Eight 1/2 Federico Fellini 9780813567501

Table of contents :
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
8 1/2 What?
A Biographical Sketch
8 1/2
8 1/2
Credits and Cast
The Continuity Script
Notes on the Continuity Script
The Shooting Script
Contexts, Reviews, and Commentaries
Contexts
A First Draft: A Letter from Federico Fellini to His Friend Brunello Rondi, October 1960
Chronology of the Shooting of 8 1/2
Interviews with Federico Fellini
Interview
Interview
Reviews
I Lost It At the Movies,
New York Herald Tribune
A Sampling of Italian and French Reviews
Commentaries
Mirror Construction in Fellini's 8 1/2
8 1/2 Times Two
The Guilty Conscience of a Christian Consciousness
Filmography and Bibliography
Fellini Filmography, 1950-1985
Selected Bibliography

Citation preview

SVi

Rutgers Films in Print Mirella Jona Affron, Robert Lyons, and E. Rubinstein, editors My Darling Clementine, John Ford, director edited by Robert Lyons The Last Metro, François Truffaut, director edited by Mirella Jona Affron and E. Rubinstein Touch of Evil, Orsen Welles, director edited by Terry Comito The Marriage of Maria Braun, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, director edited by Joyce Rheuban Letter from an Unknown Woman, Max Ophuls, director edited by Virginia Wright Wexman and Karen Hollinger Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa, director edited by Donald Richie 8V2, Federico Fellini, director edited by Charles Affron

SVi Federico Fellini, director

Charles Aflron, editor Rutgers University Press New Brunswick and London

8'A is volume 7 in the Rutgers Films in Print

"8!/2: Confessions of a Movie Director" by

Series.

Pauline Kael, in I Lost It at the Movies,

copy-

right © 1963 by Pauline Kael, used with perLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-

mission of Little, Brown and Company, in

Publication Data

association with the Atlantic Monthly Press. Review by Judith Crist from New York Tribune,

m .

Herald

26 June 1963, reprinted in The

Private

Eye and the Cowboy and the Very Naked

Girl,

(Rutgers films in print; v. 7)

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968; copyright ©

Filmography: p.

by Judith Crist, used with permission. " M i r r o r

Bibliography: p.

Construction in Fellini's 8'A" by Christian Metz

1. Otto e mezzo (Motion picture) Federico.

II. Aflron, Charles.

mezzo (Motion picture) PN1997.077A118 791.43'72

I. Fellini,

III. Otto e

IV. Series.

1987

86-22026

ISBN 0-8135-1210-7 ISBN 0-8135-1211-5 (pbk.)

f r o m Film Language:

A Semiotics

of the Cin-

ema, translated by Michael Taylor, copyright © 1984 by Oxford University Press, Inc., reprinted by permission. "8 l /i Times T w o " by William S. Pechter, in Twenty-four Second,

Times a

copyright © 1971 by William S.

Pechter, used with permission. " T h e Guilty Conscience of a Christian Consciousness," by

British Cataloging-in-Publication Information

cinématographiques

2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1 9 6 3 ) : 4 7 - 5 6 . " A First D r a f t "

Available.

(replacing treatment and/or foreword): A Letter

Copyright © 1987 by Rutgers, The State University All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America

The script 8V2 was first published by L. Cappelli, Bologna, in 1963; the present, edited by Christian Strich, first appeared in a G e r m a n translation in 1974. Copyright © 1963 and 1974 by Diogenes Verlag A G Zurich, all rights reserved.

Nicole Zand, in Etudes

The photos on pages 15, 18, 38, 4 1 ,

4 4 , 60, 67, 77, 87, 91, 100, 106, 109, 111, 116, 121, 135, 139, 150, 153, 160, 171, 190 copyright © 1963, Embassy Pictures Corp.

by Federico Fellini to His Friend Brunello Rondi, October 1960. "Ensevelir ce que nous de d é f u n t " : part one, excerpts from material given to the press; part two, excerpts from an interview by Constanzo Costantini in 11 Messaggero,

4 February 1963. " I l personaggio de

Guido e autobiografico?": excerpts from an interview by Angelo Solmi in Oggi Illustrato,

9

February 1963. "Influencesof Joyce or P r o u s t ? " : excerpts from an interview by Costanzo Costantini in II Messaggero, e Mezzo—Premiato

19 February 1963. " Otto a M o s c a " : excerpts f r o m an

interview by Mario Guidotti in Orizzonti,

18

August, 1963. " U n e issue de ce C h a o s " : comments made on a panel on Otto e Mezzo in Bianco e Nero, April 1963.

Acknowledgments

Without the collective ear, memory, and linguistic competence of friends, colleagues, and family, some of the words, music, and references of 8V2 would have remained as elusive as Fellini undoubtedly meant them to be. I am particularly grateful to Beatrice Affron, Matthew Affron, Luigi Ballerini, Francesca Bandel, Cecilia Bartoli, Konrad Bieber, Tamara Bieber, Giuseppe Levy, Sara Jona Levy, Sverre Lyngstad, Robert Lyons, E. Rubinstein, Fiorenza Weinapple, E16onore Zimmermann, and to Yvonne Osterlund for her work on the developing and printing of the frame enlargements. Special thanks are due Mirella Jona Affron whose contribution to the precision and readability of the translation far exceeded what anyone might expect from a series editor.

Contents

Introduction 8'/2 What? / 3 Charles Affron Federico Fellini: A Biographical Sketch / 21 8'Ä Credits and Cast / 31 The Continuity Script / 37 Notes on the Continuity Script / 1 9 3 The Shooting Script / 203

Chronology of the Shooting of 8V2 / 235 Interviews with Federico Fellini Costanzo Costantini, Il Messaggero, February 4, 1963 / 238 Angelo Solmi, Oggi Illustrato, February 9, 1963 / 239 Costanzo Costantini, Il Messaggero, February 19, 1963 / 243 Reviews

Contexts, Reviews, and Commentaries

I Lost It At the Movies, Pauline Kael / 249

Contexts

New York Herald Tribune, Judith Crist / 253

A First Draft: A Letter from Federico Fellini to His Friend Brunello Rondi, October 1960 / 227

A Sampling of Italian and French Reviews / 255

Commentaries

Filmography and Bibliography

Mirror Construction in Fellini's 8V2, Christian Metz / 261

Fellini Filmography, 1950-1985 / 285

8V2 Times Two, William S. Pechter / 267

Selected Bibliography / 287

The Guilty Conscience of a Christian Consciousness, Nicole Zand / 274

8V2 What? Charles Afiron

T

l he film 8V2 elicits a search for meaning at the viewer's first point of contact with the text—its exceptionally bald title. There is nothing surprising in the designations of Frank Borzage's Three Comrades (1938) or Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961). Even Grigori Chukhrai's The Fortyfirst (1956) hints that its narrative will be concerned with the person or the object that is designated by the number. 1 8V2 demands an interpretive act. 8'/2 what? Merely viewing the film does not provide an answer to that question. Only from the director's remarks or the commentaries of critics do we learn that "SW is something like an opus number; the film comes after seven full-length features and two shorts that constituted Fellini's previous output. This precise and persuasive answer does not, however, exhaust the possible meanings of the title. A film title that functions as an opus number draws our attention to the film's author, its director. It signals the coherence of his fictions as part of an ongoing career and their status as works of art, qualities that are sustained by the unfolding of a film in which Fellini's particular art, that of the cinema, is one of the explicit subjects. Just as explicitly, that art reflects upon the lives of both the protagonist and the creator of 8V2. But what of the value of the number in a fiction about puzzles, about unanswered questions? Would we be wrong to find echoes of numerical archetypes, magic and mysticism in the title of a film that dramatizes the archetypal, the magical and the mystical? How are we to relate the notion of consecutive numbers to a film whose structure chal1. It happens to be a person, the forty-first adversary shot dead by a female Bolshevik.

4

Introduction

lenges the linearity of narrative progression? If numbers are an ordering system, what are we to make of 8V2 in light of one of the film's preliminary titles, The Big Confusion (La bella confusione)? And are we to take seriously an opus number that contains "V2"? And so on. Prior to 8V2, Fellini's films generated many ingenious interpretations, but they were also immediately readable as stories—the story of the aimless young men in I vitelloni, of the pathetic Gelsomina in La strada, of the plucky Cabiria in Le notti di Cabiria (The Nights of Cabiria). La dolce vita signals the beginning of Fellini's sharp break with modes of conventional storytelling. The sense of the text as puzzle, as a field ripe for interpretative harvest, is conveyed by the picaresque structure of this, the feature-length film immediately preceding 8V2. The insistent symbols of La dolce vita (a statue of Jesus transported by helicopter over Rome, a sea monster, an angelic blond girl, etc.) are surrounded by the aura of meaning. Yet the film is firmly grounded in the streets of Rome, in the physical reality at the core of Italian neo-realism, the aesthetic that Fellini learned during his apprenticeship in the movie business. 8V2 departs emphatically and irrevocably from that tradition. Since then, Fellini has not made another film that can be consistently read as a representation of reality. By foregrounding imaginary and psychic states through visual modes that owe much to the fantastic and the surreal, Fellini prevents his audience from surrendering to the illusion of the verisimilar narrative. This, of course, gives the interpretation of meaning a position of priority among the text's concerns. And indeed, at its initial release, critics, reviewers, and filmgoers responded to 8V2 as a hermeneutic text, a text in which the unfolding of the story is secondary to the meanings it generates. Since then, the methodologies of exegesis—psychoanalytic, biographical, auteurist, formal—have been repeatedly exercised in reponse to the text's pressing invitation to interpret. In addition, the activity of interpretation is repeatedly enacted within the film itself by the protagonist, his collaborators, and other characters. These are models whom the readers of the film are called upon to emulate. However, if 8V2 encourages us to think about hermeneutics, it is not necessarily hermetic, or even very difficult to read. It is not the kind of modernist narrative that long forestalls attempts to crack its system. 8V2 does not play the tantalizing games or construct the labyrinthine puzzles featured in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad (1961), a film to which it has often been compared. Much of 8V2 can be recounted and rearticulated. Its system of equivalences and symbols, its apparent ambiguity, its particular narrative logic quickly surrender

%Vi W h a t ?

5

to signification. Can one conceive of a truly modernist artist describing the meaning of his or her work with the reductive simplicity used by Fellini himself? It's the drama of a man who . . . is blocked and is about to explode. And he has followed certain paths up to this point in his life because he was unable to follow others. His is an attempt to find a solution to this problem of stagnation, all the while continuing to lie, to remember his past (the fantasy of his youth, the "harem"), and finally concluding that there is no possible solution except suicide. But even that wouldn't be a way out, since everything would begin again on the other side, with the same problems. That's why I give such importance to the climax, where a way out is indicated. I think people ought to be accepted just as they are, and understood. If the film conveyed this sense of liberation, it would be successful. That's it! What I really want to say is that 8V2 is a liberating work, and nothing more. 2 A director who describes his creation in platitudes; a text about interpretation that is readily interpretable; a fractured narrative that falls into neat order on a second viewing; a set of symbols and figures that give up their meanings without much of a struggle! These ingredients make 8V2 sound both pretentious and simple-minded—adjectives freely used in several unfavorable reviews. In evoking these value judgments I do not mean to revive a debate that occurred more than twenty years ago about a film that has since been canonized. 3 But I do wish to use them as the point of departure toward a reading that discards notions of complexity and simplicity, that refuses to consider the text as pretext for meaning. This reading will be exercised primarily in the internal dynamics of the film.

Incompatible Readings The film offers a series of incompatible attitudes about art and therefore incompatible readings. The notion of incompatible readings, of confused meanings (re2. Interview with Angelo Solmi, Oggi Illustrate, February 9, 1963. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Italian and French are mine. 3. The status of 8'A as a "classic" text can be recognized in the homage of its imitations and versions. Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland (1970), a film about a movie director, is a fantasy replete with Felliniesque clowns and priests, and features a guest appearance by Fellini himself. Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979) and Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) clearly recall 8'A. Nine (1982), with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and book by Arthur Kopit, was a success on Broadway.

6

Introduction

member the original title, The Big Confusion) is embodied in the character of the intellectual, Daumier (called Carini in the shooting script), a professional exegete. Daumier occupies a strategic position. He is the first principal character to speak to Guido after the hero wakes from the nightmare that opens the film; his is the last voice of "reality" Guido hears before experiencing the epiphany that climaxes the film. Fellini describes him as "the true adversary of Guido-Mastroianni," the critic who attacks the hero for being "foolishly ambitious, a bungler, unclear, a blunderer, too sentimental."4 Throughout 8V2, Daumier offers a series of sharp attacks on Guido's script, and, by extension, on his art and his life: the script has no central idea; its episodes are gratuitous; its symbols are ambiguous and therefore misleading; the excessively intimate references to the director's own life allow neither Guido nor the viewer sufficient distance from the subject; a script that purports to be critical of conventional religious and bourgeois values ends up supporting those values. The litany of charges is long. But finally it too becomes illogical, riddled with internal inconsistencies. During the screen-test scene, Daumier criticizes the characters for being undefined, thereby contradicting his earlier remarks on their excessively symbolic nature. He fluctuates in his attitude toward realism and abstraction, toward representational art and intellectualized art. He first condemns the film for lacking a central thesis; in the nightclub scene he questions the possibility of achieving clarity in the chaos of contemporary society. And just before the film's joyous finale, its celebration of art, Fellini provides Daumier with a long speech that celebrates the death of art, the silence of the artist. The depiction of Daumier, a caricature, as his name suggests, is, of course, Fellini's own revenge against critics.5 This is made explicit in one of Guido's fantasies: Daumier is hanged as punishment for his chattering. Less obvious ironies are expressed in the way Daumier is interrupted—in the middle of the word "ambiguity" by the cut to Guido waiting for Carta's train, for instance. His pronouncements about F. Scott Fitzgerald, pragmatism, and the confusions of the world are followed by the exchange between the producer and the actress's agent over cholesterol in the diet! Through Daumier, Fellini expresses his view on the excesses of rationality, on the pretentiousness of intellectuals. That pretentiousness is also satirized in the figure of Gloria, Mezzabotta's ghoulish girlfriend, who proclaims she is working on a difficult thesis, "The Solitude of Modern Man in the Contemporary Theater." 4. Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Federico Fellini, 8'A (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965): 50. 5. Honoré Daumier was a French caricaturist and painter (1808-1879).

SVi W h a t ?

7

Closely related to the "intellectuals" are the ladies and gentlemen of the press, the journalists who are incessantly asking questions, looking for meanings, a group headed by an irritating American and his grotesque wife "who writes for the ladies' magazines." At the press conference, the journalists are depicted as a threatening mob, using their inane questions about pornography, religion, the atom bomb, divorce, as weapons to attack Guido. (In Fellini's shooting script, excerpted in this volume, Guido does not commit suicide but is lynched by the journalists.) Yet Fellini also implies that we must seriously heed his caricatured intellectuals and journalists. The director places them in his gallery of grotesques since he intends that his film be entertaining. But he also lodges within them the dynamics through which the hero achieves his final, liberating knowledge. Guido's wife and her friend, Rossella, characters more sympathetically drawn than Daumier, echo the critic's accusations, and they are not to be ignored. Everyone perceives Guido to be unclear and confused as both artist and man, two aspects of his being that are virtually indistinguishable. These perceptions represent Fellini's own effort of self-criticism, an act that generates the self-reflectiveness at the center of 8V2. The notion that Gloria is writing a thesis on solitude may be comic, but it is also a reference to Guido's particular dilemma. Many of the questions asked of Guido throughout the film are ones that he himself seeks to answer in his unsuccessful attempt to make a film.

Unanswered Questions The interpretive project of 8V2 is served by these recurrent interrogations. Right after the opening nightmare, the spa doctor perfunctorily asks Guido how he feels and then poses a hostile question about the upcoming film. Guido establishes his pattern of habitual response right here at the outset—he does not have an answer. He is the unresponsive target of requests for information and favors. His producer and his assistants ask him to decide about actors, his actors ask him to define their parts, his mistress asks him to intercede to advance her husband's career, his wife asks him for clarity in their relationship. He has no answers for anyone. Inside the body of the film, he is unable to disclose meaning to the clamoring interpreters. Guido's inability to answer is mirrored by the unresponsiveness that greets his own questions. During the cemetery fantasy Guido tells his father that he had so much to ask him. The father replies, "I cannot answer yet." The gap between

8

Introduction

Guido's questions and the withheld answers is revealed during his two interviews with the Cardinal. Fellini uses the device of the non sequitur to fracture the chain of discourse. First, Guido is ushered into the Cardinal's presence to "ask him a few questions," but is instead questioned about his age and his marital status. Completely flustered, Guido first gives the incorrect answer when asked if he has any children! Later, during the fantasy of the Cardinal's steam bath, Guido is allowed to make only one brief remark about his unhappiness before being silenced by a catalogue of inappropriate homilies. The gulf opened up by the unanswered question is spatialized at the climax of the scene in the hotel room between Guido and Luisa. The estranged husband and wife wound each other with a volley of questions, capped when they echo rather than answer each other— "What is it you want from me?"; the camera switches from a medium to a long shot, emphasizing the distance between their separate beds. This reiterated scheme of interrogation coincides with the explicit pretext of the film: an author so consumed by questions about his own identity that he is unable to continue writing, an author in seach of his story. 8'/2 is animated by Guido's simultaneous and unsuccessful efforts to read his own life, interpret it, and write it. But the moments of his silence and his "writer's block" are sometimes occasions for unexpected vision and insight. Daumier's initial recital of criticisms, for instance, is interrupted when Guido recognizes his friend Mezzabotta, a middle-aged man who is having an affair with Gloria, a young woman who is his daughter's age. Mezzabotta's fling with Gloria puts the previous values of his life in question. Throughout the film Mezzabotta serves as a double for Guido, of the same class, age, and situation. But, as is typical in 8V2, Mezzabotta does not present a lesson with a moral. In fact, Guido's initial response to Mezzabotta's liaison, a reaction formed by reasonable and conventional attitudes about middle age, youth, love, and commitment, are emphatically countered at the film's conclusion: the golddigger and her silly sugar daddy walk off smiling, embracing. Other sorts of alterations of the question-answer pattern nourish Guido's creativity. In the confusion of the first lobby sequence, assailed by unwelcome questions about the film, Guido is distracted by the Beautiful Unknown Woman, a character who will be progressively "written" as the film develops. Later, the muselike figure, Claudia, appears in a fantasy just as Guido puts into question the status of his own talent: "A crisis of inspiration? And suppose it's not only temporary, my little man? What if it's the final collapse of a big fat liar who has nei-

8'/2 What?

9

ther inspiration nor talent?" The sound of "weeping" birds captures the Cardinal's fancy during his first interview with Guido. Momentarily left dangling in the space bounded by the Cardinal's senile confusion, Guido is struck by the sight of a woman's heavy legs. Then he too takes a fanciful flight to inhabit the richly detailed memory of his childhood encounter with sex, sin, and Saraghina's rhumba. In bypassing the logical arguments and systematic strategies most of us require to arrive at meaning, these instances exemplify the intuitive leaps of the imagination. Guido's mind is flooded with these illuminating images only when his conscious search for meaning is interrupted. The interruptions mark the play of his shifting levels of perception, from workaday attention to distraction, and then to rapt concentration. It is at these points that the artist appropriates seemingly gratuitous details and either immediately or subsequently transforms them into the stuff of art. Because he is unexpectedly relieved of the dreary prospect of the interview, Guido wrests a rich memory from the sounds and images of the present. The daffy Cardinal and the heavy legs of an anonymous woman happily prevent Guido from interpreting his life and his film, from rationalizing and prevaricating. Liberated, refreshed, he "writes" the Saraghina episode.

