I am sorry to mention Fellini's 8 ½ (1963) because this movie is not 8 ½. It is Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, but there are so many plot overlaps that it is hard to forget 8 ½. The movies are different: one cannot repeat 8 ½ and I do think that Allen makes the story of Stardust Memories his own. I do not even think that Stardust Memories should be compared to 8 ½, but I see why it is. I mean, the opening sequence is so similar to the opening of 8 ½. I am not going into the other similarities. I think that the big difference is that Allen tries to find meaning, while Fellini does not try for anything per se. Stardust Memories searches, 8 ½ happens.
So now to leave all 8 ½ comparisons behind, Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories chronicles the life of a successful filmmaker who strives for meaning, for some justification of comedic movies when the world suffers so much. The film provides insight into Allen as a filmmaker, his egoism, narcissism, neuroticism, heroism. Although the movie does give more insight to Woody Allen’s character, the point of Stardust Memories is not for Woody Allen to complain about his difficulties in filmmaking but rather to point out inconsistencies in humanity and poise a philosophical debate about meaning.
The film is a metaphysical mess of levels of reality: film inside a film inside a film relating to the real life of a filmmaker in a film reflecting the true filmmaker outside of the film (you get the picture). Sifting through these levels of reality can be confusing but that adds to the dimension of the search for meaning. What place does comedy have in the world? What should we be doing with our lives? Can movies bring us meaning? What role do we play in life? Should we be won over be sentimental traps? One part in Stardust Memories, Woody Allen reflects on life’s meaning, almost gives up, but then remembers one moment where he looked at one of his girlfriends and found happiness in her. This is a beautiful notion, but the film does not leave us with that sentimentality. It questions the beauty of the moment. It is a good move, for it allows us to question beauty. What is the meaning of this happiness?
Stardust Memories questions and does not answer. The end hurls the audience again into the metaphysical world and leaves one to decide for himself whether the falsity of the film renders everything meaningless, or if the comedy saves it, or if there is another way. Meaning is left to the audiences' discretion.
~Kristen Gorlitz