8 1/2

I was really confused after watching 8 1/2, but after reading the lecture I came to appreciate Fellini's work. I gained another perspective about movies like these which change the world of film making. The way the movie is formatted made me feel like I was in a dream. It was hard to tell the difference between reality and dreams. Fellini succeeds in creating a world in which the inner conflicts of the main character crash with his real life by the use of flashbacks and dream sequences. This takes more in depth with the essence of this character. It think was really interesting to see the way Fellini portrayed the inner conscience of a character. Putting it in context with film history, the use of stream of consciousness in this movie is really innovative. It revolutionized the way stories were told in a movie, from just watching the action, to actually get into the character's through symbolism camera movements, and editing techniques. One of the examples I would like to use to show the way Fellini's technique can bring the audience inside the character's head is in the movie "American Beauty":



We see that by breaking the continuity of the movie, the desires of this character are revealed to us. This other example from the movie "500 Days of Summer" shows us the state of emotion of Joseph Gordon Levitt's character by including a dance sequence in what in real life would be this character only walking to work.



I think it is really cool that films can make people accept these conventionalities. It is also pretty cool that we can break some of the rules in film to innovate the storytelling of a story.