Image and Inspiration The freshness of the hero's memory of Saraghina is guaranteed because of the role she played in his sexual initiation. She passes from memory to narrative with the ease of all such figures who mark life's decisive encounters. This is not the case for the Beautiful Unknown Woman, who has a different function in Guido's writing project. Precisely because she is less particularly related to the author's history than Saraghina, she more clearly demonstrates the way his text transcends meaning. The sophisticate walking through the lobby, then reencountered just after the Farmhouse memory, will eventually be incorporated into the Harem scene. There, she gives still greater density to Guido's gallery of women —the women he has known, imagined, wished to know—in the person of the actress who plays her, Caterina Boratto, who enjoyed a brief success in the Italian cinema of the late thirties. In this sequence, when she and Guido finally speak, the character refuses to reveal her name. "My name doesn't matter. I'm happy to be here. Don't ask me any questions." She refuses to identify herself be-

10

Introduction

yond her status as image, and as such, she retains the integrity of what Guido has perceived—a style of dress and speech, a look, a form of beauty. Guido may momentarily (as we do, if we have similar memories) attribute meanings to these characteristics; he probably locates them beneath the rubric "Italian Cinema of the late thirties." But both the meanings and the rubric are subsumed in the specificity of Caterina Boratto, who does not want to hear any questions. Through her, Fellini exploits the vitality of the figure that simultaneously invites and resists interpretation. The essence of this sort of figure in 8'A—the woman whose meaning is ultimately lodged in the integrity of her physical appearance—is displayed by Claudia, the movie star of both Guido's and Fellini's films.6 It is hardly surprising that in a movie about making a movie, the role of the movie star should have a certain priority. In Guido's first daydream, she appears as the beautiful girl who serves him water at the spa. Framed by monumental walls, materializing from the forest like a wood nymph, she seems nearly to float above the ground, called up by Guido's fantasy. She corresponds to the descriptions that Guido makes of her throughout the film as he tries to identify and define her: "the symbol of purity . . . of spontaneity," "young and ancient . . . a child yet already a woman . . . authentic . . . radiant." But when Guido evokes Claudia in his hotel room, her ethereal, symbolic nature is strongly countered by her sensuality, and by the sexual desire that Guido feels but does not express. (The sexual relationship between Guido and Claudia is much more explicit in the shooting script.) The symbol begins to detach itself from its governing concept, to reacquire its specific body. After being temporarily submerged by generalities—"purity," "spontaneity," "young," "ancient," and soon—Claudia reasserts her particular, concrete self. This process is completed when Claudia, the actress, arrives to begin work in the film. The director sees his star silhouetted in the light of a projector's beam. No longer submissive to vague concepts, Claudia is as much Claudia Cardinale, one of the most promising actresses of Italian cinema in the early sixties, as she is a feature of 8'A. She affirms her status as movie star, clothed in the tangible (as opposed to conceptual) fantasy that is her costume, bathed in the glamour of cinematic lighting, framing, and staging. In order to be readable, Saraghina, Luisa, 6. Donald P. Costello, in Fellini's Road (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983): 85-85, discusses Claudia as Guido's idealized woman, a character in his film, the actress hired to play in Guido's film, and Claudia Cardinale.

SVi What?

11

and the other women require the full text of 8'/2\ the star, Claudia Cardinale, brings to 8V2 her prior textual presence generated by the other films she has played in, the movie posters and the publicity that have turned her into an image. That relationship between the star and her public is even more pronounced in the shooting script, where Guido must rescue Claudia from her adoring fans. Both Claudia and Caterina Boratto belong to Guido's personal mythology; in addition, Claudia Cardinale is part of the general cultural mythology of stardom shared by the viewers of 8V2 in the 1960s. Guido is aware of these two mythologies. His own versions of Claudia coexist with her star myth. At the beginning of their automobile ride, he admits to being intimidated by her beauty, just as would any fan. But then, when the car stops in the courtyard of the old building, the "symbol of purity" once again materializes (while Guido is apparently describing her to Claudia), performing acts that manifest her docility, her nurturing presence. The silence and unreality of the pantomime are dissipated by Claudia's question: "And then what?" The working actress wants precise answers; the director, has none. She declares, "I've understood almost nothing about the story you told." Indeed, there is not much to understand in the scene we have just witnessed: the symbolic Claudia carried a lamp and inspected two place settings on a table. Daumier's predictions about unformed characters and unclear ideas seem to have come true. The hero in Guido's film rejects the girl and Guido rejects Claudia. There will be no part for Claudia in the film because there will be no film.

The Big Confusion Yet, as we are about to learn, there will be a film after all. The symbolic Claudia, the girl in the white uniform, initiates Guido's "white" vision (the characters that follow her are also dressed in white) that is the start of 8Ws joyous climax. What are we to make of her prompt disappearance from this sequence? In fact, Claudia the actress is excluded from the end of 8V2. She and Daumier are the only major characters absent from the circus ring that becomes the frame of the director's new work. The independent actress (as opposed to Caterina Borrato who emanates primarily from Guido's memory) and the "objective" critic (as opposed to the critics who make up the fabric of Guido's life) have no fruitful purpose at this stage in the revival of his creativity. Finally freed from the inhibiting effect of in-

12 Introduction terpretation, he is able to accept the contradictions and the questions that are the most personal part of "the big confusion." Guido shares his confusion with other authors who engaged in a similarly encyclopedic quest. Critics have often mentioned Dante because the poet's journey from Earth to Paradise, through Hell and Purgatory, is also a journey from confusion to a comprehensive knowledge. And no viewer of 8'/2 who is familiar with illustrated editions of The Divine Comedy can fail to be struck by the Dantesque descent of the sheet-clad denizens of the spa. The gigantic stairway leading down to the steam and mud baths and the gigantic stairway leading up to the spaceship and the stars beyond are specific references to the topography of the Comedy, a work that is both the source and the center of Italian literature as well as a universal model for the encyclopedic text, one in which anything can be encountered. This is Guido's specific ambition. When he expresses it plainly to Rossella, they are standing, not incidentally, in front of the launching pad. "In my film everything happens . . . OK? I'm putting everything in. Even the Sailor doing a tap dance." A reductive, categorizing interpretation will, by definition, be inadequate to the nature of the film that contains both the comprehensiveness of "everything" and the specificity of "the Sailor doing a tap dance." There is, however, a form of interpretation that permits the asking of questions without the risk of receiving answers that Guido would characterize as stultifying, a form of interpretation that gives privilege to intuition and magic. Guido's producer, Pace, refers to the warning conveyed by the portrait of his dead sister; at the end of the first farmhouse scene a portrait is supposed to signal the presence of a treasure; Rossella's "spirits" are presumably laden with messages, and she herself is something of a mind reader. The "visionary" processes of interpretation are literally enacted during the nightclub act of Maurice and Maya. First, through a combination of trickery (evidently code-words and inflections) and educated guesses, Maya is able to evoke objects that she does not see and words she does not hear. The telepathist reads the contents of evening bags and of minds; the interpretation of the clues invisible and inaudible to everyone but herself leads her not to meaning, but to the presentation of the white and red handkerchiefs of one vain old woman, and to the fear of death of another. The proof of Maya's power to bypass meaning is demonstrated at the end of the sequence when she summons up the magic words that Guido is thinking: "Asa Nisi Masa." First she protests that she is unable to pronounce them; then she writes them on her blackboard, emphatically presenting their meaninglessness. Maurice asks, "But what does it mean?"

SVi W h a t ?

13

A kind of answer is offered in the next sequence, in the farmhouse of Guido's childhood, but it is one that problematizes meaning. The magic words unlock a memory bathed in sweetness and mystery, where the child Guido is caressed by loving, seductive nannies and a wordless, soothing melody (heard also in other sections of the film). Introduced by the apparently meaningless syllables of Maya's utterance, the dialogue of this sequence is spoken in a regional dialect unfamiliar to most Italians. Its sense is primarily conveyed by those few words that are recognizable as standard Italian, and by facial expression, gesture, and context; its sense achieves affect by transcending precise meaning. At the end of the sequence, a twelve-year-old girl reminds Guido of the magic words and their function. They are part of a ritual that will lead the children to a treasure. Thus, "Asa Nisi Masa" serves to initiate and cap the director's sense-memory of this episode. The words convey to him the full wonder of his childhood perception. 7 Magical, enigmatic, an invitation to meaning, "Asa Nisi Masa" is susceptible to interpretation. These words are derived from "la lingua serpentina" (serpentine language), a children's language game akin to pig Latin that inserts " s a " and " s i " syllables into existing words—here into "anima." "Anima" has a dual resonance. It means "soul" in Italian; it is also a key concept in Jungian psychology: the female element lodged within all human beings. Fellini has often confessed his fascination for Jung; he has defined the relationship between women and art in purely Jungian terms. "Woman is in fact that part of yourself which you do not know, and thus you project upon her while you are waiting to reveal yourself to yourself. The creative process is the same thing." 8 Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits), the film that follows 8V2, is virtually a homage to Jung's theory and the imagery that permeates his work. Fellini states that reading Jung freed him from "the sense of guilt and the inferiority complex" that had previously haunted him because of his inability to organize his inner world, to synthesize his thoughts and attitudes. Contrasted to Freud, "who forces us to think," Jung "permits us to imagine, to dream." And most important for his influence on 8V2, "for Jung, the symbol is a way of attaining the inexpressible, albeit ambiguously.'" Thus, Fellini is able to guarantee the magic power of "Asa Nisi Masa," 7. Fellini is attacked for this by many critics, and particularly so by Guido Aristarco, "II Gattopardo e il telepata," Cinema nuovo 12, no. 162 (March-April 1963): 123-29, where the "reason" of Daumier is seen to be more positive than the "intuition" of Maurice. 8. Gideon Bachmann, "And His Ship Sails On," Film Comment 21, no. 3 (May-June 1985): 25. 9. Federico Fellini, Intervista sul cinema, ed. Giovanni Grazzini (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1983): 129-132.

14

Introduction

fully potent even after linguistic and thematic explication. The search for meaning leads back to the mysterious symbol of the children's game, the symbol that contains the inexpressible in its ambiguity.

Plural and Singular The way we must read some sections of 8V2 is a function of this ambiguity. It is a reading produced by fundamentally discordant elements. The film, by forcing us to pass frequently from a sense of complexity to one of simplicity, corresponds to the description Guido makes of his own film to Rossella. Just a moment after boasting of his ambition to put everything in it, Guido characterizes his work in a quite different, almost pitiful tone: "I thought I had something so simple . . . so simple to say." Guido's notions about complexity and simplicity are stated during one of the film's most chaotic scenes, where the viewer is constantly disoriented spatially and aurally by the shifting planes of the shots, the unpredictable passage from ground level to the platforms on the tower and back again, the eerie electronic background music, the disjunction between voices off and on screen, close up and far away, the cacophony of overlapping dialogue. Moreover, our own confusion is enacted by the party of visitors who are gingerly making their way through an unfinished set, wandering in bewilderment between a glass transparency of the launching pad/spaceship in miniature and its enormous tubular skeleton. In this extraordinary space constructed on the shifting sand of the beach and on the vagaries of the director's imagination, many of the characters ask questions about Guido and his film; others provide answers, some of them rude and critical, some precise, none of them adequate. This scene at the launching pad for a spaceship and a film apparently going nowhere is emblematic of the radical variations of density in 8V2. The mise-enscene, the costumes, the decor, the relationship between image and sound track offer us invitations to read the text in terms of confusion and simplicity, often expressed as a tension between the plural and the singular. The film's opening scene, Guido's nightmare in the underpass, serves as both a conventional depiction of the director's anxiety and as a paradigm for that pattern of disproportion between the plural and the singular. Guido's individual point of view is violently challenged by an ungraspable profusion of details. Doubly confined by his car and the tunnel, the singular being is assailed by the progressive accumulation of faces and eyes—from the adjoining cars with one or two riders to the bus bursting

8'A What?

15

with passengers. When Guido escapes from suffocation in his car he also finds release from the confusing plurality of anonymous presences that confront him. The confusion of plurality, of frames filled to saturation with elements that seem to escape the control of the author's eye, is accentuated by the characteristic camera movements of 8V2, where incessant, restless pans and tracking shots prevent the image from settling into the comfort of fixed coordinates. For Fellini, neither the frame nor what it contains tolerate much stasis. On the spa grounds, the logic of movement in the frame is often violated by the randomness of the milling crowds. In the hotel lobby, Guido is assailed by agents, actors, critics, assistants. There, the conventional rhythms of mutual acknowledgment and verbal exchange are constantly altered by a new arrival, or a gesture by Guido to extricate himself from one demand or another. The production office is a grab bag filled to overflowing with photographs, half-finished costumes, Agostini's inventory of building supplies, and Cesarino's giggling young women. Precise out-

16

Introduction

line and contour are obliterated by the steam in the thermal baths. The public square contains yet another crowd of strollers, and a row of shop windows that juxtapose a fakir asleep in a glass coffin, automobiles, paintings. Guido encounters other sorts of profusion in the harem fantasy and while viewing the screen tests. The first executes the multiplication of his ideal woman; the second, that of the characters in his film—an arithmetic that overcomes him in its totals. And, of course, the most menacing of crowds in 8V2 is that of the journalists at the press conference who force Guido to commit a fantasy suicide. Punctuating these often pandemonic scenes are isolated episodes that posit the value of the singular and the unified, usually in the person of Claudia. In utter silence, she first appears as the girl of the springs to interrupt the rapid beat of the music and the inexorably moving lines of people waiting to have their glasses filled with mineral water. She provides focus and a moment of pause after the helter-skelter of the production office with its "nieces" and hundreds of meters of plastic tubing. Claudia the actress permits Guido to escape from the viewing of the screen tests, the out-of-control replication of his Carlas and Saraghinas. But, as I suggested earlier, Claudia's unity is ultimately not Guido's. The director's demands are much greater than her symbolic and iconic presence can satisfy. His unity must be a function of his confusion, must be the very shape of his confusion. Nothing less than this paradox of a unified confusion is the project of Guido/Fellini. At the climax of the film the director successfully renders that paradox. There his eyes become wide enough to perceive the conflicting currents of his past and his present, become quick enough to keep up with their energetic patterns.

The "Coming Attraction" Fellini originally intended 8V2 to end with a dining-car fantasy in which Guido sees and somehow comes to terms with the people of his past and present. This ending was actually shot (see the shooting script, below), shown during preview screenings, and not discarded for the ending we all know until late in the editing. As we read the dining-car scene in the shooting script, it suggests the essential notions that are conveyed by the present ending—both Guido's happiness and the sense that his work is about to begin. But it is not hard to understand why Fellini made the change. A journey is suggestive of destination; the dining car contains the disparate elements of Guido's life in rectangular stasis—"quiet, composed,

8"/2 What?

17

silent." The moving train and the confines of the dining car seem appropriate as the conclusion to a linear narrative, and thus appropriately eliminated from 8V2. The conclusion chosen by Fellini was dictated by a specifically cinematic genre, one that precedes and exists outside the main body of the full-length narrative. Parts of the scene that finally came to include the white-garbed characters on the beach, the grand parade down the staircase, the marching musicians, and the circular dance were intended to be the film's "coming attraction." A coming attraction is not like a preface to a book, where the reader often gains information that will be helpful during the subsequent reading. Nor is it necessarily a summary of the film to be seen. Rather, it eschews logical narrative movement in order to present, with an impression of near simultaneity, a concentration of the film as pure spectacle, its most sensational moments. The coming attraction invites an interpretation that leads to the film itself, not to the film's meaning. The value of this preview lies in its status as a representation of a representation, or perhaps more accurately, as a presentation prior to representation. The real "conclusion" we are meant to draw from the coming attraction is the viewing of the film it announces. The coming attraction is a sign of the film's textuality. 8V2 certainly does not want for such signs: the buzzers and lights of the sound stage, the incomplete movie sets, the screen tests, the constant and explicit references to the film Guido is trying to make. But the buzzers, the tests, and the specter of the unmade film are as irritating and insistent as the unwelcome demands that the director be meaningful, that he fix his impressions, his memories, in specific interpretations. Each request for interpretation inhibits Guido's creativity. In the case of Claudia, we are shown the fruitlessness of his effort to deal with character in abstract terms. But he is able to present Claudia, nonetheless, just as he is able to seize upon the particularities of Luisa, Carla, Saraghina, the Actress, and all the others. Each of these women lives in her uniqueness, in that aspect of her presentation that is defined during the film rather than by any subsequent interpretation. The coming attraction is the suitable conclusion to the text of which it is a part. It asks no questions that 8V2 itself is unable to answer. Many critics have expressed dissatisfaction with the conclusion to the film; they take it to be a celebration of simplicity, a refusal to go for the "difficult" answer. I think the contrary is true. Guido responds to the parade of the whitegarbed characters with enchantment. He happily confesses his inability to express himself—"Everything is confused again!"—because the confusion is perceived to be "me, myself," and therefore the true meaning of the film. Of course, this meaning is simple in his (and our) ability to locate it in Guido's person and

18

Introduction

life; it is also complex, irreducible, untranslatable in the multiplicity of its confusion. When Guido comes to this realization, he is released from his lethargy and regains his creative mastery. He confidently, assertively presides over the shaping of the film's last configuration. The circular dance is the celebration of an art that is ample enough to accommodate the simple and the complex, unity and incoherence, truth and falsehood. The circle guarantees the vitality of an art that, in Fellini's hands, refuses to be about what it is not—something outside itself.10 10. Timothy Hyman, "Vh as an Anatomy of Melancholy," in Federico Fellini, Essays in Criticism, ed. Peter Bondanella (Oxford, London, and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978): 123, eloquently describes the interconnected circles of staging, music, lighting, and concept in this scene: "It is the oscillation of light and dark, the precise length of their duration, which finally shapes 8'/2\ and this music of interval is combined to maximum effect with the actual music of Nino Rota, whose theme tune, an extrovert braying march, transforming into a wistful circling melody, itself incorporates the double rhythm of Guido's experience. The syntax of the film becomes the embodiment of Fellini's doctrine: that our experience is cyclic, that pleasure comes out of pain, true out of false, comedy out of tragedy."

8 !/2 What?

19

The very notion of ending is emphatically countered by the dance, with its emphatic thrust to the beginning of Guido's film. Yet even that notion is rendered complex, perhaps essentially unfathomable in the circularity of its paradox. In the film's final image, Guido as a boy—who means beginning—disappears into the dark. The director-who-is sends the director-to-be into the darkness that is the end of all films.

Federico Fellini A Biographical Sketch

r

Bellini's detractors have often echoed those lines in 8V2 in which the enraged • wife berates her husband for revealing the couple's personal life in his films. In fact, all of Fellini's critics, detractors and defenders alike, agree that, among commerically successful directors, he is exceptional in his determination to turn autobiography into narrative. No one contests that his life has pertinence to our understanding of his art, even in the less-than-unreliable form through which we receive the facts of that life—Fellini's frequent, copious, and sometimes contradictory interviews. Fellini was born in the seaside resort of Rimini on January 20,1920, to a solid, middle-class family; in 1938, he left this provincial city for the more cosmopolitan Florence, and soon after that for Rome. Among the events and impressions of the intervening years that found their way into 8V2, the most notable were his stay at the boarding school of the Carissimi Fathers at Fano, thirty miles north of Rimini, and his sexual awakening on Saraghina's beach. In the course of a recent book-length interview, Fellini denied having run away to join the circus at the age of twelve, an event that has often appeared in his biographies, and that reverberates in the conclusion of 8V2.1 A precociously talented caricaturist, the teen-age Fellini did illustrations for movie posters in exchange for free admission. The 1. Federico Fellini, Intervista sul cinema, ed. Giovanni Grazzini (Rome and Ban: Laterza, 1983): 30-31.

