8½ (1963)

"A true art picture."

— James Powers, The Hollywood Reporter

"A carnival of the soul."

— Ian Mantgani, Little White Lies

"8 1/2 is the best film ever made about filmmaking."

— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"It is breathtaking to watch. The experience is unforgettable."

— Stanley Kauffman, The New Republic

"In terms of execution I cannot remember a more brilliant film."

— Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

"A sprawling anything-goes portrait of the artist and the creative process in crisis."

— Steve Goldman, Empire Magazine

"Here is the author-director picture par excellence, an exciting, stimulating, monumental creation."

— Variety , Staff Variety

"It's Fellini's last black-and-white picture and conceivably the most gorgeous and inventive thing he ever did."

— Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

"Marcello Mastroianni becomes an avatar for the great Italian director Federico Fellini in the surreal cinematic self-interrogation that takes place in 8 1/2."

— Kate Muir, Times (UK)

"Mastroianni gives what might be the greatest performance of his legendary career, making an ideal focus of attention for Fellini's cinematic pyrotechnics."

— Christian Science Monitor

"Here is a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game."

— Bosley Crowther, New York Times

"One of the best films ever made about filmmaking, it’s simultaneously critical of its director’s self-importance and childishness and celebratory of the possibilities of the medium."

— Max O'Connell, IndieWire

"8 1/2 is probably the most potent movie about film-making, within which fantasy and reality are mixed without obfuscation, and there's a tough argument that belies Fellini's usual felicitous flaccidity."

— Derek Malcolm, Guardian