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โThe fragments of a lifeโโฆ
A formidable movie, in the stricter sense of the word. In a looser sense, it has helped shape the way that Iโve seen the world, โlo these past six decades. I saw this movie when it first came out, in 1963, at one of my favorite art theaters in Pittsburgh. Like most of us at the time, weโd only viewed rather straightforward movies of โgood and evil,โ Westerners, and the like. Predictable endings. The director of โ8 ยฝ,โ Federico Fellini, offered something radically different, a foreshadowing of the stream-of-consciousness technique in literature, how the fragments of oneโs life get all jumbled up in the brain. And he provided some takeaways that have long been with me.
I was 16 at the time and took a date who was 15. In re-watching it now, if I thought it somewhat baffling at 16, I wonder what my date thought about the portrayal of the women in the movie, who are โfragmentsโ in the life of the movie director, Guido Anselmi, excellently played by Marcello Mastroianni. There is his wife, Luisa, wonderfully played by Anouk Aimรฉe, who was the motive force behind the re-watching of it now. There is the โvirginalโ Claudia Cardinale, usually in white (I had not realized that she was originally Tunisian). Sandra Milo plays Guidoโs flighty bimbo of a mistress. And so many others: The airline stewardess; the caring mom who wraps the infant Guido in a blanket; the first stripper; the insightful and nagging friend of his wifeโฆ
โUpstairs when you are 40.โ That was one of the big takeaways. Anselmi is having this male fantasy about his โharem,โ all those fragmented women who are there to serve him and do so in complete harmony when he realizes that the โstripperโ is now 40 and must go upstairs, the metaphor for being placed on the โdiscard pileโ for being too old. He gets out his bull whip even, to drive her up the stairs. Even at 16, when 40 is more than twice your life away, it did seem a bit harsh, particularly when the same rule does not apply to the guy with the bull whip.
It was also my first viewing of the prototype of those pompous pedantic critics of movies or literature who toss around expressions like โimpoverished poetic imagination,โ โoverabundant symbols,โ and, of course, โself-indulgent.โ
I was in parochial high school at the time, so the scenes in which the priests were chasing down the young student Guido in order to shame and humiliate him because he found sexual imagery to be of interest, imagine that, strongly resonated. It was also the era that the Catholic Church published โThe Index of Forbidden Books,โ (which now seems to have been taken over by the woke crowd of today), and thus the scene in which Anselmi has to pay homage to the Cardinal also resonated.
Anouk Aimรฉe is absolutely mesmerizing. She has been a โfragmentโ of my own life, ever since I viewed โA Man and a Womanโ in the โ60โs. Again, she played opposite the equally formidable Jean-Louis Trintignant, of โZ,โ โThree Colors, Red,โ and so much else, fame. Far more relevantly, the two of them recently played in โThe Best Years of Our Lives,โ again directed by Claude Lelouch. Aimรฉe is now a young 90. In her role as Anselmiโs wife, Luisa, she wore those glasses that connotated a greater thoughtfulness than him. I searched that ever-so-youthful face watching for the subtle expressions of later movies.
It struck to the core. Luisa is utterly fed up with Guidoโs philandering and constant lies. And Guido is suffering from โdirectorโs blockโ in trying to finish his movie, with what sort of message? Luisa fires off THE classic line that I have long remembered: โBut what can you say to strangers when you canโt tell the truth to the one closest to youโฆโ.
The only problem is that Iโve felt that line was said in Ingmar Bergmanโs โScenes from a Marriage.โ And maybe that line was ALSO said in Bergmanโs movie, which means one more movie I need to watch to find out. As I said earlier, things can tend to get jumbled up in the brain, even more so as one ages. Fellini would understand, maybe Aimรฉe would also. 5-stars, plus for Felliniโs classic, formidable film.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2023