22

Introduction

title design for 8V2 is, in fact, based on the lettering used for the posters of this period.2 In Rome, Fellini worked first as a typographer, then did sketches for sciencefiction comic strips (he was responsible for Flash Gordon when the original could no longer be obtained from the United States), and drew advertising cartoons. Nineteen thirty-nine was a key year. Fellini traveled throughout Italy with a vaudeville troupe headed by Aldo Fabrizi. Fabrizi was instrumental in introducing Fellini to show business, as gagman and writer. Fellini also worked on the satirical weekly, Marc'Aurelio. He was a regular contributor to a radio series about a Blondie and Dagwood-like couple, Cico' and Pallina. In 1943, while listening to this program, he became fascinated with the voice of the actress who would soon become his wife, and later, the inspired star of some of his most important films, Giulietta Masina. Fellini managed to avoid military service when his records were destroyed in a bombardment, and to escape forced labor in Germany by hiding in Rome during the darkest days of the war. When the Americans arrived in 1944, he again exploited his skill at caricature and made something of a living by drawing amusing portraits of the GIS. This apprenticeship in comedy seems unlikely preparation for his collaboration with Roberto Rossellini, Italy's most influential director in the years immediately following the Liberation. At the beginning of 1945, Rossellini invited Fellini to work on Roma città aperta (Open City), the film that was to introduce neo-realism to audiences in Italy and abroad. Fellini's role in this project was primarily to persuade Aldo Fabrizi to co-star in the film with Anna Magnani. He had a far more significant input, as assistant director and scriptwriter, in Rossellini's next film, Paisà (Paisan, 1946). Two years later, he appeared as an actor, briefly and memorably, opposite Magnani in Rossellini's II miracolo (The Miracle). In the forties, in addition to working with Rossellini, he collaborated with Pietro Germi and Alberto Lattuada, other significant voices of postwar Italian cinema. Fellini shared his first directorial credit with Lattuada for Luci del varietà ( Variety Lights, 1950), a story of vaudevillians that draws on his experience with Fabrizi's troupe. His next film, Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik, 1952) depicts the making of the fumetti, comic books composed of photographs rather 2. Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Federico Fellini, 8V2 (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965): 205.

Biographical Sketch

23

than drawings, a marginal genre for which Fellini had great affection. Neither of these films enioved much success. It was with I vitelloni (The Young and the Passionate, 1953) that Fellini made his mark. His "vitelloni" (big calves), a group of aimless young men in a small seaside city, helped define a social type. The Venice Film Festival recognized the director's ability to create a rhythm, tone, and atmosphere appropriate for both the high spirits and the despair of the protagonists. The beach of I vitelloni, a place for dreams, disillusion, and melancholy, would be echoed in many of Fellini's subsequent films. At the end of I vitelloni, one of the young men departs for the "big city," thereby dramatizing Fellini's own departure from Rimini more than ten years previously. I vitelloni was followed by "Un'agenzia matrimoniale" ("A Marriage Agency"), a brief contribution to the omnibus film, Amore in città (Love in the City, 1953). Fellini entered the first rank of European directors with his next work, La strada (1954). Starring Giulietta Masina as the pathetic, trumpet-blowing clown, Anthony Quinn as the brutal, inarticulate strongman, and Richard Basehart as the fool, La strada was an enormous success in the United States, one of the few art films to go into general release in a dubbed version. It won the Academy Award for best foreign film. II bidone (The Swindle, 1955) seemed to be a return to the neo-realist mode, and it failed with both critics and public. Their approval was regained by Le notti di Cabiria (Nights ofCabiria, 1957), in large measure through the appealing performance of Masina as the waiflike prostitute. Masina was chosen best actress at the Cannes Film Festival; the film brought Fellini his second Oscar. Cabiria has had a profitable afterlife on stage (1965) and screen (1968), transplanted to a New York dance-hall in Sweet Charity. Fellini managed to top his previous successes with the ambitious and epically scaled La dolce vita (1960), a film about the soul-destroying experiences of a journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) in decadent contemporary Rome. A succès de scandale at its first public showing (Fellini was spat upon, the film was attacked in the Italian parliament), it reaped huge grosses at the box office and garnered the greatest amount of money ever offered for the right to distribute a foreign film in the United States—$500,000. Despite much dissent in the jury, La dolce vita won the grand prize at Cannes. Fellini created a not-so-subtle satire of prudish critics in his next film, "Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio" ("The Temptations of Doctor Antonio," 1962), an episode in the four-part Boccaccio '70.

24

Introduction

No one failed to connect Guido, the controversial and highly successful director who is the hero of 8V2 (1963), with Fellini himself. The actor Mastroianni was even costumed to resemble Fellini. Hailed by many influential critics as a new development in film narrative and, specifically, in the presentation of subjectivity, awarded an Oscar, a success with large if initially rather mystified audiences (it broke opening-week box-office records at theaters in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C.), 8V2 has gone on to become perhaps the most admired and most frequently revived of Fellini's films. The next, Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits, 1965), is another explicitly self-revelatory work. Its heroine (played by Giulietta Masina) is a troubled, middle-aged housewife. She searches for relief from her malaise amidst brilliant images drawn from the realm of the occult, from Jungian archetypes, and from the iconography of Eastern religions. The crisis in the life and the art of the director in 8V2 was replayed by Fellini himself in 1967. He fell ill with a rare virus and was forced to interrupt an ambitious film starring Mastroianni, Il viaggio di G. Mastorna (The Voyage of G. Mastorna). Mastorna was never completed, nor did Fellini ever again collaborate with Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano, the scriptwriters who had been essential members of the director's creative team from the beginning of his career. He returned to work with the "Toby Dammit" episode in the three-part Histoires extraordinaires [France]/7re passi nel delirio [Italy] (Spirits of the Dead, 1968), a free adapatation of a story by Poe about an actor who sells his soul to the Devil. Block-notes di un regista (Fellini: A Director's Notebook, 1969) was the first of Fellini's very personal "documentaries." Made for NBC-TV, it describes the director's working method, from the failed II viaggio di G. Mastorna to the preparations for Fellini Satyricon (1969), his opulent, phantasmagoric version of the satirical picaresque novel by Petronius, the first-century Roman writer. The familiar subjects of the two subsequent documentaries are clearly stated in their titles, I clowns (The Clowns, 1970) and Roma (Fellini Roma, 1972). Prova d'orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal, 1978), yet a different sort of film essay, depicts the anarchic revolt of a symphony orchestra. Fellini followed the vein of the opulent picaresque in II Casanova (Casanova, 1976). However, one of his most highly acclaimed films (yet another Oscar winner) was Amarcord (1974), an evocation, albeit occasionally fantastic, of his youth in the Fascist years, set in a city much like his own Rimini. Fellini's films of the eighties are variations on themes he has already obsessively explored: La città delle donne (City of Women, 1980) boasts a hero who

Biographical Sketch

25

recalls the Guido of 8V2, again played by Marcello Mastroianni; E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On, 1983) is a fabulous rendition of mythomania. The latest, Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred, 1985), reunites Fellini and the stars most closely associated with his films, Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni, in a scathing look at the television industry. As is often the case with Fellini, satire is tempered with affection, here through the director's sympathetic glance at a pair of old vaudevillians. Also in 1985, Fellini received two of the higest accolades the profession bestows on the totality of a career: the annual award of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival. It would tempting to say that the vaudeville team of Ginger e Fred closes a circle begun with Fellini's first film, Luci del varietà. But each of his films, in one way or another, prompts us to this same assertion. In fact, the coherence of Fellini's work is informed by his need to divulge what he knows best—himself. That same coherence has kept the irreverent gagman alive within one of the most serious practitioners in the history of cinema.

S

8Vz

T

l he published shooting script of was preceded by the following: "Many parts of this script differ from the finished film. It was decided that it would be useful to publish it, however, because comparison with the film shows the extent of the director's creative work during the shooting." 1 Indeed, there are large and small differences between script and film in every sequence. The most significant differences will be summarized in notes and, in several instances, extensively quoted in The Shooting Script.2 The continuity is based upon the print distributed in the United States. With the exception of one musical cue (noted later), this is identical to the print distributed in Italy.

Camera distance, placement, and movement will be indicated by the following abbreviations:

ELS

LS

MS MCU cu ECU

pov (off)

extreme long shot (landscape or other large spatial entity; human figures are subordinate to the total field) long shot (ranging from the the totality of a unified, room-sized decor to the whole human figure) medium shot (human figure from the knees or waist up) medium close-up (head and shoulders/chest) close-up (the whole of a face, other part of body, or object) extreme close-up (section of face, other part of body or object) point of view the face of the speaker is offscreen

Many of the shots show a character or characters looking at something or

30

m

someone outside the frame. To avoid confusion, "looking in the direction of" or "in Guido's direction" (for example) will indicate that what or whom is being observed is indeed outside the frame. Unless otherwise indicated, the dialogue is spoken in Italian. However,

many of the characters speak in a variety of languages, often changing language in mid-sentence. The appropriate language will be indicated just as the character is about to speak it and remains in effect, for that particular character, until otherwise indicated.

SYi

31

Credits and Cast

Director Federico Fellini Producer Angelo Rizzoli Production Company An Italo-French co-production by Cineriz and Francinex; presented in the U.S. by Joseph E. Levine for Embassy Pictures Screenplay Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini and Flaiano Director of Photography Gianni di Venanzo Cameraman Pasquale De Santis Assistant Cameraman Tazio Secchiaroli Art Director Piero Gherardi Assistant Directors and Casting Guidarino Guidi, Lina Wertmüller Assistant Art Director Luciano Ricceri

Scenery and Wardrobe Assistants Vito Anzalone, Orietta Nasalli Rocca, Alba Rivaioli, Clara Poggi, Renata Magnanti, Eugenia Filippo Music Nino Rota Sound Mario Faraoni, Alberto Bartolomei Editor Leo Catozzo Director's Aides Giulio Paradisi, Francesco Aluigi Script Girl Mirella Gamacchio Artistic Collaborator Brunello Rondi Production Supervisor Clemente Fracassi Production Director Nello Meniconi Assistant Production Director Alessandro von Normann Assistant Editor Adriana Olasio

32 VA Production Assistants Angelo Jacono, Albino Morandi, Mario Basili Makeup Otello Fava Hairstyles Renata Magnanti Still Photography Paul Ronald Musical selections incorporated into Nino Rota's Score Lehàr, "Gigolette" Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Overture Wagner, Die Walkùre, "The Ride of the Valkyries" Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, "The Dance of the Reed-Pipes" Padilla, "Ca c'est Paris" Locations Titanus-Appia Studios, the EUR district in Rome, the Cecchignola military reservation in Rome, Tivoli, beaches near Ostia and Fiumicino, Filacciano, Viterbo

Shooting Schedule May 9, 1962 (the screen test of Miss 01impia)-0ctober 14, 1962 (Guido's speech in the dining-car ending, subsequently discarded) See "Contexts and Interviews" for a chronology of the shooting. Process Black and White Negative Dupont Developing and Printing Istituto Nazionale Luce Technician Enzo Verzini Release Date February 1963 (Italy) June 24, 1963 (United States) Length 135 minutes

The cast list is amended from the previously published credits to account for discrepancies and incomplete attributions of performer and role. Guido Anselmi Marcello Mastroianni

Claudia, the star Claudia Cardinale

Luisa, his wife Anouk Aimée

Rossella, a friend Rossella Falk

Carla, his mistress Sandra Milo

The Actress Madeleine Lebeau

8'/2 33 The Beautiful Unknown Woman Caterina Boratto

Nanny in White Maria Raimondi

Gloria Morin, Mezzabotta's girlfriend Barbara Steele

Nanny in Black Marisa Colomber

Mario Mezzabotta, Guido's friend Mario Pisu Pace, the producer Guido Alberti Conocchia, Guido's assistant Mario Conocchia Daumier, the critic Jean Rougeul Saraghina Edra Gale Maurice, the magician Ian Dallas Guido's Father Annibale Ninchi Guido's Mother Giuditta Rissone The Cardinal Tito Masini The Cardinal's Secretary Frazier Rippy The Cardinal's party Comte Alfredo de la Feld, Sebastiano de Leandro Guido's Grandmother Georgia Simmons

The Old Peasant Relative at farmhouse Palma Mangini The Twelve-Year-old Girl at farmhouse Roberta Valli Guido at farmhouse Riccardo Guglielmi Guido as a schoolboy Marco Gemini Jacqueline Bonbon Yvonne Casadei Luisa's Sister Elisabetta Catalano Luisa's Friend Rossella Como Enrico Mark Herron Cesarino's "nieces," Eva and Dina Eva Gioia, Dina De Sands Cesarino, the production supervisor Cesarino Miceli Picardi Bruno Agostini, the production director Bruno Agostini The Black Dancer Hazel Rogers

34

SVi

Hedy, the model Hedy Vessel

One of the clowns in the parade Polidor (Ferdinand Guillaume)

The Accountant John Stacy

The Actress's Agent Neil Robinson

Miss Olimpia (Carla in screen test) Olimpia Cavalli

Claudia's Agent Mino Doro

Saraghina in some screen tests Maria Antonietta Beluzzi

Claudia's Press Agent Mario Tarchetti

Luisa in screen test Sonia Gensner

Principal of Guido's school Maria Tedeschi

Doctor Roberto Nicolosi

Concierge Prince Vadim Wolkonsky

Woman at Spa Luciana Sanseverino

Wardrobe Mistress Grazia Frasnelli

American Journalist Eugene Walter

Nurse and Russian Singer Mme. Alexandra

American Journalist's Wife Gilda Dahlberg

with Giulio Paradisi, Valentina Lang, Annarosa Lattuada, Agnese Bonfanti, Flaminia Torlonia, Anna Carimini, Maria Wertmuller, Gideon Bachmann, Deena Boyer, John Francis Lane, and the entire technical staff in the final scene.

Pace's Girlfriend Annie Gorassini Maya, the telepathist Mary Indovino Nadine, the airline hostess Nadine Sanders Tilde, a friend of Luisa's Matilde Calnan Tilde's Boyfriend Francesco Rigamonti The Cardinal in the screen test Contessa Elisabetta Cini

A few details, as recounted in Deena Boyer, The Two Hundred Days of8'/2 (New York: Macmillan, 1964) and Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Federico Fellini, 8V2 (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965), give some notion of the film's casting history and describe the typically Fellinian mixture of professional actors,

m friends, crew members, and people found in various walks of life that appears on the screen. Marcello Mastroianni became Guido following a visit Fellini made to London to see Laurence Olivier, the director's initial choice for the role. The Rubenesque physique of Anita Ekberg, who had appeared in La dolce vita and " L e tentazioni del dottor Antonio," was the model for Carla. The rather gaunt Sandra Milo, surprisingly cast in the role, was required to put on a good deal of weight and have her eyebrows completely reshaped. Anouk Aimée, who played the voluptuous Maddalena in La dolce vita, was here cast against type as Guido's middle-aged, unglamorous wife. In an unusuccessful attempt to make her ugly, her long eyelashes were trimmed and she was made up to appear as if her face were covered with freckles. Three other performers brought to 8V2 the weight of their prior stage and screen experience: Caterina Boratto,

35

a film star of the thirties, in the role of the Beautiful Unknown Woman; Guiditta Rissone, a distinguished stage actress, wife of Vittorio De Sica, as Guido's mother; Annibale Ninchi, a noted theatrical personage who starred in many films before World War 11, as Guido's father (he also played Marcello's father in La dolce vita). Many of the other characters were played by nonprofessional actors: Agostini, a pharmaceutical salesman; Cesarino, a café owner; Daumier, a French novelist and lyricist; Pace, the owner of the Strega distillery and patron of the major literary award, the Strega Prize; the American Journalist's Wife, an ex-Ziegfeld girl and the widow of an industrialist; Saraghina, an American singer in Italy to study opera; the Cardinal, a retired tax functionary; Maurice, a Scottish playwright. The crowds at the spa were filled with members of the rich international set.

The Continuity Script

An Underpass Throughout this scene, the images are marked by a stark black-and-white contrast.3 1. MS: the back of Guido's head through the rear window of his car. (We will not see Guido's face at all until the film's next sequence, shot 31.) Caught in a traffic jam, Guido's car inches forward. The camera tracks forward slightly, as if it too were caught in the jam. The only sound is a regular drumbeat, suggestive of a heartbeat. 2. Pan right, starting at the level of the cars' roofs, rising to the level of the windows of a bus on the left side of underpass. 3. cu: the back of Guido's head. Pan left to the face of a man in the adjoining car, staring at Guido, then to a woman, apparently dozing in the driver's seat, then back to the interior of Guido's car. Guido takes a piece of cloth from the dashboard and begins to wipe the interior of the windshield. Pan to the occupants of the car on the right, then back to Guido's dashboard. A whiff of smoke escapes from the car's ventilation system, accompanied by a whooshing sound. Gasping for breath, Guido vainly tries to adjust the ventilation, then to open the door. 4. LS: top half offrame, a row of arms hanging out of the windows of a bus; bottom half, the occupants of the cars, staring in Guido's direction. 5. MS: Guido continues to bang against his door. More smoke fills his car. He tries to open the window on the passenger's side of the car. cu of his hands banging and clawing against the window. Pan right to a man in an adjoining car, looking on impassively. Track right and pan left to Guido's hands, banging on the window. 6. MS: in another car a man, smoking a cigarette, is caressing and sexually arousing a scantily dressed woman. (We will later recognize this woman as Carla, Guido's mistress.) Pan right past the faces of a couple in another car to Guido's smoke-filled car. Guido bangs on the window with the heels of his shoes, then slithers out of the window on the opposite side. 7. MS: Guido crawling onto the roof of his car. 8. cu: a man looking in Guido's direction. The camera rapidly rises and pulls back slightly to reveal, in l s , a man and a woman in the front of the

38 SV2

bus, staring impassively. Pan right follows Guido, his arms outstreched, floating over the roofs of the cars. 9. MS tilts up Guido's back as he floats, stretching out his arms, his black coat billowing. When he leaves the frame at the right he reveals, against a stark white sky, the overhead wires of a tram.* The Sky 10. ls: following Guido as he floats in the sky. 11. LS: from Guido's POV, advancing toward sun and rapidly-moving clouds. 12. LS: from Guido's POV, moving toward a structure of girders and wires that we will recognize as the spaceship superstructure of the film's final sequences.5 A Beach 6 13. LS: Claudia's Agent, wearing a cape, riding a horse. Pan follows him right. 7 C L A U D I A ' S P R E S S A G E N T : Avvocato, I've caught him. Claudia's Press Agent appears in MS. He rises from the sand, grabs hold of a cord and looks up. Claudia's Agent stops and points to the sky. C L A U D I A ' S P R E S S A G E N T : Hey. Down. Comedown.

SVi 39 14. High angle LS: from Guido's POV as he floats above the beach, of his own leg, a long cord attached to it, held by Claudia's Press Agent far below. 15. Closer high angle LS: Claudia's Press Agent holding the end of the cord, pulling on it and laughing. 16. As in 14. Guido tries to untie the cord around his ankle. 17. Low angle MS, then zoom into c u of Claudia's Agent, rifling through some papers, on horse. C L A U D I A ' S AGENT: Down for good! 18. Extreme high angle from above the figure of Guido who falls precipitously toward the water. The sound of his gasps continues into the next shot.* Guido's Hotel Room, day 19. cu: Guido's arm stretched upwards, taut with anxiety. First Doctor enters, LS, from the right background, walking left toward Guido's bed, first looking up and to the right, then at Guido, who coughs repeatedly during this shot. FIRST DOCTOR: Please forgive this early-morning intrusion. How do you feel? I am one of your great admirers. I'm very happy to meet you. May we begin? From behind Guido's head, pan left continues to an elderly nurse, entering through a white curtain. NURSE: May I use your typewriter, sir? Pan right to Second Doctor, with stethoscope, seated next to Guido's bed, MS. SECOND DOCTOR: Please uncover your arm. Keep it relaxed. 20. cu: a newspaper, being read by the First Doctor, fills the right foreground; LS: Nurse in left background. NURSE: How old are you? GUIDO: Forty-three. SECOND DOCTOR: Please get up. The First Doctor drops the newspaper and leans affably on the bedstead. FIRST DOCTOR: Well, what are you cooking up for us? Another film without hope? NURSE: IS this the first time that you're taking the cure? GUIDO: Yes.

