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Quote 2

Guido:   “I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I’m the one without the courage to bury anything at all.”

After the scene during which Guido and Luisa dance together at the hotel, Pace leads everyone to the construction site of the rocket launch pad. Luisa, upset with Guido, begins a tour up one of the towers with a big group, while Guido and Rossella remain behind. At first, their conversation is about Luisa, but, typically, Guido soon turns their discussion to his film. These lines emphasize Guido’s preoccupation with telling the truth, but, as we know, this never fails to keep him from lying on other occasions. That Guido lies so much seems to be a fault in his nature rather than a result of his choice, and a major part of his struggle concerns his uncertainty about whether he has the ability to change.

The abrupt change of subject from his marriage to his film in Guido’s conversation with Rossella seems unbearably selfish, but in light of Guido’s creative crisis, the ways to approach his film and his marriage are intrinsically related. Guido wants to become more honest in order to be sincere in his filmmaking and to be a true husband to Luisa. His industrious imagination and voracious sexual appetite, however, make this a challenge. Guido is better at using existing elements in reality to create new marvels than working with what he has to reach a sensible resolution. In this very scene, for instance, he shows Rossella a mentally disabled sailor whom he’s taught to tap dance. Eventually, Guido realizes that the most appropriate method to complete his film is to explain his indecision. The original title for 8½, La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion), suggests that Fellini must have had a similar crisis and decided to describe his problem rather than trying to resolve it. Indeed, Fellini completes Guido’s speech to Rossella with “I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same.”

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