Sin #14: Muses of Life

Guido is in a state of creative bankruptcy; even though his latest movie is going into production none of the people involved have a clue about Guido’s vision for the film or, for that matter, the general outline of the plot.

At the same time Guido seems tormented by his past and present, turning his fantasies into lucid daydreaming escapades. He sees his mother, the prostitute he met at an early age, his wife, his current mistress and even the actresses struggling to get a part on the movie.

What’s fascinating about Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2” is how deeply involving Guido’s story is, even though he could be considered a louse and a misogynistic pig. Fellini claims the story to be semi-autobiographical but the director shows no symptoms of creative fatigue with this story, quite the contrary; the film is truly alive, a joyous celebration of cinema filled with incredible sights and a brilliant musical score.

The popularity of “8 ½” led to lots of revamps and remakes and even a Tony-award stage musical. This last one has recently been turned into a movie introducing the strange phenomenon of “remaking a remake” (this also happened with “The Producers” which started as a Mel Brooks comedy, was adapted as a musical for the stage and then made into a movie based on the musical, a truly awful movie really). Whether “Nine” (which is the dull title for the musical remake of “8 ½”) is any good is unknown (I haven’t seen it but the reviews have been terrible so far) but I must be honest, I’m not interested in the slightest. Why would anyone chose this version over the Fellini original? Why even make it if it will be compared to the classic film and inevitably fall short? Why would they choose Daniel Day Lewis over Marcello Mastroianni?

Don't get me wrong, Day Lewis is one of our great living actors, giving towering performances in movies like “Gangs of New York” or the great “There Will be Blood”, but he doesn’t strike me right as a charming womanizer. Mastroianni is effortless in the role channeling both personality and attitude; we believe lots of women would fall for him but with Day Lewis, not so much.

Fellini’s “8 ½” is one of cinema’s great accomplishments, a movie that celebrates de art of filmmaking and delivers a delicious story, equally sad and joyful. It’s a triumph.