his wife and his wife's friends. The mistress also arrives in a carriage unintentionally. Of course, the wife who already knows the truth is jealous and condemns fiercely. Her husband's hypocrisy, calling her mistress a bitch, if it were a normal movie, these two women would definitely have done it, but I'm sorry, the "Eight and a Half" you watched is not a soap opera, your expectations are doomed to fail. Our protagonist Marcelo began to wander the sky again, and his wife and mistress began to talk cordially, even more cordially than a cordial girlfriend, and then danced gracefully.
And then comes the real climax of "Eight and a Half," where women (or in Marcelo's life) who have various ties to Marcelo come together in a house, and Marcelo undoubtedly It is a regal existence. The women here are: wife, sister-in-law, wife's best friend, mistress, Marcelo's friend Mario's girlfriend Claudia, the actress who wants to play in Marcelo's film, the prostitute when he was a child, There are also several women not seen in the film before, such as a black girl in Hawaii, and a girl in a weird costume, Jacqueline, who was attacked for not going upstairs to accompany the old man (don't know what the reason is) Punishment, the girl has a sense of resistance, and Marcelo calmly said "rules are rules" to show his dominance, but the girl's move obviously touched a lot of people, and some women began to have feelings for this "emperor". Shouting "Down him!", Marcelo took the whip and taught the gang of women, and several of them even enjoyed it, further demonstrating that Marcelo can do whatever he wants here (of course this is what he does in the film) The biggest daydream I ever had), and in the end Jacqueline went upstairs, the emperor is the emperor.
Notice:
(1) Among these women, only the wife stood by Marcelo from beginning to end. When he beat the woman, he still said, "He is really different." I analyzed, does this mean that the wife is in Marcelo's subconscious? Is it still the most important or the most special one? Or this is his ideal image of a wife: hardworking, defending her husband, not interfering in anything about her husband, always at the center but never overemphasized.
(2) The white moonlight-like beauty who appeared twice before did not appear among these women, perhaps because she was simply imagined by Marcelo, while other women have appeared in his real life more or less. In the novel, Bai Yueguang can only exist alone in the romantic imagination created by himself, without a bit of fireworks; maybe this woman does exist, but she is a special existence in Marcelo's heart, so in Marcelo's subconscious he will not She is placed with any woman, but will only appear in another dimension, where there is only Bai Yueguang and himself. The following plot confirms that this woman is real, and I will talk about it later.
All in all, this fantasy drama once again shows that Marcelo is in control of everything, but in reality is powerless and loses badly.
13. Marcelo was in the theater with a group of people. He was surrounded by the earliest screenwriter, his wife, his wife's best friend and sister-in-law. There was also a man who probably liked Marcelo's wife. He also appeared in previous plays. The screenwriter kept talking, and Marcelo hung him with a wave of his hand (of course, it was still his imagination). Later, the producer came, and they were going to audition together. As a result, the actress who came in was dressed exactly like Marcelo's mistress. The camera immediately showed his wife's face close-up. The wife sneered slightly, and Marcelo here. Luo's expression was more of disgust, maybe because he didn't look down on this crappy actress at all, maybe because of his disgust at his messy life, the crisis in his relationship with his wife, and his inability to carry out his work, all of which filled him with disgust. Then another actress said in the line what Marcelo's wife had lied about her husband, the wife might choose to leave because she couldn't stand it or she might be tired, and then she and her husband had an "Eight and a Half Part" in the theater aisle with her husband. 》In the last scene in reality, at the end she was full of bombshells: "It's time for us to end, this time I promise I won't change my mind again (prove I've changed my mind many times), you can die!" Marcelo went straight back to the theater, and their relationship officially broke down.
Then someone came to Marcelo and said that he was Claudia's agent. You met 15 years ago. Claudia (same name as Marcelo's friend Mario's girlfriend) is what Marcelo imagined. That Bai Yueguang, I have to say that she is really a beauty. There is no explanation for her relationship with Marcelo in the play. It should be an actress Marcelo knew when he was young. Her beauty has left in Marcelo's heart. It's an indelible impression that he wanted to put her in a role in his own movie, but I don't see anything more complicated than that.
