When I watched the 8 1/2 in the class, I, actually, was really disappointed in myself because I couldn’t catch that film’s concept as well as keep up with that story at all at that time. There are huge amount of dialogue and also too many mixtures of real, memory, and illusion which were inserted suddenly to each other. While those features, in usual, work as help for audience to understand the film, I, this time, felt that I was totally betrayed by them. After watching this film again and again later, however, I abruptly come up with one clue which helps us to appreciate such a most difficult and challenging film, that is “an action of the time when you are distressed.”
First, it might be true that, when people face difficulties and feel distressed, they would often try to escape in the memory or illusion to neglect those difficulties. While watching the film, I was so much confused by the large number of mixture of real, memory, and illusion, for example, the real of making film, memory of Saraghina, and illusion of a harem or grand final. However, those confusing mixtures could be appreciated if you remind the clue “an action of when you are distressed.” Let’s imagine the situation you confront to the difficulty like doing homework. Then, people might realize that they can’t stop recalling the memory or imagining unless the difficulty is so exciting to them. In the film, making the film is such a difficulty for Guido. So he escapes that difficulty not only physically (go away from them who force him to make it) but also mentally.
Second, it also seems somewhat true that, when people face difficulties and feel distressed, there would be full of incoherent talks and thoughts. One another fact I realized as I watch the film was that there were so many dialogues in it and, yet, that I, still, couldn’t keep up with the story. In usual, the dialogue seems to work as a guidance of the story for example by explaining what they do next, why they think so, or why that happened. In this film, however, actor/actress, especially Guido, tell a lot about not kind of explanation or description of the situation but what they are thinking at that time in incoherent way. Therefore, even though they use many word to describe their thoughts, those don’t dedicate to understand the story effectively and, so, it makes this film difficult to appreciate.
In conclusion, through watching this film again and again, I realized that how my way to appreciate the films is stuck in narrow style. When I watch films, I always appreciate it by follow its story in each situation thorough actor/actress’s dialogues which explain or describe the situation explicitly. However, this film completely rejects such a way and forces me to appreciate through whole keyword, like “distress” in this film. After I realize it, this film totally changed its appearance and I could accept such complex mixtures of real, memory, and illusion, and a large number of dialogues.