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21. c u : Guido's back, covered with sheet. Second Doctor first taps, then puts his ear to Guido's chest. S E C O N D DOCTOR: A deep breath. A knock at the door. GUIDO: Come in.

22. LS: through an etched glass partition, we see Daumier, in bathrobe and pyjamas, entering Guido's room. Although during the course of the film he occasionally says a word in French rather than Italian, Daumier speaks excellent academic Italian with a strong French accent. D A U M I E R : Oh, I'm sorry. I'll come back later. Daumier starts to back out. 23. As in 21. GUIDO: NO, come on in. 24. MCU: tracking Daumier entering and walking left. S E C O N D DOCTOR (off): Breathe. (Pause.) Deeper. D A U M I E R : Good morning. 25. LS: Daumier. D A U M I E R : May I smoke? Absorbed in his own thoughts, Daumier sits in a chair on the far wall, smoking. He holds a script in his lap. S E C O N D DOCTOR (off): Cough. 26. c u : Guido's hands; his head is hidden beneath his dressing gown. He coughs. S E C O N D DOCTOR (off): Breathe. GUIDO: Have you read it yet? 27. As in 25. DAUMIER: Yes.

28. As in 26. S E C O N D DOCTOR: Breathe. GUIDO: And what do you think of it? 29. As in 27. Daumier runs his hand through the few remaining hairs on his head. D A U M I E R : Well, I've made some notes. But we'll talk about i t . . . later. 30. c u : Second Doctor's leg and arm, and Guido's bare leg that the doctor has just finished tapping. S E C O N D DOCTOR (off): Your system has been a little overworked. Thank you. You may get dressed. (Tracking pan follows the doctor's hands as he puts his hammer into a case on the bed. The bed is strewn with

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glossy photographs of women. He picks up one photograph.) A pretty girl. American, isn't she? 31. LS: Second Doctor walking right with his bag and Guido walking right, putting on his dressing gown. This is the first glimpse of Guido's face in the film. Pan right revealing First Doctor who stands to shake Guido's hand, and Nurse, who is typing out the instructions. S E C O N D DOCTOR (referring to the photographs): You sure have a lot of good merchandise here . . . (When Guido begins speaking, some of the Second Doctor's lines become unintelligible.) This cure will certainly do you lots of good. (To Nurse.) So, Miss, every day, on an empty stomach, 300 grams of mineral water to be drunk in three doses, at quarter-hour intervals. Every other day, mud baths. After each mud treatment, a bath in mineral water for ten minutes, according to the prescription. D i e t . . . At the end of the first week of the cure, suspend all the prescribed treatments for two days. While Second Doctor paces left to right, giving these instructions to the Nurse, and First Doctor paces and fans himself with his newspaper, the camera tracks back as Guido, his dressing gown half on, walks forward dazedly, past the imperturbable Daumier.

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What time is it? I'll wait for you at the springs, if you like? 9 GUIDO: Yes, thank you. Guido enters the bathroom on the right. Guido's Bathroom 32. Tilt up to bathroom mirror as Guido walks into cu. The music, Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" (Die Walküre, Act in), continues through this scene into the next. Guido snaps on the light and we finally see his face clearly. He looks dejectedly at his reflection; his features are bloated, his eyes rimmed with dark circles. 33. LS: Guido in the enormous bathroom. He scratches his head, finishes putting on his dressing gown. The room is flooded with bright light, accompanied by an "electric" sound. (Both the light and the sound will be repeated several times in the film. They are references to the floodlights and the buzzer of a movie soundstage.) Guido walks to the right, starts taking off the dressing gown. The phone rings. He turns in annoyance and marks each subsequent ring by squatting lower and lower.10 The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day." Shots 34-41 appear to be from Guido's POV. 34. Pan left over grounds. People are shown in a variety of attitudes and situations: walking, stationary, in cu, in MS, and in LS, acknowledging Guido's presence by looking directly at the camera, ignoring him, carrying glasses of mineral water, drinking the water. The women are dressed elegantly, in styles reminiscent of fashions of the thirties. Many of them carry parasols. An elderly man drinks mineral water. The camera follows him as he walks to a woman seated on a concrete bench with a high, curving back. She smiles, enchanted by the music. Pan continues to a priest, some nuns, a group of women in the foreground, one of whom blows a kiss toward the camera. MS of conductor waving his arms. 35. Pan right. In MS and cu: nuns walking away from camera; women seated in foreground, waving; an expressionless woman, wearing large dark glasses, a cigarette dangling from her lips, slowing twirling her black, polka-dot parasol; a portly woman in white, sleeping. 36. LS: a bearded monk, seated on one of the monumental concrete benches, swinging his short legs in time to the music. Two elderly women cross in the foreground, right to left. Pan to two nurses helping an elderly man in shorts to be seated, in background. As the pan continues, cu, in the foreground, of a woman in severely mannish dress. GUIDO:

DAUMIER:

8% 43 37. Pan left, LS of a line of people, their glasses in hand, advancing right to left in time to the music. MS of nun in foreground, drinking her mineral water, smiling at camera, then turning away giggling. Pan continues left as other figures move left to right, mid-ground. 38. Pan follows a man moving right in c u , his cane shaking in one hand, his glass in the other hand; slight pan left follows in MS A man shielding his head from the sun with a newspaper. When he leaves the frame we see, stretching from foreground to background, a line of young women dressed in white uniforms. Standing in a trench several feet below ground level, they are filling the water glasses of the people taking the cure. 39. Low angle LS: people walking on a staircase at the top of which is placed the orchestra. 40. High angle ELS: the spa terrace, the spring circling from the right around the rear. People are standing in three lines, waiting for their mineral water. As the camera descends, two nuns and a man and woman appear in MS, sitting on a different part of the terrace. The orchestra ends its rendition of "The Ride of the Valkyries." 41. We now hear the overture to Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Two women in black uniforms walk from fore ground, away from camera, and join the line of people waiting to have their glasses filled. One of them carries a black umbrella, LS showing the girls serving the water, on the left. 42. cu: faces of people moving in line, right to left. Guido's face appears. cu, track follows him. He is wearing dark glasses. He looks to the right and left, then drops his cigarette. He slides his glasses down the bridge of his nose. The music stops; there is an unnatural silence from here until just after Guido speaks in 50. 43. ELS: Claudia, dressed in a white uniform, standing in the woods, framed between the monumental walls that flank the spring. 44. MCU: Guido, looking over the rim of his glasses, tapping the end of his nose. 45. LS: Claudia coming forward between the walls. Her arms are crossed modestly across her breasts. As she approaches, she spreads her arms and continues to advance rapidly through the frame, from left to right, in a dancelike movement. 46. c u : Claudia smiling radiantly, moving to the right. 47. As in 44. 48. c u : Claudia bending down, out of the frame.

8»/2 45 49. High angle c u : Claudia's hand, holding a glass of mineral water. Tilt up as she offers glass to Guido, her smiling face in MCU. 50. As in 47. Guido is fascinated. G U I D O (in a whisper): Thank you. A T T E N D A N T (off): Sir. The music starts again. 51. In the place of Claudia, an impatient, tired, overheated attendant, wiping her brow with one hand, with the other offering Guido his glass. A T T E N D A N T : Sir, your glass. 52. As in 50. Drawn out of his reverie, Guido pushes his glasses back to their conventional place. After he accepts his water and exits frame right, his place is taken by a short old lady, carrying a parasol. 53. LS: the terrace, its high walls and the opening onto the forest, and the lines of people. Guido walks forward, waving his hand, MCU: back of Daumier's shoulder and head as he stands in response to Guido's greeting. D A U M I E R : Here I am. 54. Throughout most of this shot we see Daumier tracked in c u , alternately full-face and in profile, from Guido's POV. Daumier moves left to right, occasionally stopping. D A U M I E R : YOU want us to talk about the film. G U I D O (off): Yes. Of course. D A U M I E R : Well, I hope you'll tell me if you want your producer to see this report. (He brandishes a piece of paper.) Frankly, I wouldn't want to cause you any trouble. G U I D O (off): No, don't worry. I'm the one who asked for your opinion. D A U M I E R : YOU see, a first reading makes plain the lack of a central idea that establishes the problematic of the film or, if you wish, of a philosophical premise . . . G U I D O (off): Shall we sit down? Daumier continues walking to the right. D A U M I E R : . . . and therefore the film becomes (in French) a series (in Italian) of absolutely gratuitous episodes. Because of their ambiguous realism, they may even be amusing. (He leans against one of the concrete benches. Beneath his arm, we see Guido seated, drinking his mineral water, in MS.) One wonders what the authors really intend. Do they want to make us think? Do they want to frighten us? (Pan right on

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Daumier, in c u , as he turns away from Guido.) Right from the start, the action displays an impoverished poetic inspiration. (Daumier rubs two fingers together to suggest the poor value of the script. Track back as he turns, bending down to brush dust off the leg of his trousers, and sits on the far side of Guido, in LS.) You'll have to excuse me for saying so, but this may be the most pathetic demonstration that the cinema is irremediably fifty years behind all the other arts. The subject is not even worth that of an avant-garde film, even though it has all the weaknesses of that genre. 55. MS: pan right from Daumier to include Guido. D A U M I E R : I took some notes, but I don't think they'll be of much use to you. GUIDO: Thank you.

Daumier hands the notes to Guido, who begins to read them. D A U M I E R : I'm really surprised you thought of me for a collaboration that, frankly, I don't think would work out. G U I D O {folding the notes): No, no, no. Quite the contrary. You will be very helpful to me. (He leans forward, now alone in MS, and speaks hesitantly.) You see, the film . . . I really want to do this film. I postponed the start for two weeks . . . only . . . because . . . (He looks up to the left, is distracted by what he sees, then stands and shouts.) Mezzabotta! (Looking down in Daumier's direction.) Excuse me. (Pan follows Guido to left.) Mezzabotta! Mario! So you're here, too! Over Guido's shoulder, Mezzabotta in LS, dressed in sport clothes, in sharp contrast to the formal attire worn by the other people at the spa. M E Z Z A B O T T A : Guido! Stooped, with bent legs, Mezzabotta laboriously makes his way up a little hill. GUIDO: Well, now. What's happened to you? What's wrong with you? When Mezzabotta nears Guido he laughs, springs erect, hops forward, leaps into the air with exaggerated sprightliness and embraces his friend. MEZZABOTTA: Hi! GUIDO: G o . . . .

56. MCU: Guido and Mezzabotta. 12 M E Z Z A B O T T A : Hi, Guidone, how are you? GUIDO: Fine.

Oh, you've grown some white hair, old Snkporaz.13 GUIDO: And what about you? MEZZABOTTA:

SVi 47 (looking down at Guido's glass): What are you doing? You're drinking that stuff? It's crap. It'll make you sick. GUIDO: Yes. They said my liver doesn't. . . . And what kind of treatment are you doing? M E Z Z A B O T T A (with a serious expression): Wait a minute. (As he turns, pan right over his shoulder to Gloria, a young woman, in LS, walking forward, looking at the ground, her shoes in her hand.) Gloria! GUIDO (off): Your daughter! My, how she's grown. Pan back to Mezzabotta and Guido. M E Z Z A B O T T A : NO, she's not my daughter. (He looks again in Gloria's direction.) GLORIA (off): It's horrible. cu: Gloria. Her head is bent forward so that most of the frame is filled with her wide-brimmed black hat. She speaks faulty Italian and has a strong American accent. GLORIA: The cruel bee has sucked out the life from these poor flowers. As she looks up we hear the orchestra begin to play "The Dance of the Reed-Pipes" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. M E Z Z A B O T T A (off): Here, dearest. Gloria smiles. M E Z Z A B O T T A (off): I'd like to introduce my friend . . . GLORIA: Pardon me. My shoes. MS: Guido and Mezzabotta. Guido steps forward to shake hands. G L O R I A (off): Gloria . . . Gloria Morin. GUIDO: Pleased to meet you. G L O R I A (off, in English): How do you do? GUIDO: Fine, thank you. As in 57. GLORIA: I know all about you. Pupi always, always tells me. We even had a big fight because I was very critical of your last film. Mezzabotta enters left and puts his arm around Gloria. M E Z Z A B O T T A : That's not true. You liked it a lot. (He laughs nervously.) Shall we have something to drink? Let's go. MCU: Guido smiles, with some irony. He turns left and starts walking, camera tracking his movement. M E Z Z A B O T T A (off): What about you? Are you alone? MEZZABOTTA

57.

58.

59.

60.

48 8/2 243. MS: the bed with the three sleeping children. The Twelve-Year-OId Girl, who is nearest the camera, sits up suddenly, in MCU. As she speaks her lines, she points vigorously to the left, puts her index finger in front of her nose, crosses her arms in front of her and flaps them over her shoulders like a bird's wings, waves her hands and folds them as if performing a ritual. T W E L V E - Y E A R - O L D G I R L : Guido, don't go to sleep tonight! It's the night the portrait's eyes move. You're not scared, are you? You have to be quiet! Uncle Agostino will look into a corner of the room, and the treasure will be there! Don't be afraid, Guido! We'll be rich! Do you remember the magic words? 244. LS: the room, Guido sitting up in bed in foreground, his back to camera; the Twelve-Year-Old Girl in the far right corner, gesticulating; Uncle Agostino's portrait is prominent on the wall, between the two beds. T W E L V E - Y E A R - O L D G I R L : Asa Nisi Masa . . . Asa Nisi Masa . . . Asa Nisi Masa . . . sh! The Farmhouse Kitchen, night 245. LS: a wall with a low chest. Her back to the camera, the Old Peasant Relative walks to the open door on the right, then exits. We hear the sound of the wind whistling that persists until the end of this scene. 246. LS: the landing in front of the bedrooms, with its columns and railing. Nanny in White, carrying a lamp, is entering a room in the right background. Slow track right to a column on which are hanging photographs of a woman and of a man, a lamp beneath them. Then we are able to see the whole expanse of the room below, with its hanging sheets, the ladder leading up to the vat, and the hearth on the far wall. 247. Slow track in to CU of sputtering flames on hearth. Slow dissolve to next shot.15 Lobby, Spa Hotel, night 248. Pan right showing the front desk, a desk clerk the middle distance, the staircase in the background. In MCU, the Concierge looks up to the right, in Guido's direction, and removes his glasses. C O N C I E R G E : By the way, sir, they called you from Rome two or three times. Your wife, I think. G U I D O (in an exhausted tone, o f f ) : Oh, really? All right. Tell them I'll take the call now.

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(turning to Gino, the desk clerk): Gino, tell the Rome operator to go ahead. G I N O : All right. C O N C I E R G E (handing Guido a newspaper): This is for you. G U I D O ( o f f ) : Thank you. C O N C I E R G E : Good night, sir. G U I D O ( o f f ) : Good night. G I N O (speaking on the telephone to the operator): Marcella, that call from Rome . . . it's urgent.36 From Guido's POV, track to the right, showing more of the lobby and staircase. We can read that it is 2:00 on the clock above the staircase. As the back of Guido's head appears in the frame in MCU we hear the principal musical motif of the film being played on a piano. The camera follows Guido as he walks past the desk. G I N O ( o f f ) : Good night, sir. G U I D O : Good night. LS: the lobby, Guido walking forward. At the right, the Beautiful UnCONCIERGE

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known Woman whom Guido noticed during the first lobby sequence is speaking on the telephone. Guido turns toward her at the sound of her voice. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N (in an emotional tone that conveys great sincerity): No, no, no . . . I'm not angry. Only one thing can make me angry. (The camera tracks back as Guido continues to walk forward.) Oh, but you know what I'm like. Guido stops again, turns to look at her. 250. c u : the Beautiful Unknown Woman. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N : No. No. (She looks up, tears starting to well in her eyes. She half turns her face away from camera.) I forgive him everything. 251. As in 249. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N : Everything. I forgive him everything. The music changes to something more peppy; pan follows Guido to the right. We see Mezzabotta playing the piano on a little stage; Gloria is seated on the edge. Guido stops for a moment. The arm of the Actress appears on the back of the bench she is sitting on, in the right foreground. ACTRESS (in French, first o f f , then in profile MCU as the camera continues to pan right): Good evening. (In Italian.) Can we talk a bit? (In French.) Sit here next to me for a moment. G U I D O (off): No, I'm sorry . . . I'm going to bed. I'm very tired . . . and I'm waiting for a phone call. The Actress turns toward the camera, in Guido's direction, and offers him a glass. ACTRESS (in French): Like some? G U I D O (off): No, thank you. I have a headache . . . ACTRESS (in Italian): Give me your hands. (Guido's hands appear in the frame. She holds them.) No. Sit down. (She rises, in c u . Pan follows her as she turns and walks around the bench.) I have a healing fluid in my left hand. (In French.) Yes . . . when I have a stomachache I apply it to myself. Take off your hat. 252. High angle MCU: Guido, resigned to his fate, takes off his hat. The hands and waist of the Actress appear behind him. She applies her hands to his forehead.

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253. MCU: the Actress. ACTRESS (in Italian)-. Is that better? At his silence, her smile dissolves in disappointment. 254. As in 252. Guido pulls away the left hand of the Actress and kisses her palm. G U I D O (out of politeness): Yes, perhaps. She disappears out of the frame at right. Pan left as he settles back on the bench and looks up in her direction. 255. MCU: Actress in profile, leaning on the bench. ACTRESS (in Italian): Why do you look at me like that? (With increasing agitation.) Oh, don't tell me that I'm beautiful. The way you say it sounds . . . 256. As in 254. ACTRESS (off): . . . like an insult. GUIDO: What's bothering you? 257. As in 255. Actress turns away from camera, sobbing. ACTRESS (in French): I don't know. (Pan follows as she walks left.) (In Italian.) I feel as if I've made a mess of everything . . . (She sits, then, turns in Guido's direction. In the background, Mezzabotta at the piano, Gloria at his feet.) . . . my life . . . my work. (Regaining a bit of her composure.) (In French.) But tell me . . . (In Italian.) . . . why do you find it so amusing to torture me? 258. MCU: Guido. GUIDO: Torture you! Oh, please! He smiles in the direction of the Actress's Agent. 259. MCU: the Actress's Agent, glass in hand. He burps. ACTRESS ( o f f , in Italian): Speak to me as if I were an old friend. I need . . . 260. Guido in MCU in foreground, Actress's Agent MS in background. ACTRESS ( o f f ) . . . to feel close to my director. (No longer listening to what she says but smiling pleasantly, Guido turns forward, looking past the Actress, in Gloria's direction.) Then . . . 261. MCU: Gloria, seated on the edge of the little stage, as before. Sucking on her pinky, looking in Guido's direction, she winks and smiles. 262. As in 260. ACTRESS ( o f f , in French): Did you see my last film? It was shot in Belgrade.

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263. l s : Gloria seated on stage, Mezzabotta playing the piano. A C T R E S S (off): M y character was a still attractive woman, marked by the injustices of time . . . a hysterical temperament. It was a real creation. Gloria gets up behind Mezzabotta, bops him on the head and poses with her leg against the wall. GLORIA: Play "Mystification." MEZZABOTTA: I don't know "Mystification." G L O R I A (bending over him, cajolingly): But yes . . . A C T R E S S (off, in Italian): A h , what a character! This woman . . . 264. MS: Guido putting his hands to the top of his head, as if to protect himself from what he hears. GUIDO: B u t . . .

