"The truth is: I do not know... I seek... I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive and look at you without shame. "

Federico Fellini does not seem like a director I would like. Most of his stuff is about film as art and focused more with images than story. But 8½ (1963) is a definitive movie that others can be modeled on. Like The Godfather (1972) is the definitive gangster movie or Star Wars (1976) is the definitive space movie. It is the movie we first think of when we think of the genre. 8½ is the definitive movie made about a director.

Unlike writers, who seem to be obsessed with writing stories that feature writers as their main characters, directors seem to be less concerned with directors as characters in movies. That is except for Fellini here. Maybe this is why no other directors have taken on the movie about making a movie, at least in a dramatic sense. There have been many made in a comedic way.

The movie is about a famous Italian director who is supposed to make another great movie. He faces what appears to be "director block." It is writer's block just transferred to a director.

Obviously this famous Italian director is supposed to stand for Fellini himself. He could have suffered from director block himself and just threw this movie together to be something, much like the director in the movie does. But with Fellini this is all very complex and open to great meaning that could take forever to discuss. So let us keep to the basics.

Like all of Fellini, the movie is filled with beautiful images. Fellini is considered by some to be the greatest director ever, particularly because of the beautiful images that fill his movies. But Fellini was not an outstanding technical director like Fritz Lang or Alfred Hitchcock. He was brilliant at setting up shots and shooting them like a painting, but there are not a lot of pans, crane shots or dolly shots. The beauty of Fellini is static.

Because Fellini is more interested in images than story, his movies tend toward the weird side. This is the case here as there are random images and flashbacks that are included. They work here because the director's mind is so cluttered and indecisive that the whole thing works. Since it works this is called genius, if it didn't it would be called trash.

Images in the movie have been imitated. The beginning of Falling Down (1995) was modeled after 8½'s. The ending has often been imitated as well. The large circle of people involved with the production of the movie's movie and of the movie itself. Fellini as a boy ran away to join the circus. This is why the circus plays a large role in his movies and why we are graced with the presence of the clowns and circus music at the end.

8½ is an autobiographical movie. It is also a movie that defines what it is like to come up with a movie when you are famous. The stresses it puts on the director and his relationship if he happens to be married. It is a movie that needs to be watched more than once so it can take on deeper meaning each time. Constructing a movie like this might not take so long if it was unintended to turn out like this. Fellini wants the audience to think this is a natural progression of the director's thoughts, not that it has been preplanned by him.

Fellini was famous for remarking that he was a liar and to never believe a word he said. So the jury is still out as to how much Fellini meant to show in the movie and how much has been interpreted as greatness simply because it was made by Fellini. Whatever it is, it is a worthwhile movie to watch.