The fountain of imagination depicted by visual magician Fellini in “8½”

Look at the chaos and embrace it

The twists and turns of the film's production seem like a rite of passage for Fellini to shed his clothes and turn his camera further into the depths of his own soul. In fact, the story of the film is exactly the same as Fellini's, a director who has run out of ideas for a new film and is worried that he's done for.

In the resort where steam rises from the hot springs, dreams and fantasies occasionally surge into the protagonist's heart and speak to Guido in various ways. What should he portray? What does he want to express? With no answers, he decides to make a science fiction film in preparation, and before he knows it, a rocket launch pad for filming is being built in a vast field. And so, the director's confusion reaches a peak, and he is pushed to the brink. Indeed, it is so fascinating to peer into the mind of an artist, into the source of his creativity. But what is even more fascinating is how the protagonist's suffering eventually connects with the inner feelings of each and every viewer, and is The Natural shared with them.

『8½』(c)Photofest/Getty Images

This film does not offer any particularly outstanding solutions or prescriptions. However, if there is one thing it can say, it is that each of us is a film director, directing our own lives and struggling to somehow control them, and that this is the essence of human beings.

At some point, the protagonist faces the chaos head on. By embracing his own confusion rather than running away from it, a legendary, beautiful, celebratory moment erupts at the end of the film.

Another last scene that became a fantasy