(off, in French): . . . in whom people find protection (in Italian) and love. 265. Over shoulder of Actress's Agent, Gloria and Mezzabotta in background LS (he is again playing the 8V2 theme), Actress in mid-ground MS who sits down and looks in Guido's direction. A C T R E S S (in Italian): I am this character. I'm like her in life . . . in love. (She looks at the Actress's Agent.) And that's why I'm so alone. I've always understood and I've always forgiven everything in the man I love . . . in the men. A hotel clerk appears in the left of the frame. CLERK: Rome on the line, sir. G U I D O .(off): Yes, thank you. Guido appears in the frame as he rises, the camera tracking to the right and panning on him as he moves toward the telephone. The Actress turns in his direction, continuing to speak, anxious to keep his attention. ACTRESS: I'm very sensual. (In French.) Wicked, too! Guido looks at her while walking away. GUIDO: Yes, yes, you're getting very close. I'll be right back. 266. Track in to MS: Concierge holding receiver in his hand. G U I D O (walking into frame from right): Thank you. CONCIERGE: You're welcome. Pan/track follows Concierge as he crosses between Guido and the telephone and then walks left, through lobby toward elevator. G U I D O (speaking into the phone): Hello! V O I C E OF T E L E P H O N E O P E R A T O R : Rome's on the line. Go ahead. ACTRESS

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GUIDO (off): Hello, yes! VOICE OF ROSSELLA: Do you want Luisa?

GUIDO (off): Yes, please. VOICE OF ROSSELLA (playfully): You're feeling guilty, aren't you, you monster! This is Rossella. GUIDO (off): Oh, hi, Rossella. How are you? Did Luisa call me? VOICE OF ROSSELLA: Where were you out so late, you gypsy! Your rest cure . . . what an excuse! Here's Luisa. 267. mcu: the back of Guido's head, seen over a partition. GUIDO: Yes, so long. Thanks. He turns forward. VOICE OF LUISA: Guido, I called you twice. Where were you? GUIDO: I know. I'm sorry. I was in the production office. We're working. (With great sincerity.) How are you? VOICE OF LUISA: N o t b a d . GUIDO: E h ?

VOICE OF LUISA: IS the treatment doing you any good? GUIDO (hesitating): But . . .

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8»/2 VOICE OF LUISA: DO you feel it's helping you?

GUIDO: Maybe. I think so. But, you know, I really can't rest much. (Track in to c u ) . What are you doing? Are you having a good time? VOICE OF LUISA: The usual. Rossella, Tilde, and Enrico are here. 268. LS: the lobby, from Guido's POV. Gloria and Mezzabotta are walking slowly from left to right. VOICE OF LUISA: They're about to leave. But are you having a good time? Did you meet anyone? GUIDO: Can you imagine! It's a terrible bore. But on the other hand, you know, for my work, it's better this way. Gloria playfully and unintelligibly teases Mezzabotta. She puts her hands on his back and makes believe she is pushing him along. MEZZABOTTA (laughing and turning toward Guido): Good night, Guido. 269. As in 267. GUIDO (whispering, to Mezzabotta): Good night. VOICE OF LUISA: But you haven't met anyone you know? Are you still alone? GUIDO (slightly annoyed)'. Of course. VOICE OF LUISA ( s u s p i c i o u s l y ) : R e a l l y ?

GUIDO (suddenly, with great enthusiasm): Luisa . . . why don't you come pay me a visit? You can be here in no time! It's easy! VOICE OF ROSSELLA (in an aggressive, kidding tone): When are you going to begin this film, you bore? GUIDO: I don't know. I don't know. Put Luisa back on, please. VOICE OF LUISA (softening): So I should come? You want me to come? GUIDO: Yes, of course, if you'd like to. You might even come with someone. VOICE OF LUISA: But would you like it?

GUIDO: Of course I would. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked you, would I? VOICE OF T E L E P H O N E O P E R A T O R : F i n i s h e d , s i r ?

GUIDO: NO, thank you.

VOICE OF LUISA: When should I come? GUIDO: Whenever you want, Luisa. VOICE OF LUISA (laughing nervously): Watch o u t . . . I might really come.

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GUIDO: But darling, I wouldn't have asked you if I hadn't wanted to. I'd like it! So long . . . and good night. VOICE OF ROSSELLA: SO long, you madman, good night. GUIDO: SO long.

VOICE OF LUISA (serious): Good night, Guido. Guido, after a slight pause, turns and hangs up the phone. 270. LS: Guido walking forward, lost in thought. Clocks begin to chime. The disparate elements of the lobby are particularly apparent: a rocking chair, a mask hanging on a statue, temporary boards attached to poles. ACTRESS ( o f f , in French) Monsieur Guido, my agent thought . . . GUIDO (with a gesture of exasperation): Just a moment, Madame. 271. LS: the lobby, the Actress and Agent in the background. GUIDO (off): I'm going up to the office to see Agostini precisely because . . . ACTRESS (angrily, in French): Shit! She turns to Agent, picks up her drink and sits. GUIDO ( o f f ) . . . and in any case, it's in my best interest. Tomorrow morning we'll talk about everything. (In French.) All right? 272. As in 270. Guido walking forward, left. 273. Track forward and tilt up, from Guido's PO v, showing grand staircase and the large clock hanging above. It still reads 2:00. AGOSTINI (off): Giorgio Tovorali . . ,37 Hotel Room/Production Office, night 274. LS: the room. Bruno Agostini, the director of production, is seated on a table at the left, his back to the camera. The Accountant is typing from his dictation at a small table on the right. Mock-ups of sets are seen in the center. Photographs are hanging on the walls. Track forward slowly from Guido's POV. AGOSTINI: . . . for the central structure, 10,000. (The Accountant stops typing and stands when he notices Guido.) . . . planks for the steps, 260 . . . ACCOUNTANT: Good evening. (He sits.) AGOSTINI (turning to Guido): Do you need something? 275. MCU: Guido. GUIDO: NO, thank you. Go on with your work. (Pan follows as he walks forward, looking to the right and left. Agostini's voice can be heard in the

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background reciting names and figures. Guido speaks with some degree of irony.) What a wonderful production team! 276. Track back from Wardrobe Mistress who looks up from her sewing and smiles at Guido. W A R D R O B E MISTRESS (in a whisper): Hi. G U I D O ( o f f , pleasantly surprised to see her): Oh, hi, Eleonora! The Wardrobe Mistress puts a lace mantle on a dressmaker's dummy. A G O S T I N I (off): . . . 2,350. Lanieri Ondulave. Pan right over model of launching pad. 277. MS: a table upon which rest a black bust (something like a death's head) and a photograph. A G O S T I N I (off): Listen, Boss, as long as you're here . . . (Rapid track toward photograph. Agostini picks it up. Now he is partially in the frame.) I called the German woman at the pensione, but she's not there any more. They can't find her. Track follows Agostini as he walks forward, keeping the photograph in cu .We now see it is of a woman standing between the legs of an upright elephant. G U I D O (off): You just have to find her. A G O S T I N I : But she's in Paris with the circus. G U I D O ( o f f , distracted): Oh, really? 278. Pan left over photographs of women and masks in cu, continues on Guido walking left, scratching head in MS, then over another panel hung with photographs, principally of people's eyes. 219. Agostini walking forward in MCU, left foreground, Wardrobe Mistress, right background. A G O S T I N I : What should I do about this one, then? C E S A R I N O (off): What an honor, Boss! 280. LS: Cesarino in his underwear, in a doorway. He playfully covers himself with a drape. C E S A R I N O (smiling broadly): But you've caught me . . . (in French) . . . undressed! (He walks forward into MCU.) Listen, Guido, about that farm, there was that. . . (He looks around, then turns to a photograph of a country scene on the wall.) Oh, here it is. But where is this place? (Showing Guido the back of the photo.) There's not even an address . . . nothing. Guido's left shoulder appears cu in the right of the frame. G U I D O : It's part of the Prince's estate.

8Vi 95 The sound of women laughing. But who's that? C E S A R I N O : My "nieces." Eva and Dina. The photograph is put aside and we see a bed. Dina, a very young woman, sits up in MS, and extends her hand to Guido. She is clearly not Cesarino's niece. D I N A : Good evening. G U I D O (off): Good evening. Laughing, Dina turns to Eva who is hiding beneath the sheet. Dina tries to pull the sheet away. D I N A : Come on, get out from under there, you idiot. Maybe he'll give you a little part. Finally Eva, also a very young woman, appears, disheveled, and extends her hand to Guido. GUIDO:

DINA: A h !

281. MCU: Guido. EVA (off): Pleased to meet you. G U I D O : The pleasure is mine. Where are you from? 282. As in 280. EVA (smiling idiotically): From Trieste. 283. MCU: Cesarino. C E S A R I N O : Hurray for Italy! Pan right and tilt down as he sits on the edge of the bed, amidst much hilarity. 284. As in 282. G U I D O : You've got yourselves well set up here, haven't you? Pan follows as he turns, paying scant attention to the cavorting on the bed, and walks toward window, in MS. EVA (off): Tell him about my girl cousin. C E S A R I N O (off): Guido, this one has a cousin who's six feet tall. 285. LS: Cesarino, left, sitting on edge of bed, Dina and Eva giggling. Large photograph of a spaceship model hangs over the bed. C E S A R I N O : Take a look. Maybe we can use her in the film. (He turns to Dina.) This one . . . this imp . . . Dina stands on bed, provocatively lifting her nightgown. D I N A : That's right, sir. She's six feet tall, like me standing on the bed. 286. As in 284. Pan follows Guido as he turns back and walks right, in MCU. C E S A R I N O (off): Do you see?

96 8V* DINA (off): She was twice elected Miss Nylon Stockings. CONOCCHIA (off): Is Guido in there with you? I'll be right there. GUIDO: Sleep, sleep, Conocchia. I'll see you tomorrow. 287. MS: Dina standing on bed. DINA (teasingly): May I ask you a question? GUIDO (off): Go ahead. DINA: My friend here says . . . (Tilt down as Dina jumps on Eva. Eva tries to make Dina stop talking.) . . . she says you can't make a love story. EVA (to Dina): Shut up! 288. As in 286. GUIDO: She's right. Pan follows Guido in MCU as he walks away to right. AGOSTINI (in this shot, first o f f , then in frame): Leather, 360 . . . Tubes, 200 from 60 to 20,000; 375 meters of plastic tubing . . . Cesarino appears in frame and puts his arm on Guido's shoulder. CESARINO: Should I wake you tomorrow morning, Guido? GUIDO: No, thanks.

As Guido and Cesarino walk away from camera we see, left, the Accountant from behind, at his typewriter, Agostini at right. CESARINO (looking back toward the girls): Pipe down! (Guido hands Agostini a plaster model of a saint's foot.38 Cesarino stops, stands at attention and salutes while Guido continues toward the door.) Our commander will never catch us unprepared! This production crew never sleeps! He does a little time step. The door opens; Conocchia appears in his dressing gown. CONOCCHIA (to Guido): I have a terrible headache. (He gestures impatiently to Cesarino.) Cut it out!39 The Corridor, outside the Production Office, night 289. MCU: Guido coming through the doorway. He looks in Conocchia's direction, with great gentleness. CONOCCHIA (off): They're always fooling around, but they're good guys. 290. Pan right, MCU: the back of Conocchia's head. CONOCCHIA: Do you need anything, Guido? (Terribly anxious to please, he turns toward Guido.) Have you had any ideas? Do you have something to tell me?

8'/2 97 291. Ai in 289. GUIDO (smiling in friendship): No, no, thanks, Conocchia. I don't need anything. Go back to sleep. Good night. CONOCCHIA (off): Anything at all. GUIDO (impatiently): No, thank you. Good night. 292. As in 290. CONOCCHIA (angrily): Like hell, good night! (Putting his hands on the back of his head in desperation, he walks away to the left. Pan shows the length of the corridor. In the background, a full-length mirror reflects the action.) How can I sleep here? Who could sleep here? GUIDO (his back to the camera, in MCU): Conocchia, calm down. CONOCCHIA (turning, and raising his arm in anger, in LS): What? I've been in this business for thirty years, and I've made films that none of you could even conceive of. And I've never been afraid of . . . 293. MCU: Guido, annoyed. CONOCCHIA ( o f f ) : . . . anything! GUIDO: Stop shouting, you old fool! CONOCCHIA ( o f f ) : Ah . . .

294. As in 292. CONOCCHIA: . . . you said the word. (Slightpan left as he crosses the corridor.) "Old." (He leans his arm and forehead against the wall and speaks in a pathetic tone.) Finally . . . 295. As in 293. CONOCCHIA ( o f f ) : . . . it's come out. (Cesarino and Agostini appear in the doorway, right.) Conocchia is an old man! GUIDO (turning angrily to Cesarino and Agostini): What do you want? We don't need anything. Scram. They exit. CONOCCHIA (off): We don't need Conocchia any more. You keep me in the dark about everything all the time. I never know what I should do . . . when I can talk, when I should keep quiet. (Track back as Guido turns, and walks away with exaggerated movements of stealth, trying to escape Conocchia's self-pitying tone and accusations.) I don't want to bug you. I don't want to know what the film's about. You want to keep it a secret, so keep it a secret! Guido stop and turns, at the end of his patience, in LS. GUIDO: Please, Conocchia, go to bed.

98 SVz He leans against the wall and slides down into a squatting position. C O N O C C H I A (off): But if I'm supposed to help you, as I always have . . . and you were so satisfied . . . 296. ls: Conocchia in corridor. C O N O C C H I A {pleading): . . . you've got to tell me something! Say, "Conocchia . . . the French woman . . . 297. As in 295. Guido nods wearily at each of Conocchia's remarks. C O N O C C H I A (off): . . . the spaceship should be like this or that." Say, "Conocchia, go screw yourself, " but say something. 298. As in 296. Conocchia rests against the right wall, blows his nose and wipes tears from his eyes. CONOCCHIA: HOW you've changed, Guido, my friend! 299. Guido looks up, MCU. G U I D O (with a trace of guilt): Don't go on like that. Now you're crying. Come on. 300. MCU: Conocchia in profile, wiping his eyes with his handkerchief. G U I D O ( o f f , gently): Aren't you ashamed of yourself? C O N O C C H I A (turning in Guido's direction): No. I'm leaving tomorrow. (Pan left as he crosses the corridor.) I'm leaving the film. I don't want to be a hindrance to you anymore. You need to have young people around. (Entering his room, he waves his finger in admonition.) But watch out, you're not . . . 301. As in 299. Guido's head is bent. C O N O C C H I A (off): . . . the man you once were, either. G U I D O : Conocchia . . . He looks up, sighs, then pensively twirls a lock of his hair. 302. LS: the corridor, Guido squatting mid-distance, the mirror in the background. Clocks chime. Guido stands and enters his room.40 Guido's Hotel Room, night 303. LS: Guido entering dark room. The unnatural silence, characteristic of Guido's other fantasies and dreams, is broken only by his footsteps and the sound of his voice. G U I D O (to himself): A crisis of (in English) inspiration? (In Italian.) And suppose it's not only temporary, my little man? (He walks forward.) What if it's the final collapse of a big fat liar who has neither flair nor talent? Sgulp! He snaps his suspenders.

8V4 99 304. MS: the figure of Claudia emerges from the darkness. Pan follows her left, through the deep shadows of the room. In her white uniform, she proceeds rapidly, with the dancelike movement that recalls her first appearance in the film at the spa. She goes to Guido's bed, turns down the sheet and smooths it lovingly with her hand. She picks up Guido's slippers, walks to the foot of the bed and kneeling, places them there. We now see that she is barefoot. 305. MCU: Guido, his coat hanging over his shoulder. He puts his hat crookedly on his head and turns. G U I D O (speaking to himself, about Claudia): What if you were the symbol of purity . . . of spontaneity. (He hangs up his hat and coat, turns away from the camera and walks toward the brilliantly lit bathroom.) But what the hell does it mean to be really sincere? Did you hear what the Falcaccio said?41 (Mimicking Daumier's French accent.) "It's about time you gave up symbols, the lure of purity, innocence, escape." (The camera has tracked back. Now in LS, Guido sits on a chair and pours something on his head from a small bottle.) Well, what do you want? 306. High angle MS: Claudia, in profile, in deep shadow. 307. As in 305. Camera is closer to Guido. He leans pensively on the sink. 308. MCU: Claudia in profile, now bare-armed and bare-shouldered. She puts a white scarf over her hair, then turns provocatively toward the camera. 309. LS: the room. The sound of Guido's footsteps. G U I D O (off): Yes, it could work . . . 310. MS: Guido walking toward bed. GUIDO: . . . like that. (He walks into MCU, looks down at bed, lost in thought.) In the village there's a picture gallery. (Interior monologue.) And you could be the custodian's daughter. 311. MS: the surface of bed, covered with photographs of women. Tilt up toward chair, desk, and window, its curtains gently billowing. Claudia, in her slip, can barely be perceived standing next to the window. G U I D O (off): You've grown up amidst images of ancient beauty. Claudia sits at the desk and leafs through the script lying on it. Still in LS, she turns toward the camera, bends forward, with her arms between her legs, and laughs heartily. Her gestures here are slightly vulgar, in marked contrast to the exaggerated grace of her previous movements. 312. cu: Guido, in profile, his chin resting on the foot of the bed. GUIDO: You're right.

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He places his head on the bed and somersaults slowly onto the photographs. 313. cu: Claudia's white veil. Her arms and body appear as she walks right and drapes the veil over a lamp. Tilt up to her face, in MCU. Her hair is now worn loose, slightly disheveled. She looks down in Guido's direction. Tilt down as she kneels next to bed and bends over to kiss the palm of Guido's hand. She gently folds his arm across his chest, then bends again to kiss his face. 314. MS: Claudia from behind, the straps of her slip drawn down. She is sitting on the edge of the bed. CLAUDIA: I've come, never to leave again. She inches to the left. 315. MCU: Claudia in bed, a provocative expression on her face. She caresses the sheet covering her neck. CLAUDIA: I want to make order. I want to clean. I want to make order.

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(The camera pulls into an ECU of Claudia's neck.) I want to cl . . . Telephone rings. 316. LS: the room, desk in foreground, chair and unoccupied bed mid-ground, Guido lying on other bed, left background. The sound of the ringing is repeated. 317. c u : Guido's feet resting on pillow, photograph of a young woman between them. Guido shifts his legs to the floor, sighs, and sits up to answer the phone. We see him from behind, MS. The photograph of the young woman figures prominently in the lower right corner of the frame. G U I D O : Yes? V O I C E O F M A L E T E L E P H O N E O P E R A T O R : There's a call for you from the Hotel della Ferrovia. G U I D O : Oh, yes. Put it through. Guido picks up phone and leans back on bed, his head out offrame, his feet back on the pillow. G U I D O (off): Hello? (He makes a clicking sound.) Who is it? (More clicking sounds, then with great impatience.) Hello, who is it? He shakes his legs in anger. V O I C E OF C A R L A (weakly, pathetically)-. Guido, I don't feel well at all. The mineral water made me sick. I have a fever. Come here. Come here right away. G U I D O (off): At this time of night? I can't. I can't now. I'll come tomorrow. 42 V O I C E OF C A R L A (morepathetic): Come. Carta's Hotel Room, day 318. MS: the Hotel-keeper walking in with a bowl of ice in her hand. H O T E L - K E E P E R : Poor thing! If you only knew how she called for you. Here's the ice. She hands the bowl to Guido, right. Pan follows Guido as he goes to Carlo's bed. The Waitress is standing over her. 43 W A I T R E S S : But she's burning with fever. It must be at least 40. 319. Guido moves her out of the frame, to the left. GUIDO: Yes, yes.

