8 1/2 - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Perhaps it's fitting that I should have had such a difficult time in getting started on this review for 8½, Federico Fellini's film about the art of filmmaking itself, with all the highs and lows that come with it. In its way, it’s a film about struggling with the creative process. You could say a lot of things about 8½, and they’d all be frustratingly reductive. It’s a film that’s about a lot of things and refuses to easily fit into a neat categorization. Above all, it’s a work of art. And like all great works of art, of all mediums, it’s challenging and difficult to parse. 

8½ tells the story of director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), an obvious stand-in for Fellini himself, a filmmaker struggling with his most recent project. Struggling with his own personal life and dissatisfaction with the way the film is turning out, the line between reality and fiction, dreams and waking life, begins to blur. 

There’s a phenomenon I call “top-shelving” where for certain genres, you need to start with the top-shelf stuff as your introduction, or you might be setting yourself up for failure. Say, if you’ve never seen an anime film before, you might want to start with the works of Miyazaki. Start with the top shelf. Historically, I haven’t always had the highest tolerance for the avant-garde, so I’d consider something like 8½ to be at the tippy top of that proverbial shelf.

8½ is remarkable in its way, too, for the sheer amount of films it’s inspired in its wake. There would be no Mulholland Drive without 8½. And like the great avant-garde filmmakers, like David Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fellini never takes himself too seriously. 8½ would be an unwatchable slog if it weren’t frequently so funny. This is, after all, a love letter to cinema (of sorts, and a commiseration on how frustrating it can be), and at times feels almost balletic in how light it can be.

On a technical scale, 8½ is unparalleled. It looks and sounds fantastic, with naturalistic performances all around from its large cast, particularly from Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale as Claudia (surprise, surprise), the star of Guido’s film, who he casts as The Ideal Woman. Fellini knows when to pull the rug out from underneath the audience, and he knows when to let it play as a straight drama. 

8½ is a must-see for any budding filmmakers or for anyone just getting into studying film theory. It’s a classic and helped define an entire language used for how we tell stories. Criterion’s latest release, with a brand-new 4K restoration from the film’s original camera negative, makes this a worthy upgrade from previous formats.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
8½ arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Criterion in a standard case with a booklet inside containing writings by Fellini, and essays by critics Tullio Kezich and Alexander Sesonske. The previous Blu-ray is also included in this release, with all supplemental features found on that disc.

8½ looks exquisite. Though there is no HDR grading on the video presentation, the details are sharp and vivid. Fibers on clothing are clearly visible and finer details of the set design are visible like never before. Gianni Di Venanzo’s cinematography makes great use of balancing light and shadows, and both come to life brilliantly in this release. Blacks are a true, inky black, and highlights–like the sun beating on someone’s face–gleam brilliantly without details being lost. There are times I thought HDR grading would have “improved” the picture, to have made shadows or color levels of the grayscale look more lifelike, but that isn’t what makes 8½ look great. The dreamlike nature of the film, its divorce from reality, is what makes the film what it is.

This new 4K restoration was created from the film’s original camera negative (OCN) and it looks surprisingly sleek for a movie of its age. Film grain is present, but not readily visible except for shots with lots of bright white, like an actor being filmed against a wall with a lot of light on it. The upgrade from Blu-ray to 4K isn't night and day, but the difference is noticeable, even without HDR. Fans who've owned the movie in past formats from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray will be happy for this latest release.

True to the film’s original release, 8½ on 4K Blu-ray is given an uncompressed LPCM mono sound mix. This will be a front-only presentation on the soundstage, but for one channel, it sounds surprisingly robust. The mix favors dialogue, which always comes through strong and favored, but balances a wide variety of ambient effects (like the chitter chatter of a crowded film set) and lively, boisterous music on the soundtrack. According to the booklet that accompanies the film, its soundtrack was restored and remastered from various 35mm optical positive and negative elements by the Criterion Collection. The work they’ve put in is clear, with nary a hiss or crackle, or muffled, popping dialogue to be heard.

Fans couldn’t ask for much more in the way of supplemental features. All features are from its previous DVD/Blu-ray releases, with only the audio commentary being available on both discs. Any “new” features here are specific to the upgraded 4K video presentation, which is more than worth it.

• Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam (SD 7:30)
• Audio Commentary - Featuring film critics Gideon Bachmann and Antonio Monda
• Fellini: A Director’s Notebook (SD 51:16) - Short film by Federico Fellini
• The Last Sequence (SD: 50:24) - Documentary on Fellini’s lost alternate ending for 8½
• Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert (SD 47:28) - Documentary about Fellini’s longtime composer
• Interviews: 
• Actor Sandra Milo (SD 26:37)
• Filmmaker Lina Wertmüller (SD 17:28)
• Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (SD 17:24)
• Rare photographs from Bachmann’s collection
• Gallery of behind-the-scenes and production photos
• Trailer
• Booklet - Containing writings by Fellini and essays by critics Tullio Kezich and Alexander Sesonske

8½  is a movie for filmmakers. There's a language to its frustrations and passions that others in the craft will immediately relate to. The way Guido moves about a set is a lived-in detail only someone who's done the same would know to add. Movies about the making of movies have an irresistible appeal, to gain an inside look into how the sausage is made, and how the magic actually works. And only Fellini could make this movie with just the right amount of love and reminiscence over the anguish of creative blocks. Today, just as it was in 1963, 8½  is a masterpiece made by a wholly unique filmmaker. Criterion’s latest release on 4K comes Highly Recommended.