Later, in Claudia's car, Marcelo complimented Claudia's beauty and explained to her the scene he wanted to set up for her in the movie. She was wearing the white dress (not the black dress when she appeared in reality). , as gentle as moonlight, but then the plot reversed immediately, Claudia saw through Marcelo's hypocrisy, he didn't arrange a role for himself at all, Marcelo also admitted this, not only without her role, Ma Celo simply wanted to send everyone off, in other words, he wanted to give up on the movie. Then the plot turned again, the crew found Marcelo, the producer was going to hold a dance to celebrate the start of filming, TV stations, radio stations, and foreign reporters would come, and an invisible knife was already on Marcelo's neck.
14. What follows is the celebration scene. The first shot is reminiscent of the first shot of the film, and the crowded vehicles also reflect Marcelo's turmoil, in a hilariously reluctant gesture. He was dragged to the scene of the celebration, and it was not clear whether he was a director or a criminal.
The next series of shots are all kinds of greetings and questions from various people, not to mention Marcelo, even as an audience, you probably can’t stand it, the feeling of millions of flies buzzing, Marcelo He couldn't take it anymore, when someone walked up to him who was thinking about it and said, "I put it in your right pocket." Marcelo got under the table and shot himself in the midst of a group of ridicule and abuse. , pay attention to a small detail, if the right pocket on the top is translated correctly, then this is Fellini playing a little joke to the audience, because Marcelo took out the left pocket and fired the gun with his left hand, proving that there is no gun in the right pocket , can also prove that all this is Marcelo's own mind (or this is also a dream) rather than reality.
15. Seeing such a messy picture in the previous scene, if you have previous experience, you should have long understood that this is a scene in Marcelo's fantasy world and not reality. After the shooting, the scene was finally pulled back to reality. There was no celebration at all, Marcelo decided to remove all the scenes and said goodbye to the crew. The screenwriter also expressed his support for Marcelo's decision and said: "There are so many doubts in life, why should we Looking for troubles?" Then he told Marcelo a big reason in the car, and at the same time, Marcelo's mind began to fly again. The final final fantasy kicked off.
16. In the final scene, everyone in the film appears dressed in white, and it turns out that the importance of a wife in Marcelo's mind is self-evident (he holds his wife alone in the final scene). The hand also proves that his wife is different), it is true that Marcelo can only reach reconciliation with his wife and his own heart in his imagination. This last scene is the Eden in Marcelo's mind, no worries, no conflict, no anxiety, just love and joy.
17. In the end, little Marcelo played an instrument with several clown-like characters, proving that Old Fei had a pure heart. He loved the circus all his life. That was his Eden, and of course, back home. Don't go to the Garden of Eden.
This is the end of my interpretation of "Eight and a Half". In fact, this is a very simple film, which is to describe the experience of a director or a person's external world and the state of the inner world. of a movie. Both external reality and inner reality are reality (or the projection of reality), so I will call "Eight and a Half" a great realist film. Look carefully, taste slowly, is it really difficult to understand? I do not think so. At least the literal meaning is not difficult, right? It's the same sentence at the beginning, I don't study movies, and I don't know how to make movies. I think as an ordinary audience, it's good to understand the literal meaning, isn't it?
Last but not least, some people say that "Eight and a Half" is a movie composed of many dreams. I don't agree with this view. To be precise, it is an art film with dreamy colors, which is composed of reality, dreams, imagination and memories. And you have to admire the wonderful and subtlety of Fellini's art world after careful inspection. The dreams in "Eight and a Half" are indeed very similar to dreams (mainly the two dreams at the beginning, in fact, very clear dreams in the film) These two), because there is no logic, it is not controlled by Marcelo, and some directors who are not very good at making dreams will make dreams very logical, which is very false; but on the other hand, imagination is different. It is controlled by Marcelo, so almost all the imaginary fragments in the film are very much in line with Marcelo's mind, and they will not be as embarrassing as he is in his dreams or memories. This is especially true, so I say "Eight and a Half" is A realist film, it is very realistic, the reality of the pictures, the reality of dreams, the reality of imagination, the reality of memories, the reality of them being mixed and glued together, and cast together to make this superb film. artwork.
Fei Fei is a real hero!
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