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Quote 3

Luisa:   “Indulge yourself. Stroke your ego. Go make everyone think you’re so wonderful. What could you ever teach strangers when you can’t even tell the simplest truth to the ones closest to you? To the one who’s been growing old with you?”

Luisa, Guido’s wife, is the only female character who criticizes Guido’s film. When she realizes that the film is autobiographical and that Guido’s portrayal of his life is not altogether honest, her frustration with him comes to a head. During the screen tests, when she recognizes that the actresses are meant to represent herself and Guido’s mistress, Luisa walks out, and when Guido follows her, they argue. This quotation is especially significant because we know that Guido’s film is analogous to 8½ and Guido to Fellini himself. Like the comments of the critic Daumier, Luisa’s words apply to the film being depicted and the film actually being watched.

Luisa’s criticism of Guido for altering elements in his film to “stroke his ego” suggests that Fellini, too, manipulated certain autobiographical aspects in order to make himself look more attractive. This suggestion is not difficult to believe, because Fellini’s analog, Guido, finds himself surrounded by beautiful women and fashionable opulence that seem idealized. Since Luisa’s denouncement appears before Guido’s ultimate revelation, however, it is possible that Guido (and Fellini) corrected the dishonesty and that Guido’s film (and 8½) is more truthful than the version Luisa knew. It is true that Guido’s life seems glamorous, but he also experiences a crisis that makes him confused, powerless, and sometimes pathetic. This unbecoming portrait doesn’t seem like the result of Guido or Fellini stroking their egos at all, but rather like it might actually be the truth. In any case, if Luisa is trying to convince Guido to be more devoted to her, she makes a mistake here by reminding him that they have been growing old together, for Guido’s worry about aging is one of the factors in his hesitancy to commit.

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