ABSTRACT
When I show 8-1/2 in my lecture at Columbia, most of the students in a class of 65 respond to it in probably the way Fellini hoped an audience would: amused by the foibles and weaknesses of an artist attempting to give birth in a world that is quite unsympathetic to his dilemma. (Fellini regarded this film as a comedy and had taped a sign above the eyepiece of the camera: “This is a comedy.”)
Film students are naturally interested in gaining some insight into this specific dilemma, in which they hope someday to be embroiled themselves. But this dilemma — will Guido make a movie? — is only the McGuffin (a term coined by Hitchcock, which stands for any object or device that exists solely for initiating the plot). Guido’s problem with finding a story for his movie is the vehicle for Fellini to explore the second, the deeper, and the main dilemma of the protagonist: Will he find a way to lead an authentic life? A life without a lie? This is a dilemma that all of us face — it is universal — and thus it raises this film into the category of art. It speaks to all of us.