He leans over Carla and places his hand on her forehead. W A I T R E S S (off): Should I bring her the peas? Puzzled, Guido looks in her direction.

102 8>/2 GUIDO: The peas?

(off): Because she asked for peas when she was delirious. But it's a good sign! G U I D O (pan following as he walks left, toward the door, gesturing negatively)'. No, thank you, forget the peas. You can go. H O T E L - K E E P E R (off): If you need anything, just call. HOTEL-KEEPER

GUIDO: Yes. Thank you.

He closes the door; pan right as he goes to the foot of the bed. Carla is breathing heavily. An intermittent train whistle punctuates the rest of the scene. 320. MCU: Carta's back, shoulder and head. G U I D O (off): Carla! (She turns her face into c u , still breathing heavily, covered with perspiration, her hair disheveled.) Have you had other sudden high fevers like this? (He pauses.) Carla! CARLA (nodding her head affirmatively, then moving it back and forth in agitation): Yes. Anything at all makes me shoot up to 39 or 40. Then it goes away. My husband is used to me. It doesn't frighten him. Carla rises in MCU. G U I D O (off): No, lie down. Don't get up. Don't uncover yourself. CARLA: I ' m hot. I ' m thirsty.

Guido crosses in front of her and hands her a glass. (off): Wait. I'll give it to you. Here! (She drinks deeply from the glass he still holds in his hand.) Drink slowly or you'll fill yourself up too quickly! CARLA (still breathing heavily): Is it day or night? G U I D O (bending down to comfort her): But what are you talking about? Night? It's four in the afternoon. Listen, let's wait until the doctor comes to hear what he has to say. I don't think it would be a bad idea to send your husband a telegram. (Carla becomes more agitated.) We can't take the full responsibility, can we? (Carla continues to thrash about, saying "No" repeatedly.) But yes. He ought to be told. Carla throws the pillow to the right. Pan on her as she lies down, her head at the foot of the bed, her back to the camera. CARLA: I don't want everything to end. If he comes he'll take me away. I GUIDO

bought so many pretty dresses! ( o f f , angry): But why did you go and drink all that water? 321. MS: Guido is bending over the sink, his back to the camera. GUIDO

8>/2 103 GUIDO: It's for sick people. Are you sick? (He turns and walks forward with a wet handkerchief in his hand.) When it comes to eating or drinking, you're always ready. C A R L A ( o f f , then in the frame as pan follows Guido who sits on bed next to her): What am I supposed to do? You leave me alone all the time. (He mops her brow with the handkerchief. She turns on her back as he continues to wipe her face.) Two years ago I made my will. Really, you know, you don't die any sooner just because you make a will. (Guido wipes her with a towel.) Because since I have a brother and a sister, I wanted the apartment to go to my husband. The apartment belongs to me. Poor man, how would he manage without it? Even if he married again. Ah, the sheet! She turns her face to the pillow again. 322. cu: Carlo's face on the pillow. C A R L A (in a calmer voice): Guido . . . listen . . . tell me the truth. 323. MS: Carla in previous position, Guido's knee at the left offrame. She extends her arm and caresses his leg. CARLA: The truth, now. Why do you stay with me? 324. MS: Guido lying back on Carta's bed, looking upward, his hands clasped over his head. 44 G U I D O (interior monologue): What can I say to the Cardinal tomorrow? The Grounds of the Spa, day 325. Slow LS tracks forward through a eucalyptus grove. People can be seen walking in the distance. A little girl is running, other children are playing. C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y (off): Yes, I did look at the short synopsis that your producer sent for our consideration. Very interesting. But in terms of verisimilitude, a meeting between the hero of your film and a prince of the Church could not take place . . . 326. Tracking, from Guido's POV, MCU: Cardinal's Secretary walking, speaking to Guido. C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y : . . . in a mud bath, as you describe it. I'm sorry, but it is quite impossible. A high prelate . . . 327. MCU: track following the back of Guido's head, as he walks forward. He puts on his hat, then takes it o f f . C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y (off): . . . would have a private compartment.

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GUIDO: That's true. But I was trying to create a context for an unconventional encounter. 328. LS: track as Prelate walks forward into MCU, fanning himself with his hat. C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y ( o f f ) : In what way? G U I D O (off): My hero had a Catholic education and . . . The Prelate stops and smiles in Guido's direction. P R E L A T E : Good day. The Cardinal's Secretary appears in the left of the frame. C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y : Monsignor, permit me to introduce Mr. Guido Anselmi. 329. MCU: Guido. GUIDO: I'm very pleased to meet you. P R E L A T E (off): You must be the director. G U I D O (smiles and continues to walk forward): Yes. 330. MCU: track follows Prelate walking forward while talking to Guido who is out offrame at right. In most of shots 330-337 the Prelate and the Cardinal's Secretary are seen predominantly from behind, in profile, from Guido's POV. P R E L A T E : IS this a film with a religious subject? The Cardinal's Secretary crosses out of the frame, left to right behind the Prelate. G U I D O (off): In a way. I was just explaining that the hero of my story . . . 331. MCU: track follows Guido walking forward in right foreground, the Cardinal's Secretary walking forward in left background. GUIDO: . . . had a Catholic education—like the rest of us, for that matter—that creates certain complexes, certain needs that he can't repress any more. A prince of the Church seems to him the guardian of a truth that he can no longer accept although it still . . . 332. MCU: track follows Prelate walking forward. G U I D O (off): . . . fascinates him. So he seeks some contact, some help, maybe even a revelation. P R E L A T E : (taking off his glasses): Saul in Damascus, isn't that so? 333. MCU: track follows Cardinal's Secretary walking forward. C A R D I N A L ' S S E C R E T A R Y : Something we all hope for. He turns, smiles painfully, and emits a slight laugh.

SVi 105 (off): I realize that I'm not being very specific, that all this is a little clumsy. P R E L A T E (off): No, no, no. 334. As in 332. P R E L A T E (taking off his hat and then putting it on again): That's not the point. It's that the cinema, I believe, does not lend itself very well to certain topics. You mix . . . 335. As in 335. The Cardinal's Secretary smiles in agreement. P R E L A T E (off): . . . sacred love and profane love with too much nonchalance. 336. Track forward from Guido's POV, LS: the terrace, bounded by the semicircular high walls and the opening into the woods. The Cardinal is helped to his seat in the center. He blesses one nun, who walks off with another nun to the right. A doctor and a prelate walk off to the left. P R E L A T E (off): Isn't that so? G U I D O (off): That depends. Perhaps. P R E L A T E (off): You people have a great responsibility. You can educate or . . . 337. MCU, in profile, tracking Prelate walking. PRELATE: . . . corrupt millions of souls. In any case, His Eminence will be happy to listen to you. You will be able to ask him a few questions. 338. Track in from LS to MS: Cardinal, seated, apparently slumbering, his cane and his newspaper on his lap. Left, a table with a glass of water and other newspapers. The sound of water. PRELATE (off): Excuse me, Your Eminence. I would like to introduce the director . . . The Cardinal looks up. 339. LS, Cardinal at right, Guido kneeling to kiss his ring; Cardinal's Secretary and Prelate at left, doctor and other prelate walking left to right. C A R D I N A L (in a very feeble voice): Please sit down. G U I D O (in the hushed, respectful tone he uses throughout the interview): Thank you. 340. MCU: Guido. GUIDO: Please excuse this intrusion, Your Eminence. I wouldn't have presumed upon you but my producer, beset by doubts, perhaps . . . 341. MCU: Cardinal, his head bowed. G U I D O (off): . . . justified doubts, insisted that . . . GUIDO

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CARDINAL

(looking up at Guido): Are you married?

342. As in 340. G U I D O : Yes. CARDINAL

( o f f ) : Do you have children?

GUIDO: Yes . . . I mean, no.

The sound of a bird calling. This persists and is answered by the sound of other birds until the end of the scene. C A R D I N A L ( o f f ) : How old are you? GUIDO: Forty-three.

343. l s : Guido and Cardinal. Cardinal points up, left, in the bird's direction. C A R D I N A L : DO you hear this singer? GUIDO: Excuse me? C A R D I N A L : DO

you know what it is called?

G U I D O : NO. CARDINAL:

It's called "Diomedeo." According to legend, when

8>/2 107 Diomedes died all these little birds came together and sang a funeral chorus for him, accompanying him right to his grave. Guido nods. 344. As in 341. Cardinal appears more alert at this moment than at any other point of the scene. C A R D I N A L : Listen. It sounds like a sob. 345. As in 342. Guido, intent, his chin resting on his hand, looks up as if to see the birds. He smiles wanly. 346. MCU: doctor and other prelate, in profile, looking up. In background, LS, a woman is making her way down the hill. 347. LS: the group, looking up, except for Guido in center, who looks uneasily at the others. In the background, the woman comes nearer. 348. c u : Cardinal looking up. 349. MCU: Guido looking down, dejectedly, then in the Cardinal's direction, then over his shoulder, toward the woods. We hear the introduction to the "Ricordo d'infanzia" theme music. 350. LS: the heavyset woman coming down a little hill, a basket on her arm. She has raised her skirt to facilitate her descent. Her legs come into MS; tilt up briefly catches her smile. 351. MCU: Guido adjusts his glasses to see her better. He then lowers his eyes and begins to smile at his memory. The sound of a whistle.45 The Schoolyard, day.46 In shots 352-391 Guido is a schoolboy. 352. ECU: the back of the neck of a young priest. He turns into profile and we see the whistle between his lips. In the background, the wall of the school, a priest running from right to left. Camera pans on him, kicking a soccer ball, followed by a group of boys. We see more high walls surrounding the courtyard, and as the pan continues, more children playing with the ball in the foreground. A wall in the distance is traversed by a strange catwalk upon which are perched five poor boys from the town, waving. BOYS: Guido, Guido, we're going to see Saraghina.47 353. In the foreground, in MS, the back of Guido. He is wearing a cap and a cloak. In the background, the wall and catwalk with five boys gesturing to Guido. BOYS: Guido, Guido, we're going to see Saraghina. 354. From between the head and upraised arm of the statue of a church prel-

108 8Vi ate, extreme high angle shot of Guido standing in the schoolyard, looking around. Guido casts a long shadow. B O Y S (off): Guido, Guido . . . Pan follows Guido he runs right. G U I D O : I'm coming right away! 355. LS pan follows Guido and the poor boys as they run off,jdown the street. The Beach, day48 356. ls: The boys run left along the beach in a line. The sea is in the background. The music is replaced by the sound of the waves. Pan left as they run past a wall, then stop. BOY (cupping his hands to call into the distance): Saraghina . . . Saraghina . . . 357. ms: the exterior of the bunker in which Saraghina lives. As the camera pans left, her head can be seen indistinctly through the opening. BOY (off): Saraghina . . . Saraghina . . . Saraghina emerges from the entry to the bunker, her head down; pan right as she makes her way up the little embankment. We are now able to make out her monumental body, amply revealed by her scanty dress, but her face is almost completely obscured by her abundant, disheveled black hair. When she reaches the top of the embankment she pauses, in MS, stretches her body by placing her hands on her hips. Her back is to the camera. Beyond her, mid-distance, a boy hops. BOY: Saraghina . . . the rumba . . . the rumba. S A R A G H I N A (walking toward the boy): Come here. The boy approaches, drops some coins in her hand and runs o f f , right. We hear the introduction to her rumba. Now in LS, she looks to the left, pauses, drops the coins in her bodice, then walks to the right, out of the frame. 358. LS: the wall, right; boys, center and left, looking left. They are obliterated by an ECU of Saraghina'S hand and backside. She smooths the material on her rump, as if preparing for her dance, then turns. Camera tilts up and we finally see her face, enormous, her eyes darkly circled, her hair flying in the wind, her lips in a sneer. She looks left and right, then turns away from the camera. Camera tilts down to her backside and legs as she runs forward a few steps. She stops, turns in profile, her body tense. We see her from her calf to her elbow.

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359. Low angle MCU: Saraghina. With a dramatic gesture, she pulls her dress off her shoulders and starts to move her body seductively in time to the music. 360. l s : the boys looking expectantly in Saraghina's direction; three seated on the ground, Guido standing center, two others standing right. 361. MCU: Saraghina. She is now smiling lasciviously, gyrating her upper torso. She appears to be enjoying her dance. Her expression of satisfaction, and the exaggeratedly seductive movements of her eyes and mouth, will be maintained throughout her dance. 362. ECU: her lower torso gyrating. Tilt up to her face, in MCU. 363. ECU: Saraghina'sface. 364. Track in to boys clapping in enthusiasm and jumping up and down. 365. Low angle MCU: Saraghina, from slightly off center. Track back shows her arms outstretched, then her whole body in l s as she runs backward, dancing. Pan follows as she moves to right, then back to left. She kicks her right leg high, turns her back to the camera, wiggles her backside,

no m raises her skirt slightly, continuing her dance with her back to the camera while repeating these movements. Track in as she moves to the wall and turns to the camera, then away. She rubs her body up and down the wall, caressing it. 366. LS: the boys applauding, laughing, jumping up and down as they look in Saraghina's direction. One of the boys repeatedly slaps himself in the face in joy, in time to the music. 367. ecu: Saraghina's face, her arms raised next to it. She turns; tilt down to the back of her black dress. As she exits right, we see the sea between the wall and a fence of reeds. 368. LS: the wall, boys left. Saraghina dances right to left. She stops in front ofGuido and pulls him into the dance. 369. mcu: Guido and Saraghina dancing. He is trying to hold her arms. She picks him up. 370. LS: two priests approaching. 371. LS: Guido running away, down beach. He is followed by a priest. Guido heads right, toward the sea, then turns back, the priest in pursuit. Camera pans right as Guido collides with the other priest, knocking him down. The pursuing priest falls on top of them. The second part of this shot uses speeded-up motion, recalling the way silent comedies are projected by contemporary, fixed-speed cameras. The two priest rise and drag Guido forward between them. The rumba has been replaced by the sound of the waves.49 Corridor and School Principal's Office, day 372. LS: priest holding Guido by the ear while pulling him down a staircase. The sound of a bell ringing. Pan left over a series of austere portraits of priests, in ever-increasing cu. Camera rests on face of young priest, posing as in the portraits. He looks right, disapprovingly, then motions left with his head. 373. LS: track shows Guido walking forward, between two priests, along a wall lined with two series of portraits. They stop, bow slightly. The priests turn and walk back; Guido removes his cap and stands at attention. 374. LS: four priests (played by women) seated in large room, in front of a bare wall. Camera pans right over desk to MCU of the principal of the school (also played by a woman), writing with a large quill. Zoom into cu as he turns and begins to speak.50 P R I N C I P A L : Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame . . .

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375. Zoom into CU of first priest. The priests and the principal speak simultaneously during this shot, continuing to repeat what they initially say, o f f , as the camera pans right from one to the next. P R I N C I P A L (off): . . . on you! F I R S T P R I E S T : It's a mortal sin. It's a mortal sin. Pan to second priest, his eyes cast down, shaking his head. S E C O N D P R I E S T : I cannot believe it. It's not possible. I cannot believe it. It's not possible. Pan to priest sitting further away, in LS; another priest standing next to him steps forward and points. S T A N D I N G P R I E S T : Look a t . . . 376. LS: Guido standing, his eyes cast down. S T A N D I N G P R I E S T (off): . . . your mother. Look at her. G U I D O (turning right): Mother! Pan as he runs right. M O T H E R (off): Stop! Guido stops short at left. Mother is at right, a handkerchief in her right

112 8^2 hand. On the wall behind them hangs an enormous portrait of a young man.5' M O T H E R (gesticulating melodramatically, and in a tone of exaggerated despair): Oh heavens, what a disgrace! (Slight pan to right as she sits, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. Track in to Mother in MCU.) What a disgrace . . . what a terrible blow! She cries and sighs. 377. LS: the whole room and corridor. Guido walks backward away from his Mother, right, then faces the principal's desk, genuflects, turns and walks into background, down the portrait-lined corridor, toward the priests who accompanied him; two of the priests sitting in the foreground, their backs to the camera, stand, wave their arms in indignation, and walk toward him. The bell begins ringing again. M O T H E R (off): Oh, what a disgrace! 378. ECU: the Mother, dabbing one eye, then the other, with her handkerchief. The eye that is not being dabbed looks accusing. She sobs deeply. Her rather dry eyes and her hard expression are, however, discordant with her audible suffering.52 The Schoolroom, day 379. LS, pan right. On left and right, two series of desks and benches. A boy runs from left to right, hits another boy in the head with his book, then runs back again. The others boys are shouting in derision and banging their books on their desks. Pan right continues to show Guido walking forward, wearing a tall dunce cap. A priest is walking next to him. Then pan left follows him as he passes in front of his classmates, in MS. As he walks away from camera we see a sign bearing the word "Shame" pinned to his back. Pan continues left showing two more series of desks with schoolboys. Priest stops in left foreground, his back to the camera. Guido stands mid-ground, facing left." The Refectory, day 380. ECU: Young Priest's hands cupped to catch kernels of corn being poured from a plate. P R I E S T R E A D I N G {off): But, above all, the very pious Luigi abhorred, throughout his whole life . . . (Slow track right as the Young Priest with the corn kernels walks left, away from the camera. On the left, the boys seated behind a long table; the priests are seated behind a table at the rear of the frame. Guido is standing, motionless, near the point at which the two tables meet, in LS.) . . . and in all the places in which

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he lived, speaking or coming into contact with women, . . . (Ai the Young Priest with the corn approaches Guido, track continues right, and the desk and the back of the priest who is reading come into view. We can now see the latter's long beard.). . . whose presence he fled to such a degree that whosoever saw him believed that he had a natural antipathy for them. The Young Priest places the corn kernels on the floor in front of Guido who tries to kneel down, first from one leg, then the other, but cannot bring himself to complete the movement. 381. MCU, in profile, of the Young Priest. Y O U N G PRIEST: Get down! PRIEST R E A D I N G (off): Not even with the Marquise, his sister . . . Zoom in to ECU of Young Priest. Y O U N G PRIEST (shouting): Get down! 382. LS: Guido, his back to camera, the two tables meeting behind him, the boys and the priests eating. Young Priest slaps him hard on the head; Guido kneels on the corn; Young Priest exits left, his hands piously joined. PRIEST R E A D I N G (off): . . . did he like to engage in private conversation. . . . whence, if it happened that he was speaking with her . . ,54 Chapel in School, day 383. Bells are faintly ringing. In the foreground, the shroud-covered legs of a mummified saint; on the wall, in the background, Guido's shadow. (Guido, himself, is not seen in this shot.) His hands come up to his face. Pan follows as he runs right; then track in to MCU of mummy's face.55 Church in School, day 384. The sound of bells continues, joined by sound offootsteps. Track in, LS to MS of confessional. 385. ECU: a hand emerging to close curtain of confessional. Pan right on the dark curtain, then sound of a panel being moved. We see the sunburst pattern of the perforated speaking panel of the confessional. P R I N C I P A L (off): But don't you know that Saraghina is the devil? 386. cu: the Principal, in deep shadow. GUIDO: (off): I didn't know! I really didn't know! The Principal sighs deeply. 387. As in 385, c u : the speaking panel. Another panel is closed behind it, shutting off the light.

