Where to watch 8½ (1963)
8½ is available to stream in GB on BFI Player. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
A celebrated film director retreats to a luxurious resort after losing his creative spark, hoping rest will bring inspiration. Instead, producers, performers, family, and lovers surround him, while memories, fantasies, and childhood experiences blur with reality and deepen his struggle to understand what he wants to create.
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, Rossella Falk, Barbara Steele, Madeleine Lebeau, Caterina Boratto, Eddra Gale, Guido Alberti, Mario Conocchia, Bruno Agostini
Stream | GB
Rent or Buy
Trivia & production notes
- Fellini conceived 8½ after writing to a colleague in October 1960 about a man experiencing creative block due to illness, but remained uncertain about the script, title, and even his protagonist's profession throughout pre-production.
- The film's title references the number of films Fellini had directed up to that point, counting a co-directed film and two short segments alongside his six feature films.
- Fellini nearly abandoned the project in April 1962, writing a letter to his producer confessing he had lost the film, but a spontaneous celebration on set with his crew inspired him to make a film about a director who no longer knows what film he wants to make.
- Fellini placed a piece of brown paper tape reading "Remember that this is a comic film" near the camera's viewfinder during shooting to guide the tone.
- Claudia Cardinale became the first actress Fellini allowed to dub her own dialogue, as her voice had previously been deemed too throaty and her Tunisian accent undesirable.
- 8½ marks Fellini's final black-and-white film.
- Fellini shot two different endings: one on a train with an implicit suicide theme that was rejected after co-scriptwriter Tullio Pinelli warned it would crush the film, and an alternative finale set around a spaceship on the beach that became the released version.
- Nino Rota composed circus marches and fanfares for the film after shooting wrapped in October 1962, which later became signature musical elements of his cinema work.
- The 1982 Broadway musical Nine, based on 8½ and featuring music by Maury Yeston, was directed by Tommy Tune and won five Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
- Rob Marshall directed a 2009 film adaptation of Nine starring Daniel Day-Lewis alongside Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, and Fergie.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article 8½, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
Also available in
This title is listed in these countries too — pick one to see its services and prices.