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Overview
8½ is a 1963 semi-autobiographical comedy-drama directed by Federico Fellini
. It stars Marcello Mastoianni as Guido Anselmi, an Italian director loosely based upon Fellini himself, as he struggles to overcome his “director’s block” and direct a science fiction movie. A classic example of metafiction, or a fictional work centered upon the act of storytelling, 8½ explores the frivolity of bourgeois society, the fear of death, and the nature of artistic production. Praised by film critics for its surrealist, avant-garde approach to the genre of autobiography, it received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and is widely recognized as one of the most influential movies of the 20th century.