114 SYi 388. LS: Church, a pulpit in the right foreground, the Principal and Guido emerging, respectively, from the center and left side of the confessional, mid-ground; another confessional left background. Music: "Ricordo d'infanzia." Slight pan left as Guido walks forward, crying into his handkerchief, and the Principal walks to the background. Guido stops and kneels. We now see votive candles in the left foreground. 389. MCU: a statue of the Virgin. Dissolve to next shot.56 The Beach, day 390. LS: Saraghina's bunker in the foreground, the sea in the background. Guido, on left, looks inside. Pan as he runs to the right and looks in from a different angle. We hear Saraghina humming the "Ricordo d'infanzia" theme. Guido turns and pan follows as he continues right toward the wall. He kneels, his back to the camera, and waves his cap at Saraghina sitting on a chair, right background. 391. Brief track LS to MS: Saraghina, first smiling sweetly at Guido, then looking away toward the sea. SARAGHINA (to Guido): Hi. She continues humming,57 The Dining Room, Spa Hotel, day 392. The sound of Saraghina's humming ends just after the beginning of this shot. Camera tracks back from Cardinal and his retinue sitting down to breakfast, in LS, toDaumier, in MCU, drinking his coffee, looking offscreen right, in Guido's direction. The Cardinal's table remains in softfocus, in the background, during this shot. DAUMIER (strongly expressing his disapproval of Guido through his voice and his gestures throughout this scene): And what does it mean? (He pauses. We hear a piano.) It's a character from your childhood memories. (He wipes his mouth.) It has nothing to do with a true critical consciousness. No . . . if you really want to engage in a polemic about Catholic consciousness in Italy . . . well, my friend . . . (We see a waiter at the Cardinal's table.) . . . in this case, believe me, what you would need above all is a higher degree of culture, as well as, of course, inexorable logic and clarity. You'll forgive me for saying so, but your naiveté is a serious drawback. 393. MCU: Guido, listening impassively. DAUMIER (off): Your little memories, bathed in nostalgia, your inoffen-

8»/2 115 sive and fundamentally sentimental evocations . . . (Guido looks in the direction of the Cardinal.) . . . are the expressions of an accomplice. 394. In foreground, MS: the back of a prelate; in mid-ground, Cardinal, looking to his right; waiter walking off in background. C A R D I N A L : "But what?" the priest exclaimed. "With a communist?" He didn't say, "A man." Do you understand? The men in his party laugh. 395. cu: Daumier, who stands. DAUMIER: The Catholic consciousness! ( M C U , tracking as he walks forward, speaking to Guido, off-screen right.) Think of what Suetonius meant at the time of the Caesars! No . . . your initial intention is to denounce . . . (A woman begins to sing, off.) . . . and you end up supporting it, just like an accomplice. (Over Daumier's shoulder we see, in soft focus, a female pianist, and an elderly, portly woman singing Russian words to Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2.) But you see . . . what confusion, what ambiguity . . . He exits left and we clearly, briefly see the singer.5" The Thermal Baths of the Spa, day39 396. LS: a group of four white-clad musicians playing "Carlotta's Galop." They are back-lit, therefore in shadow. A woman, draped in a sheet, waving a fan, rises into the foreground of the frame, in MCU . She begins to move left; the camera pans left through the rest of the shot. W O M A N (flirting): Oh, dear doctor, I'm really angry with you. Doctor appears frame left, back to camera, kisses her hand. DOCTOR: But you don't need me any longer, dear lady. W O M A N : Oh, that's not true. That's not true at all. Woman walks out of frame to left as doctor turns to watch her. In background, through clouds of steam, we dimly see other sheet-clad figures who approach, walking left, as the camera continues its pan. Throughout this sequence, those taking the steam baths and other treatments are draped in sheets; some of the male attendants are bare-chested. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (first o f f , then in frame as pan continues): 127, shower and mud bath; 129, massage . . . The voices of other attendants, announcing numbers, etc., are also heard. 397. Tilt down in LS from top of enormous, double staircase, leading to the

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steam and mud baths. The men descend on the right, the women on the left. Between them, at mid-distance, two attendants are carrying up an enormous barrel, reminiscent of the wine vat in the farmhouse sequence. At the bottom, in the background, a long table and other attendants. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (off): . . . 131, inhalations. 398. Pan right from MS to MCU: women walking down staircase. Two are engaged in animated conversation. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (off): 137, inhalations. 145, massage. 399. Low angle L s from bottom of staircase, men descending on left, women on right, an attendant standing in the middle. Camera tracks back until the bare back of an attendant occupies much of the frame. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (off): 147, shower and mud bath. 400. High angle LS: two tables, attendants standing behind them, indicating a patient walking right in foreground that he should continue in that di-

8»/z 117 rection. Slight pan right as patient is met by a bare-chested attendent. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (off): 149, inhalations. 401. MCU tracking pan: elderly man walking right. E L D E R L Y M A N (to Pace): Hello! He exits right, past the attendant stationed on the stairs. Pace and several others enter right in MCU and pan follows left as they descend. PACE (first o f f , then in frame, looking down, but speaking to Guido who, walking beside him, has not yet entered the frame): I've figured out what it is you want to tell. You want to describe the confusion a man has within himself. But you've got to be clear. During Pace's last words Guido enters the frame, stops, and looks in the direction of the women's side of the staircase. Clasping his sheet tightly around himself Guido has not abandoned his glasses. He holds a cigarette between his fingers. 402. Pan right, from Guido's POV, as Beautiful Unknown Woman descends, in MCU-CU-MCU.

(off): You must make yourself understood. Otherwise, what point is there? As she continues to descend stairs, she adjusts the sheet that she has gracefully draped over her head. PACE (off): Guido . . . 403. Guido in MCU, right foreground; Pace, further down the stairs, is turning to Guido; the others continue walking toward the steam. PACE: . . . come on! Guido resumes descending the stairs. He catches up with Pace. A T T E N D A N T W I T H M I C R O P H O N E (off): Attention! Will Dr. De Angelis please proceed to the rest area. 404. Slow pan left and slight track back: a man appears in MCU and then exits. Pan, LS, follows Pace, Guido, and others as they walk forward, on wooden gratings, turn, and continue left, away from the camera. We then see a very large room, lined with benches. Men are seated, inhaling the fumes. PACE: If what you have to say is interesting, it must be interesting to everybody. Why shouldn't you worry if the audience understands or not? You'll have to forgive me for saying so, but that is a disgrace . . . it's presumptuous. PACE

118 8>/2 Cesarino approaches from left background. C E S A R I N O {to Pace): Hi, Boss! P A C E : YOU should . . . C E S A R I N O : Come here, come here! Cesarino walks forward, waving his arms. 405. MS: Pace's bare back. Cesarino is walking toward him. C E S A R I N O (taking Pace by the arm): Come over here, Boss. Breathe, breathe deeply. {He looks briefly at Guido who turns away, in MS, in foreground.) Hi, Guido! {Cesarino continues to lead Pace away.) I've kept a place, near the steam. 406. A man in MS, left, sits down on a bench with others. They are nearly obliterated by steam. C E S A R I N O {off): Oh, Boss, this morning I've had a look at the spaceship. They've already built it up fifty meters.60 407. LS: the steam room, men milling around in foreground and background. The sound of muttering and coughing. Pan left to us of a man breathing deeply. 408. MS: Guido sitting on bench. He throws down his cigarette. Pan left to Mezzabotta in MCU, his head covered by sheet, eyes cast down, deeply inhaling the steam. Guido looks at him intently. G U I D O {whispering): Mario! Unresponsive, Mezzabotta continues his deep breathing. Guido looks away from him, across the room. 409. LS: pan left of the men seated on the benches around the perimeter of the room, others pacing back and forth, from Guido's POV. The music changes character, becomes lugubrious. W O M A N ' S V O I C E 6 1 {in English): Attention, please. 410. Track in to cu: Guido, his head bowed. W O M A N ' S V O I C E : Attention, please. Guido . . . 411. LS: the whole steam room, now free of steam. The men are seated on the benches lining the walls. W O M A N ' S V O I C E {inItalian): His Eminence is waiting for you. {Guido stands up, left background.) We repeat: Guido, His Eminence is waiting for you. Camera tracks back as Guido walks forward quickly, down the wooden grating at the center of the room.

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412. This complex shot, a combination of tracking and panning, maintains Guido's POV as he is walking. Agostini, fully dressed, walks rapidly into low angle MCU, carrying Guido's shoes and shirt. A G O S T I N I : Here are your clothes! Get dressed. Please hurry, Boss. (He turns around and walks back, signaling urgency with hand gestures. Camera follows, MCU, from Guido's POV.) The Cardinal is waiting. Tell him everything. Confide in him completely. Don't hide a thing from him. (He walks left and turns his face in Guido's direction.) And if you can, Boss, put in a good word for me, too. (As he disappears behind a column we hear, briefly, a sound that suggests steam, followed by a few notes sung by a chorus.) . . . for me, for me, for me, Boss. As camera pans right Cesarino walks into frame, MCU, and hands Guido his trousers. C E S A R I N O : It's a golden opportunity! Here are your pants. (Trackfollows him in MCU from Guido's POV.) The Cardinal! What luck! He can authorize anything . . . yes, anything . . . even my Mexican divorce. Think of it! Get me my Mexican divorce, Guido. Please . . . do me a favor. He won't turn you down. He turns and smiles at Guido while exiting, left, behind Conocchia, fully dressed, who appears in MCU, with Guido's suit on a hanger. C O N O C C H I A : N O ! Above all, look pious! Throw yourself at his feet! Kiss his ring! Cry! Say that you've repented. (Track left follows Conocchia.) If you manage to get in their good graces, you can get anything you want. Listen to me, Guido! As Conocchia exits left, Pace appears in MS, walking forward, offering Guido his tie and imploring his cooperation. P A C E : Please, Guido, we're in your hands. Please. In cu, he blows a kiss straight ahead. 413. LS: Guido, dressed, walking away from camera, down the steamy corridor. 414. The Cardinal's suite of anteroom, steam chamber, and mud bath, ls: track forward toward a priest, in silhouette, walking forward from a brightly illuminated doorway, right background. The priest holds up his hand and gestures to the right. We again hear the choir. P R I E S T : Only five minutes. Pan right past a large font with steam rising from it, then track in to a low window with translucent panes, in cu. The noise of the steam becomes

120 SVi louder. With an exaggerated creaking noise, the window is drawn open on two top hinges, revealing the Cardinal's steam bath. In the left foreground, a priest, seen from the waist down; in LS, the Cardinal seated, bent over, fully clothed. Steam covers the floor. Two attendents, seen from waist down, enter from the right. They carry a sheet that covers the Cardinal; the priest in the foreground exits right. 415. MS: a sheet covering Cardinal in three-quarter profile, naked from the waist up. Then, his silhouette upon the sheet. G U I D O (in a voice that conveys deep respect and profound emotion): Your Eminence, I am not happy. The Cardinal raises his hand. C A R D I N A L (off): Why should you . . . 416. MCU: Cardinal's Secretary holding sheet; pan right to silhouette of Cardinal's head behind sheet. C A R D I N A L (first o f f , then in silhouette): . . . be happy? That is not your task. (The Cardinal's head appears in profile, in c u , as the sheet is lowered and wrapped around his shoulders.) Who told you that we come into the world in order to be happy? 417. cu: track follows Cardinal to the right, his face turned away. C A R D I N A L : Origen wrote in his homilies, "Extra Ecclesiam . . . 418. cu: the beard and arms of the Cardinal's Secretary, in foreground. He is kneading mud that drips from his hands. In LS: the Cardinal draped in a sheet, his back to camera, standing between two priests, in background. He is about to enter a section of the room surrounded by a low border, from which great clouds of steam are emanating. C A R D I N A L : . . . nulla salus"—Outside the Church there is no salvation. 419. MS: priest on right removing sheet and walking forward while folding it, thereby screening the Cardinal from view as he enters the steam. The priest on left sits, followed by the priest on the right. C A R D I N A L : "Extra Ecclesiam, nemo salvatur"—Outside the Church, no one will be saved. (The Cardinal is helped to a seat in the steam by an attendant.) "Salus extra Ecclesiam . . . 420. MCU: Cardinal, in profile. C A R D I N A L : . . . non est." (The steam almost obliterates him.) There is no salvation outside the Church. "Civitas Dei!" He who is not. . . 421. LS: Cardinal sitting in steam at right, attendant (partial view) standing mid-frame, priest seated at left. Track back as window closes.

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(his voice trailing off in a dramatic whisper): . . . in the City of God belongs to the City of the Devil. As the window closes we again hear the creaking noise. This is joined by the sound of an orchestra playing "Blue Moon."62 CARDINAL

Public Square and Adjoining Shops in the Resort Town, dusk63

422. e l s : Hotel on hill in background, bandstand mid-ground, female orchestra playing "Blue Moon," people at tables in foreground. As camera tracks back, the large electric letters on the roof of the hotel, " G R A N D H O T E L LA P O S T E , " and the decorative street lamps in the piazza are turned on. 423. MCU: track follows elderly female violinist playing while walking right, then turning forward. 424. Night has fallen. Elegantly and fancifully dressed people are strolling in MS, both right and left, as camera tracks right. M A N W I T H M I C R O P H O N E : Come see this great human phenomenon . . . the Fakir Siva who has broken all previous records. (In background a "Ford" sign, then the Fakir recumbent in a glass coffin.) ( o f f ) Our experiment is controlled daily by European experts . . .

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425. c u : track right, a woman in silhouette, with fan. As camera continues to move laterally we see automobiles in a showroom, background to the strollers who appear in c u and Ms. 426. Track right as camera pans left, showing more strollers and then Luisa standing in front of a shop window, smoking. She turns and pan follows as she walks right in MS. She is distinguished from the other strollers by the severity of her attire. Hatless, without jewelry, she is wearing a white blouse remarkable for its simplicity. The frames of her glasses are similar to Guido's. She walks away from camera. 427. MCU: Guido in three-quarter profile, looking pensively in Luisa's direction. He bites his fingernails; track follows as he begins walking right. 428. Track follows Luisa in MS toward an auction house. We see and hear the auctioneer and the bidders in the background: "20,000, 22, 23, 25, 35, 40. Good. Going, going . . . another bid." Luisa stands in the entrance, then turns around and walks forward, opens her handbag and takes out a cigarette. 429. MCU: track as Guido walks forward, looking in Luisa's direction. 430. MCU: Luisa lighting her new cigarette with the stub of her previous one. Puffing aggressively, she looks around; then track follows as she walks away, right, in MS. In front of a store exhibiting a large painting of the sea, she stops, turns, hesitates, then is overjoyed to recognize Guido. 431. MCU: Guido, smiling. GUIDO: Hi. He exits, right. 432. MCU: Guido enters frame from left, Luisa on right, smiling broadly, the picture of the sea between them in the background. LUISA: H i .

GUIDO: When did you get here? LUISA: At five. We went to the hotel, but you weren't there. How are you? GUIDO: Fine, fine. (He kisses her on both cheeks.) Whom did you come with? LUISA: With Rossella, Enrico . . . and Tilde, too. GUIDO: Ah, Rossella. Where is she? LUISA (looking right, then back at Guido): Right here! MS, track, then pan right as Guido puts his arm around Luisa's shoulder and they walk away. GUIDO: You're wonderful. You came after all. You look fine, you know.

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(He kisses her neck lightly. As they cross the street in LS we see a car pass and a "Coca Cola" sign. In the background, Rossella stands and waves. Guido returns her wave.) Hi, Rossa! 433. m c u : track with Luisa dancing. The orchestra is now playing "Nostalgic Swing," based on other musical motifs of the film. LUISA: The last time we danced together was a year ago. Guido appears in MCU and he and Luisa, cheeks touching, turn while dancing. Through the remainder of this shot, they are tracked, usually in MCU, occasionally in MS, their faces alternately shown as they dance. Other couples pass in the background. G U I D O (with great sincerity): Dear Luisa . . . you're such a darling. I'm really happy that you came. It always happens this way. Whenever . . . whenever you're away . . . L U I S A (looking at Guido and finishing his sentence): You feel lonely. Is it true? Did you miss me? G U I D O (decisively): Yes. L U I S A (gently teasing): And you didn't have the company of all these beautiful women? (Their cheeks touch again.) G U I D O (with good humor): Oh, you've seen them, then? Track right as another couple momentarily fills the frame. The woman, short and fat, wears an elaborate hairpiece. Then Guido and Luisa reenter the frame. L U I S A : SO you haven't had any adventures since you left? Poor Guido. {They again dance cheek to cheek.) And your fascinating virility? GUIDO: What nice perfume you're wearing! L U I S A : D O you like it? G U I D O : HOW light you are. L U I S A (looking at Guido): And how is your work going? Better? G U I D O (shaking his head): Oh, I don't think I've made great progress. LUISA: But what's it about? What do you have on your mind this time? (Luisa backs into Enrico, who is dancing with Luisa's Friend.) LUISA'S FRIEND: Oh!

LUISA: Excuse me.

(recognizing Enrico and Luisa's Friend): Hi. (smiling, realizing she has bumped into Enrico): Ah! E N R I C O (smiling with particular warmth): Excuse me.

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Guido and Luisa dance forward, away from the other couple. GUIDO: Say, I may be wrong, but isn't Enrico a little in love with you? LUISA (looking at Guido, smiling teasingly but not unpleasantly): Hm, hm. The music becomes more lively; the camera follows Luisa as she first moves backward, away from Guido, then turns and dances o f f , followed by a violinist. 434. MCU: Guido, Enrico, and Luisa's Friend behind him; they are all looking admiringly in Luisa's direction. LUISA'S FRIEND: Isn't she adorable!

Enrico's expression conveys his infatuation with Luisa. Guido turns, looks at him, then looks back toward Luisa. 435. LS: Luisa dancing alone, followed by violinist. Pace and Conocchia enter frame left, Pace applauding. The table with Rossella and the others in Luisa's party is in the background. PACE: Wonderful!

LUISA: Good evening. PACE (kissing Luisa's hand): Good evening. 436. MS: Luisa, Pace holding her hand, Conocchia between them. PACE: Welcome. LUISA: Thank you.

PACE {looking forward, in Guido's direction): Maestro . . . we are here, at your total disposal. Shall we go? GUIDO ( o f f ) : Yes, yes. I'm coming right away. PACE (to Luisa): Dear lady, tonight you'll see what degree of insanity a producer can reach. Rossella appears between Conocchia and Luisa, looking at Pace. LUISA (to Pace): My friend. ROSSELLA: A h .

Pan follows Rossella as she passes behind Luisa and, beneath frameline, extends her hand to Conocchia who is now out of frame, left. PACE ( o f f ) : Well, well . . . frankly, I'm not sure I want to shake hands with this lovely lady. ROSSELLA (to Conocchia): Good evening. PACE ( o f f ) : As soon as this woman touches you, she can read your mind. Who you are . . . what you do . . . what you think. Luisa laughs. Rossella is startled and turns. Guido has apparently poked

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her in the ribs. Pan right now shows Rossella and Guido facing each other in MCU. ROSSELLA: Oh! Well, who else could it have been? GUIDO: Your guiding spirit. Haven't you yet reached this stage in your relationship . . . 437. MCU of Luisa's sister, seated, frame left, Tilde, MS, frame right.6* G U I D O (off): . . . with him? LUISA (off): I'd like to introduce my sister. PACE (off): Oh, what a beautiful little sister! Luisa's Sister rises, smiling. Tilde rises as well. Pan as she walks left. TILDE (sarcastically): Look at the women who flock around the director. Whether they have contempt for him or not. . . She walks behind her boyfriend, in MS.65 T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D (to Pace, who is o f f ) : I am delighted to meet you. I've just finished a script against nuclear arms. Pace and Luisa enter the frame in MCU; pan follows them left. T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D ( o f f , with great insistence): Only a producer with your courage could make it. PACE (looking back, while walking away from the camera): And does the beautiful witch belong to the harem too? ROSSELLA (tracked as she walks forward in MS, looking for something in her handbag): Let's say I'm a kind of managing supervisor. (She speaks to Guido who is first behind her, then walking at her side. She reserves for Guido a habitual tone offriendly irony, dosed with disapproval.) Well, what about you? Are you feeling better? Did solitude do you good, hm? As a matter of fact, you seem completely changed. GUIDO: Yes?

