8 1/2 - Criterion Collection
I realized by accident that the movie was made by Federico Fellini, which already makes me a little more hesitant to watch the movie. I feel like it's going to be too artsy-fartsy and not much fun. I also feel like I'm not going to make friends after I have to write about watching the movie, because everyone likes to pretend that everything with Fellini's name on it is absolutely stunning. Which a lot of it is, but come on people he's not the end-all and be-all of filmmaking.
After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)
Well I kind of hate to say it, because I want to have friends after writing this, but this movie was too long, and not much fun. It took me three days to finish watching the whole thing, because it was too much to watch all at once. I got bored. Say what you will about my attention span, because I have already beat you to the punch, my attention span is the amount of time it takes to boil water.
The only thing I really liked about the movie, and again this kind of falls back on the fact that I'm jonesing to work on a period-piece, was being able to see all the wardrobe. I blame it really on film school, because there was a moment when instead of thinking about the characters and what they were doing in the movie I started thinking about the wardrobe and how seamlessly it fit with the movie. It's no wonder the film went on to win an Academy Award for costume design for a black and white film. The film that won the award for colored film that year was Cleopatra, which I'm now very excited to watch as it is also part of the 365 Movie Challenge.
I don't know what was really so wonderful about the rest of the movie though. It was shot nicely, sure but I'm going to stick my neck out for this one and say that it's kind of hard to mess up a black and white picture.
Still don't agree with me? Here's the way I see it, once photoshop and digital cameras became available everyone was so excited to have to opportunity to edit their pictures. How many times have you yourself clicked the black and white, or sepia options, just to see if the image is any better without all the yellows, green, blues, and pinks? And then once Sin City hit the silver screen everyone wanted at least one black and white picture of themselves, their family, or pet with at least one pop of color in the print. It was almost as if black and white pictures were suddenly a luxury or lost treasure. Don't get me wrong though, I love quality black and white photographs. I just think they're more forgiving and a little easier to work with than colored photography. And as cliche as it may be, some of my favorite black and white photographs are from Ansal Adams. Specifically his photographs of bare trees.
I realize this is a little off topic, and I don't really know where it came from, but when I was in middle school I would draw small bare trees when I was bored in class. I couldn't resist. I had to include one of my favorite Ansal Adams pieces in the post.
Final thoughts: This movie is absolutely an artsy film. If you show up to a coffee house, you know the kind I'm talking about, having seen this movie you'll have something to talk about. Just be aware that once you start the conversation you're going to be in it for a while, so have something smart to say. Other wise, this movie is kind of like Metropolis. In order to really appreciate the movie for what it is, you're probably going to have to be a bit of a film-snob or at least be interested in film as an art form. And while I like to think that I am able to see film as an art form, it's the only way I really saw this movie. It's not something I would be able to watch on a cold Saturday afternoon, in-fact I will probably never watch it again. However all of that being said, I am glad that it was part of the 365 Movie Challenge because it was just a little more exposure to Italian filmmaking.
OFFICIAL COUNT 91 DOWN 274 TO GO
Next up: X2: X-Men United
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