ACHTEINHALB (HUIT ET DEMI)

Director Guido Anselmi is facing a midlife crisis. Seeking rest and inspiration at a thermal spa, he instead finds himself besieged from all sides: his wife discovers his affair, while demanding actors, an impatient producer, and—naturally—the sensation-hungry press all clamor to know the details of his next project. As his self-doubt grows, the boundaries between reality and dream, fiction and "film" begin to blur... Serving as the embodiment of the "ideal woman," Claudia Cardinale lends her character a certain *je ne sais quoi* with an almost enigmatic serenity; notably, this also marks the first time she is heard speaking with her own voice in an Italian film. *8½* playfully and associatively intertwines the artist’s life and work—creating one of the most beautiful films ever made about filmmaking and the magic of cinema.
(Florian Widegger)