8½

“Fellini’s 8½. If you’ve ever had an idea and you’re on a timeline and lots of people are waiting for you to finish the idea, just watch this, because it’ll give you the extra anxiety that you need to either procrastinate more or to put a fire under you, because it’s tense. There’s a lot of tension. Beautiful, surreal tension.”

“8 1/2, you can't kick about 8 1/2.”

“I already see the first film that I like, Fellini's 8½. And guess what? They said in case I'm interested, I'm taking this one home. Fellini is my God, my hero. Fellini made it possible for me to think that I was a filmmaker because none of this stuff makes sense really at the end of the day, but it does make sense. And I don't make sense. I love it.”

“Another Fellini. This is one of the dearest films for me. That was the enlightening, the opening of my eyes into the possibility of filmmaking. We met several times because when I was shooting one of my films in Cinecittà Studio, the main part was being played by Claudia Cardinale, and she was just after finishing the work on 8½, so she was very close friend of Federico. I was able to observe his mimics, his behavior, his joy. What a phenomenal filmmaker.”

“Interesting thing about Eight and a Half, I saw this movie a couple times. I was at the AFI at the time and it inspired me to write and to shoot a little project that I should have made into a full-length feature and maybe I will someday. That's about a fundamentalist minister. I have no idea why this movie inspired me to do that, maybe I'll discover them when I make the movie.”

“What can you say about this one that hasn't been said before? This is the ultimate explanation of creativity, where it comes from, how it makes you berserk, how wonderful it is, how ridiculous it is. It's somebody laying bare their soul and being more entertaining than anybody could ever be.”

“Oh, right. I was gonna take 8½ too. I’ll pay for it. I’ll take the 4K / Blu-ray of 8½ because I love it. It was a great friend of mine’s favorite movie, who I love. And I’m gonna take it.”

“This is the one for me. This is one of my favorite films ever and I'm not even going to look for any more past this because just to walk out of this building with this film on Blu-ray makes my day, my week, possibly my year. Thanks to Criterion and thanks to Federico Fellini for one of the greatest film experiences I've ever had.”

“It just feels like I should own 8½. I love it. Earlier this year—no, last year—I interviewed Jeremy Jasper who wrote and directed Patti Cake$ and he said that for like months on end he just watched 8½ every night and that was like his film school. So I would be remiss not to take this right now.”

“Oh big Fellini fan and for this film it just it the opening when you see the opening when he's in the car is a phenomenal opening and it taught me that an open the first scene and the opening of the film should set the tone for the whole film and that's what this [does].”

“I've been reading about Fellini's 8½ and I don't even know if there's a connection between what I'm doing and 8½ but I find there's something about and I did see 8½ there. That's an amazing edition of it. Just reading about the making of it and the design of it and that sometimes gives me a lot more ideas than actually watching the film itself. I really love that and I think yeah that's gonna have to be another one I take.”

“This one eight and a half I mean I think it became the film that every filmmaker who or want to be filmmaker said that shows you that you can make a film without knowing what it's about you know and try and find out while you make it that's what he was trying to do and then in the middle of the film somebody says about the guy Mastroianni guy again he has nothing to say it was shocking I was said wait a minute I'm believing every second of this what are you talking about...”

“Look at that, and it goes 8½. I have a lot of these already so I can't touch them. 8½ is, you know, this is the film that is the first film that really convinced me that's what a film director, what his life and job is about. People like Truffaut made Day for Night, which is a wonderful film, but it's a lightweight version of what a director's life is. Having now made films, I realized the honesty and the truth of 8½ more and more.”

“[Translated] This is one of my favorite movies. I rewatch it every few years. Like Tarkovsky, many of Fellini's movies have influenced the way I make films. His treatment of the subconscious and Dreams in this movie is very clever. I often dream of that scene where your leg is hanging in the air, and someone is pulling it. So I'll end with this movie and take this big bundle home. Thank you, CC.”

“8½. Well, movies about movies. Fellini and… I know I will never, but Marcello Mastroianni is kind of a role model for me.”