The film 8 ½ was a captivating story told from a director’s point of view about his struggle to convey his story the way he wants to tell it. The lines of reality and fantasy are blurred throughout this film while Guido is telling his story. It is difficult for the audience to distinguish whether the scene is actually happening, if it is an event that occurred in Guido’s past, or if it is a fantasy of his. One thing that really stood out in this film was the cinematography. The cinematography used in 8 ½ helped create the disillusionment depicted in the film seamlessly transitioning between reality and fantasy by using imaginative camera angles.
Throughout the film, the scenes will alternate between reality and fantasy but without warning which makes it difficult for the audience to understand what is really happening and what is imagined. One technique that is used in some of the scenes or transitions is the camera filming from Guido’s point of view by becoming his eyes. At this point, the audience is able to see the world through his eyes. For some scenes, this marked a transition from reality to fantasy or vice versa. An example of this occurred in the opening scene. The film starts out in a parked traffic jam inside of one of the vehicles. The camera is not Guido’s eyes just yet, but focuses on the back of his head so the audience can see him as well as what he is seeing. Guido slowly looks from the left to the right to notice all of the people staring at him, but while he is turning slowly the camera pans left to right to make it seem like the audience is looking with Guido. He then has a panic attack and gets out of his car to escape the traffic and the people, and at this point the camera presenting Guido rather than being Guido. He escapes watching eyes and then floats away which is when the camera becomes Guido’s eyes and the audience is looking down from his point of view in the sky. He literally falls back to reality and the camera is moves from Guido’s point of view to showing him from a medium distant shot leaving the audience questioning whether if part of what just happened was real or if what they are watching now is real. This is one example of the camera blurring the lines, yet creating the transition between reality and fantasy.
The camera may suggest the transition between Guido’s imagination and his reality, but it does not occur for all transitions and it is still difficult at points to understand what is really happening and what is not. The camera provides the audience access to the world that no one but Guido can access. The point of view angle is just one of many techniques the camera uses to provide the uniqueness to 8 ½ and to blur the lines of reality and fantasy as well as shift the audience between the two worlds.