5 Minute Textual Analysis

Title: 8 1/2
Director: Frederico Fellini
Year:1963
Country of Production:Italy, France
Budget: unavailable
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
People Involved: Federico Fellini, (director) Angelo Rizzoli, (screenplay) Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi, actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, (music) Nina Rota, (cinematography) Gianni Di Venanzo, (editing) Leo Cattozzo.

Narrative Context: Guido is sitting with the honorable Cardinal as he sees a woman slopily trudging down a hill. This takes him back to a childhood memory when skipped school with his friends to go watch Saraghina (a whore) dance for them on the beach. This leaves a mark on him, for his mother is disappointed, and he is exposed to a provocative experience.

ORIENTATION:
Context: The film was made in 1962-1963. The film is not as much of a Commercial Success as it is a Critical Success (winning an oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design).
Genre: Frederico Fellini is known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and "baroque" images-- making "8 1/2" a typical film for Fellini. Though some of Fellini's films were apart of the Italian Neo-Realism movement--his filmmaking style changed after reading Carl Jung's book Memories, Dreams, Reflections, where Fellini showed interest in the process “which our minds live: the past, the present, and the conditional - the realm of fantasy” (Fellini to American press officer). Whereas Neo-Realism focused on realistic social issues, Fellini was attracted to the mind-- giving a fantasy-dominant reality to the screen.

Audience: The intended audience for 8 1/2 is probably toward a more mature audience.

Your choice: I have chosen this sequence because the context leading up to his flashback is so relevant to his memory. He is meeting with the cardinal as he remembers the Saraghina (the whore) on the beach-- then the religious headmasters punishing him at school. Guido is sitting with the honorable Cardinal as he sees a woman slopily trudging down a hill. This takes him back to a childhood memory when he was a schoolboy. He is taunted by his friends to skip school and leave for a remote area on the beach to see Saraghina, the shore's whore. Once they reach the shore, they give Saraghina some change to do the "rumba" dance for them. Saraghina is large, dirty (hygiene), and different-looking compared to the other delicate women portrayed in the film. Saraghina performs her number in a seductive way, the boys watch tantalized. She dances with Guido as well. The religious headmasters of Guido's school find him and take him from the beach, back to the school where his mother awaits disappointed. The other headmasters condemn him for committing sin and punish him by making him wear a dunce hat at school. This scene is crucial to the film because it shows Guido's thought process as he deals with his writer's block for his next movie, he is constantly looking for inspirational women who have impacted his life-- and Saraghina showed him a provocative outlook as a young boy.

CAMERA
Angle- Most of this scene is shot in eye-level.. The only times when the camera tilts upward or downward is when Saraghina comes out of her shack (the camera tilts downward to show her low-class) and also, when Saraghina begins to dance (the camera tilts upward) to show her dominating presence in front of the boys.

Shot- C/U when Saraghina begins to dance, Guido's mother's facial expression, and religious headmaster's expression (to show the differentiating reactions--shameless, shameful, and angry). M/S as Guido (in the present) is sitting with the Cardinal, when little Guido walks through his class with the dunce hat on (makes audience feel as though they are there). Longshot as little Guido and friends run to find Saraghina, some parts when Saraghina dances, when religious headmasters chase him on the beach, when religious headmasters bring him back to the school (shown as a memory sequence, mostly from afar except details in C/U-- Guido's memory).

Movement- This scene is pretty much following little Guido's memory, so most of it is tracking and and following (when guido and friends run to beach, when Saraghina comes out of the shack, when religious headmasters chase Guido, when religious headmaster takes guido to the room with other headmasters and his mother, Guido walking through classroom with dunce hat), there are only several parts in which the camera zooms in (Facial expressions listed above).

Framing and Comp- Guido is portrayed as this little, clean-cut boy at Catholic school. The camera follows him and frames him as this isolated character (based on clothing and interaction with friends) The camera shows him as small and non-dominant.

SOUND
Diagetic: The entire scene is diagetic since it is a realistic memory. The sound of the school bell, Guido's friends calling him, Guido's classmates laughing at him, headmasters punishing guido)

Non-Diagetic: This may be confusing for the viewer, but Saraghina's Rumba music is non-diagetic-- since the music rolls on longer than her dance-- it gives the dance a bit of character but the actual people in the scene do not hear it.

EDITING

Style- The scene has a sense of Continuity because it is Guido's memory as he remembers the sequence of events-- the shots have flow-- they're not choppy, providing a very raw memory for the audience to follow.

Pace- the pacing of this scene is rather quick- the way Guido walks to Saraghina, and the way he is being walked down to the headmasters at school is very rapid (quicker than normal pace) to show the memory being a short-lived one. Saraghina's dance is at normal pace.

Narrative- The scene starts with Guido (present) thinking back on his encounter with Saraghina, the scene flies by rapidly-- with little cuts-- but in linear order.

Special Effects: none.

LIGHTING

ambient/natural lighting- Guido (present) is in normal/natural lighting. Even throughout the memory, Guido is not a dominant figure of the memory, therefore there is no central focus/lighting on him-- However, Saraghina is the dominant figure of the scene, so during her close-up shots, her face is lit so the audience can see what she looks like-- but the scene itself is in very natural lighting.

other lighting catergories do not apply since the scene is mostly natural lighting from the "sun"-- except for the school rooms, which are incidental lighting sources.

Mise-en-Scene

Guido in the present is shown as a very clean-cut man in a suit with glasses on. As a young boy, he is mostly the same-- clean school clothes, haircut etc. This shows that he has been the same for all of his life, and throughout the movie-- as he thinks of influential women, his outer appearance does not change, but his thoughts are being affected. The cardinal/ religious headmasters are all in uniform (Catholic orthodox) to show the strict environment in which Guido is a part of, Saraghina lives in a very dirty and destroyed shack and comes out in a dissheveled appearance (ripped up black dress, messed up facial makeup, knotted and wild hair) to show her contrast against Guido's lifestyle. When Guido is being forced back into the school building, he walks by a row of portraits of other headmasters-- these all look very realistic and give the impression that Guido is in trouble even before he is brought to the main headmaster. The room in which the headmaster sits in also has other head master-figures sitting in all black uniforms--looking very much alike near the headmaster- the room is quite empty except for Guido's mother, the headmaster at his desk, and the other headmaster figures-- this is to show the simplicity and intimidating environment of the authoritative figure in Guido's life-- very simple, clean, and to-the-point vibe.