During the Italian Renaissance, artists examined the philosophies of the ancient Greeks with particular attention to Plato. Refining the Platonic view of art and metaphysics, the Renaissance artists, particularly Michelangelo with his David, attempted to capture perfection with their art in order to help comprehend the Forms, at least on some level. Michelangelo's David is a symbol of perfection, a master craftsmans sculpture of an ideal human anatomy. Admirers commonly refer to the David as the staple of human perfection. The David is an instantiation of the form of a human; instantiation making it a single part yet it captures a universal beauty. As a form of an individual, though, the David falls flat. It fails to capture an essence of humanity: our fallen imperfection. There is beauty in the uniqueness of each imperfect human being. In art, Guido of Fellini's 8 1/2 most perfectly captures to the imperfections universal to all human beings, past, present, and future. Guido is not the ideal human being, nor the perfect form, but in art, he displays individuality, which makes Guido a symbol of universal imperfection (the perfect contradiction that lies in every human being).
There are many contradictions in 8 1/2. One does best to say that the plot chronicles a director attempting to make his ninth film after a huge success. This seems an autobiographical confession of Fellini, since 8 1/2 is the count of all his previous works. Guido, the director in 8 1/2 does not manage to make a film. He struggles with writers block, doubts his creativity, searches within himself yet fails to make the film. Guido's editor approves of Guido's resignation, for he says it is better not to make a film so self-indulgent that it strings along unrelated elements of the directors life and create san empty film. Guido fails to make an honest film with meaning; he cannot create meaning on demand. Contradictory to Guido's failure, Fellini breathes himself into Guido and creates a film so charismatic and full of life that fiction enters reality. Where Guido fails, Fellini succeeds. Guido cannot make a movie, Fellini makes about movie about not being able to make a movie. Guido cannot be honest; he lies with the utmost sincerity, which infuriates his wife. Fellini is honest about his dishonestly, his obsession with women, and his failure to understand women, his inability to love, yet finds, along with Guido, an intense appreciation for the people in his life in the end of 8 1/2. With 8 1/2, Fellini flaunts his imperfections. Guido tries to make an honest film about himself, but one can only make an honest film if the art becomes as real as the directors life. In Plato's metaphysics, the Forms are perfect. The physical world which human beings live in is only a reflection of the Forms. Art is a reflection of the physical world, a reflection of a reflection, thus art is twice removed from the truest sense and is perhaps less real. Art is a degradation. In 8 1/2, Fellini creates a reflection of himself, removing himself from himself in the way similar to a photograph, which merely represents one perspective of the world before the lens. Fellini removes himself from the physical world and places himself into the world of art. In separating himself from the film by Guido, Marcello Mastrioanni, Fellini is able to reflect honestly on his true self. This self-reflection becomes self-insertion. The result of 8 1/2 is Fellini's life and his philosophies on screen as honest as anything can be for in reality Fellini felt most alive when making films. It makes sense that he would be alive in his films. His art and his life are synonymous, or at least intertwined beyond recognizable distinction. Maybe this is what people mean when they express confusion about when the movie tells of reality or when it escapes into fantasy. Within the film, I would say that there is a clear distinction, but with the film and the physical world, there is no definitive line.
Documentaries cannot express the nature of humanity as well as this film. 8 1/2 is an autobiographically constructed fictional film with more truth than the most objective documentary. Documentaries fail to show us the inner workings of a human being. 8 1/2 takes us into the world of thought, fantasy, reflection on past events, and reality inside the film. It has episodes of stream of consciousness that express the inner workings of thought. The thoughts in this movie of specialized to Guido, but the thought process applies to all of humanity. It is not logical, but it is relatable.
8 1/2 shows the relation of art to the artist. Art allows for reflection, so in capturing life others are able to reflect on life. The lives of art and the artist intertwine in a way that it is sometimes hard to distinguish one from the other. Art has never been more real. By making life art we are able to analyze and scrutinize over the details and better understand life of reality. 8 1/2 does what is unique only to cinema. This film could never be explained in a book, it could never be represented as a picture, and it could never be captured in a song. It is self-reflexive of the film medium, but transcends to art as a whole. It captures a simple truth in a way that is not simple at all (but when is truth simple?). The film is untranslatable. It must be watched to be understood. Guido is a character wallowing in imperfection. He cannot make a movie with meaning, he cannot understand love, he does not know how to treat women. This movie paints him in such a way as to make him unique. His uniqueness and his imperfection make him transcendently human. He is the ideal representation of an individual. As a person, we may not want to emulate him, but as an art form he represents the contradictions and flaws in all of us. The beauty of 8 1/2 is that one does not need philosophy to understand it. One can appreciate the honesty of the confession that lives with this movie. We do not need any external source to understand this life, to appreciate it, and to live it. The movie is self- contained. This is the most life-affirming, beautiful confession of imperfection ever to be instantiated into art.
~Kristen Gorlitz