(laughing, then showing real concern for Guido): No, really, how are you? I was a little frightened. It was wonderful of you to call Luisa. If you only knew how happy she was to come here! G U I D O (shrugging his shoulders): B u t . . . D A U M I E R ( o f f ) If you don't mind, . . . Guido and Rossella look forward, in Daumier's direction. 438. Daumier, in MCU, left; Pace, walking away, center. D A U M I E R : . . . I would prefer not coming. My presence is not indispensable. ROSSELLA

126 8Vi Guido appears MCU, right; Pace turns as he is getting into his car. G U I D O (to Daumier): Well, it's up to you. PACE (to Daumier)'. Oh, no, my friend. I insist! Get into Conocchia's car. (He turns to speak to his Girlfriend, sitting in the back seat.) Sweetie . . . please get out. Go with the others. (To Guido.) Guido, where's your wife? G U I D O : I don't know. She was here. Daumier exits right, Pace gets into driver's seat, Guido in the back seat and the Girlfriend exits from the opposite side, as camera tracks into MS. Guido and Pace look right, in the direction ofLuisa and Rossella. G U I D O : Rossella, get in with us! PACE: Here, near me, Rossella . . . G U I D O : Luisa . . . 439. LS: Luisa standing alone, right, looking off-frame; strollers in background, a man sitting on a bench, left. PACE (off): I want to tell you a very strange story. Luisa turns, but seems reluctant to move. Her expression is very serious. 440. MCU: Guido, looking out the car window in Luisa's direction. G U I D O : Luisa, come! PACE (off): I had a sister who died very young . . . 441. As in 439. Pan follows Luisa walking left in rear offrame, markedly not toward Guido. Profile of elderly woman smoking appears in MCU. PACE (off): . . . and one evening the portrait of my sister, Concezione, suddenly changes expression. 442. As in 440. Guido, disappointed, bends his head. PACE (off): Please get in, Rossella. 443. Ms: Luisa walking toward Rossella who is standing next to the passenger's side of the car, her back to the camera. PACE (off): It was as if she wanted to warn me of a danger, of a threat. L U I S A (to Rossella): I'll sit in front. PACE (off): As I was saying, two or three days later my uncle said to me . . . Luisa and Rossella get into the car. 444. MS: Guido and Rossella in back seat of car. Guido gestures bewilderment at Luisa's change of mood. Rossella gestures that she doesn't understand it either.

8»/2 127 (off): . . . "Come to the market with me, sonny." My uncle had an Isotta-Fraschini.66 MS through windshield of Pace, speaking to Luisa, who seems not to be listening. PACE: I was telling the story of a premonition. The car drives off." The Set of the Spaceship, night68 LS: watchman waving a flashlight in foreground. The headlights of the two cars appear; the cars then turn right as pan follows them toward one of the two towers under construction. An eerie effect is created by a bank of lights and electronic music. MS: Pace's car. As the passengers get out they look up. P A C E (putting on his overcoat): What do you say? You have to be crazy to listen to this director! Put on your coats. It's damp. Rossella and Guido follow Pace who walks forward in MCU. Low angle LS: the two towers; an illuminated staircase zigzags between them. P A C E (off): Renato, where are you? Renato! Tilt down to ground level where we see workmen and the rest of the party visiting the set. R E N A T O (comingforward): Here I am, Boss. Good evening. P A C E (off): We have to be ready by the 20th. (To Luisa.) Come, come. (Luisa and Pace enter right foreground and walk toward Renato.) Be careful. The ground's all broken up. (ToRenato, who removes his hat.) It seems that we're a little behind schedule. R E N A T O : N O . It's going well. (Pointing up.) We've already gotten it up to seventy meters. Track forward following Rossella and Guido in MS, in deep shadow. GUIDO: Say, what's bothering Luisa? Her mood changed all of a sudden. She turned nervous, rude . . . R O S S E L L A : I don't know. She was so happy to come see you. Maybe you said something to upset her. Pan left follows Rossella toward a painting on glass used to create the image of the spaceship. G U I D O (off): No. R O S S E L L A (inspecting the glass): Hey, what's this? PACE

445.

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We see Rossella through the fantastic image painted on the glass, Tilde's Boyfriend in foreground, his back to the camera. T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D (turning right, in Guido's direction): I think this is extraordinarily fascinating. This is the model that, through superimpositon, will give the optical illusion that the spaceship is on top of the launching pad. W O M A N (off): Rossella! Pan follows Rossella as she turns and walks right. ROSSELLA: Yes, I'm coming. T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D ( o f f , to Guido): Isn't that right, Guido? G U I D O (turning briefly in direction of Tilde's Boyfriend): Yes, that's right. W O M A N (off): You can see from up here. Come on up. It's the spaceship. Pace walking forward, in MS, followed by Luisa and the others. PACE: And what's that? (Pan left on Luisa as she passes, in silhouette, behind another image painted on glass.) It's the launching ramp for the spaceship, the most important scene in the film. Come on up. There's no danger. No photos. MS pan left from Tilde's Boyfriend to Tilde and Luisa's Sister, walking forward. Tilde's Boyfriend is preparing to take a photograph. T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D : Only one! T I L D E (nastily): What's your husband up to? Is he making a . . . Tilde in right foreground, back to camera. Luisa turns to look at her, in MS. T I L D E : . . . science-fiction film? LUISA: HOW should I know? Ask him. Pan left follows the two women as they follow the others. T I L D E : Giancarlo wrote him a wonderful story . . . Pan right follows group in LS silhouette. The foreground and mid-ground are occupied by lights and indeterminate framelike structures.69 T I L D E : . . . about Martians. Various characters call out Guido's name. During this shot their comments are largely unintelligible. Pan continues as the party begins to mount the stairs, right. Models of spaceships appear in foreground. Track left/pan right continues to show ascent, through and above the scaffolding. W O M A N : What are you going to do with this amusement park? PACE: YOU don't know what a job this was. No construction company

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wanted to take it on. It rests entirely on sand. Cesarino, how many quintals of reinforced concrete did it take?70 Low angle LS: the group mounting stairway, away from camera. Tilt up gives impression of stairway's great height. CESARINO: Quintals? Tons! 400 tons, Boss. CONOCCHIA: Boss, if you don't mind, I'll stop at the first landing. I get dizzy spells. High angle shot: the group mounting toward camera. Lower part of Pace's body in foreground, MS. He is followed by Luisa's Sister and Luisa's Friend. LUISA'S FRIEND: With 80 million lire you could buy at least ten apartments. LUISA'S SISTER: It's a pompous shack, just like him. It's his own portrait. PACE (off): The little sister-in-law is tough on our director. Maybe she's in love with him. The two women walk into MCU. LUISA'S SISTER: In love? Every morning and every night I pray to God that I don't end up with a husband like him. She walks left out of frame. LUISA'S FRIEND: Hey, what do we do now? Is there more to climb? Slight pan left shows her walking up, away from camera. Tilt up to Pace's backside. PACE: I'd be glad to carry you up. High angle LS: the landing, Conocchia at left, leaning on railing, Cesarino sitting on stairs, massaging his feet, Daumier and Tilde at right, walking down, away from camera. CONOCCHIA: When I think that he made me spend 80 million for this structure! I say a nice painted backdrop would have been better. CESARINO: A backdrop! In grandpa's time they used backdrops. Is it your money, Conocchia? Pan left shows ground level from an extremely high angle: Guido, Rossella and an automobile. Rossella is laughing. MCU in profile: Luisa, looking down, lost in thought. ENRICO ( o f f ) : Luisa . . . As Luisa turns, pan left to Enrico. ENRICO: Are you cold? Take my jacket.

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(turning away from him): No, no, thank you. In any case, I think we're going back to the hotel now. The sound of an airplane passing overhead. Luisa looks up. Enrico walks right, behind her. E N R I C O : Is something wrong? You got sad all of a sudden. (He sits on the stairs behind her, right. She takes a puff on her cigarette.) Isn't that what happened? L U I S A (smiling bitterly and shaking her head): No. I'm not sad at all. Pan follows her as she walks left, pauses at the railing. P A C E { o f f , speaking to the others): The sequence begins with a view of planet Earth . . . 458. Extreme high angle LS: one of the levels of the structure through the scaffolding. Pace and the others can barely be distinguished. P A C E : . . . completely destroyed by a thermonuclear war. 459. MCU: Enrico, first looking down, then left, in Luisa's direction. P A C E ( o f f ) : In this . . . E N R I C O : Guido seemed very happy to see you . . . really. P A C E ( o f f ) : . . . appears a true Noah's Ark . . . the spaceship . . . 460. LS: Guido walking right, workmen rolling a large cable spool in left foreground. Pan right follows Guido. Rossella appears in profile, looking up, MCU: Guido stops in background and looks up. P A C E ( o f f ) : . . . that tries to escape the atomic plague. The rest of humanity looks for a safe haven on another planet. More than 10,000 extras . . . maybe 15,000! You understand . . . a tragic crowd that abandons . . . R O S S E L L A (with irony, looking at Guido): Come on! Are we really going to see all that in your film? Heavens! The prophet is raising his voice! He's decided to frighten everyone to death, MCU, track on Rossella as she walks forward. Pan right to Guido in MS. There is an automobile between them. G U I D O (annoyed): Why not? Do you like stories in which nothing happens, too? (Pan as Guido walks right, away from camera, in LS; scaffolding and lights in background.) Well, in my film everything happens . . . ok? I'm putting everything in. 461. m c u : Rossella, a bit abashed. G U I D O ( o f f ) : Even the Sailor doing a tap dance. Sailor . . . come here! S A I L O R ( o f f ) : Cla, cla, cla, cla . . . LUIS A

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462. As in 460. The Sailor, an old workman, comes toward Guido, carrying a container of water. GUIDO (with impatience and anger): Show what you learned in America! No, I don't want any water. Dance and I'll give you a part. Dance! The Sailor sings tonelessly and executes a few steps, in LS . A truck approaches in the background. 463. As in 461. Rossella smiles with compassion, then looks in Guido's direction. MCU, track as she walks toward him. ROSSELLA (gently): What's bothering you, Guido? What's happening to you? 464. MCU: Guido in right foreground, holding onto a pole; Sailor dancing in left background. GUIDO: Rossella, stop sounding like my big sister. (He turns and walks away.) I don't like you when you do it. SAILOR ( o f f , in his old, cracked voice): Mr. Director . . . what part do I get? Guido turns, smiles, sits. SAILOR (off): Mr. Director . . . GUIDO: What is Luisa thinking about me? What does she want to do? SAILOR (off): . . . what part do I get? What part do I get? GUIDO: GO away, Sailor. (With great impatience.) Go away! 465. Sailor turns and exits, left background; in MCU, Rossella lights a cigarette and looks down in Guide's direction. ROSSELLA (with friendly concern): You know, Luisa doesn't talk much . . not even to me, her best friend. I really don't know what she wants to do. She's confused. One day she says one thing, the next, something else. Unfortunately, I think the only thing she wants is for you to be different from what you are. 466. High angle MS: Guido leaning on his elbow, from Rossella's POV. GUIDO: But why?

ROSSELLA (off): Why? That's the mistake we all make. GUIDO (looking up in her direction): That sweet fellow, is he making a play for her? Is he in love with her? ROSSELLA ( o f f , with irony): That would suit you fine, wouldn't it? That would relieve your guilty conscience. (He looks up at the tower.) What a lout you are! Poor Enrico. 467. Ai in 465. Rossella steps forward.

132 SVi ROSSELLA: He's so awkward and vulnerable that everyone has noticed. He hangs around her . . . listens . . . keeps her company. 468. As in 466. Guido rises to a sitting position and hangs his head. His face is completely hidden by the brim of his hat. ROSSELLA (off): He's a very good friend. GUIDO: I thought I understood things so clearly. I wanted to make an honest film, without any lies at all. I thought I had something so simple . . . so simple to say. A film that might be a little helpful to everyone . . . that might help . . . to bury forever everything dead that we carry inside us. (Sighing deeply, he stands in profile, his face still obscured by deep shadows. Scaffolding and lights are seen behind him.) And instead, I'm the one who doesn't have the courage to bury anything. (He adjusts his hat and looks up.) Now . . . my mind is totally confused . . . this tower to deal with . . . (Pan right as he walks away from camera.) I wonder why things turned out this way? Where did I go wrong? 469. As in 467. Rossella takes a puff of her cigarette. GUIDO ( o f f , in a little sing-song): I have really nothing to say. But I want to say it anyway. 470. As in 468. Guido in MS, right foreground, turns in Rosella's direction; trucks pass in background. GUIDO: And your spirits, why don't they help me? 471. c u : Rossella. GUIDO (off): You always said that they were loaded down with messages for me. Well, they should get to work! ROSSELLA: I already told you, Guido. (She turns away.) Your attitude about them is wrong. (She walks and turns nervously, in MCU.) You're curious . . . childishly curious. And you have too many reservations . . . you want too many guarantees. GUIDO (off): All right. . . but what do they say to you? ROSSELLA (looking in Guido's direction): They always say the same things, even right now. They're very reasonable spirits. They know you very well. Slow track in to cu of Rossella. GUIDO: Well?

ROSSELLA: They say that you're free. But you have to choose, and you haven't got much time left.

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472. MCU: Guido. ROSSELLA (off): You have to do it quickly. Guido smiles a bit skeptically. 473. LS tilting up to the towers. We see the party climbing the staircase. MAN'S VOICE (off): Guido! Guido! Are you or aren't you coming up?71 Guido's Hotel Room, night 474. MS: Guido in bed, sucking the end of his pinky. The sound of footsteps. Abruptly he turns out his bed lamp as camera tracks into MCU. He pretends to be asleep. The sound of a door being opened. 475. Sharply lit from behind, in MS, Luisa opens the bathroom door, pauses, and looks in Guido's direction. She switches off the light in the bathroom. Pan follows as she walks left, puffing on her cigarette, occasionally looking in Guido's direction. She passes behind the etched glass partition, then bumps into a chair. 476. As in 474. Reacting to the noise, Guido stirs. 477. As in 475. Luisa looks at him angrily, then continues moving left. When she leaves the frame, her reflection, from behind, appears in a mirror. 478. Low angle MCU profile: Luisa, turning on her bed lamp. She shields it with a magazine. She picks up the telephone receiver. LUISA (to operator): Get me room 320. VOICE OF OPERATOR: H e ' s still o u t .

LUISA: Oh . . . all right. Thank you. She hangs up. Looking over at Guido, she picks up a glass. Pan follows as she walks away from camera to table where she fills glass with mineral water, in LS. She leafs through a magazine. Then, pan left follows her to a bureau, on top of which is her handbag. 479. MCU over Luisa's shoulder as she opens a pillbox. She hesitates when she notices, next to the handbag, a large photograph of herself smiling broadly, wearing her hair long. She picks up the photograph, looks left toward Guido, then puts the photograph down. She takes a pill and washes it down with the water. 480. LS: Guido in bed, in the darkness, looking in Luisa's direction. GUIDO: What's the matter? Do you have a headache? LUISA (off): No. It's a tranquilizer. GUIDO: Do you take them often? 481. LS: Luisa, in profile, at the bureau, closing her handbag.

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8Vi LUISA: Sometimes. To sleep. (She walks forward, sits on the edge of her bed, her back to camera, in MCU and addresses Guido sarcastically.) What's worrying you now? She removes the sweater that covered her nightgown, lies back in bed, pulls up the sheet, and begins reading a magazine. MCU: Guido, his head on his pillow. The sound of Luisa rustling her magazine. MCU: Luisa in profile, smoking. As she turns to stub out her cigarette she looks in Guido's direction, removes her glasses, then lies back laughing. As in 482. GUIDO (smiling faintly): What is it? LUISA (laughing, o f f ) : Nothing. But if you could see yourself! As in 483. She continues to laugh. GUIDO (off): Why are you laughing? LUISA (with increasing bitterness and anger): I don't think I could ever cheat on you. If for no other reason than having to live with the absurdity, the effort of having to hide, to lie. As in 484. LUISA ( o f f ) : But apparently you find it easy. GUIDO: Listen, Luisa . . . I'm very happy that you're here. But please . . . I'm very tired. I'm sleepy. He turns on his back. As in 485. LUISA (harshly, she turns off her lamp): So sleep! Good night. Through the rest of this scene both Guido and Luisa are barely visible in the darkness. MS: Guido's back. GUIDO (sighing deeply, then speaking with increasing strength and emotion): I don't know what you expect to see, to discover in my life by reducing everything to the pettiness of stealing from the cookie jar. But what do you know about my life . . . about what's bothering me . . . about what's not bothering me . . . MS: Luisa's back. GUIDO (off): What do you know about it? LUISA: I know only what you let me see. As in 488. Guido turns and faces the camera. GUIDO: And what do I let you see, huh? Come on . . . tell me what you see. What do you expect to accomplish with your moralistic judgments?

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( o f f ) : I don't expect to accomplish anything. I know that we've been stuck in the same place for years. You're the one who always wants to start over. You ask me to come back every time and you always think we can begin again. G U I D O (angrily rising from his pillow): Let this be clear once and for all. I don't want to start anything over, do you hear? (Shouting.) But what is it you . . . 491. /4S in 489. Luisa turns in Guido's direction, rising from her pillow. G U I D O ( o f f ) : . . . want from me? L U I S A (shouting, in hatred): You! Why did you make me come here? What good am I to you? What can you get from me? What is it you want from me? 492. LS: the bedroom, Guido's bed in foreground. Guido and Luisa are glaring at each other. Then they turn their backs to each other (first Luisa, then Guido) with an angry rustling of their sheets. Fade out to black.72 LUISA

136 SVi Café in the Public Square, day 493. Starting at the back of a woman's head, mcu, pan left l s over the nearly empty café tables, the bandstand in the background, the hotel looming behind. Bright sunlight. A waiter is taking a client's order, mid-ground. Music: "Carlotta's Galop." Pan continues right; a series of high-backed, domed straw chairs, a man reading a newspaper. Track left/pan right follows horse and carriage that appear in background and continue right, behind other straw chairs. The horse sports a white plume; the carriage is hung with white curtains. It fills the frame when it stops, next to the square. Carla, wearing the same extravagant costume she wore in her first scene, emerges and pays the coachman. 494. ls: Guido (unshaven), Luisa, and Rossella seated at a table, surrounded by many empty tables. Guido is reading a magazine. They all look up. Guido hides behind his magazine. 495. With her characteristic wiggle, Carla walks forward MS, smiling, looking right and left, until she stops short and stops smiling, in mcu. She has seen Guido and Luisa. 496. Luisa in c u , drinking. She stops drinking and stares when she recognizes Carla. 497. c u : Carla, looking around in confusion. 498. ls: Carla walking away, not knowing where to turn. In mid-stride, she delays her footfall, as if she were walking in slow motion. Then she decides to walk forward again, wiggling as usual. Pan follow as she walks left between the empty tables and finally sits at one. 499. c u : Luisa smiling ironically, then taking a puff on her cigarette. Track back shows Guido next to Luisa in mcu. l u i s a : Relax! I saw her last night, as soon as I arrived. g u i d o (looking up from his magazine, as if he hadn't heard or noticed): Hm? (He then looks in Carla's direction, slowly shakes his head, signifying infinite patience.) I swear to you, Luisa . . . l u i s a (abruptly interrupting): I didn't ask you any question. I don't want to know anything. Just spare me the embarrassment of having to listen to you swear to a lie, as usual. Guido draws a long-suffering sigh. 500. Guido and Luisa in foreground, mcu, their backs to camera; Rossella, at the other side of their table; Carla at her table, in profile, l s , sitting bolt upright. Rossella turns to look at Carla.

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Was she born in March or April? She has all the characteristics of an Aries. She is really the Aries type. L U I S A (sarcastically): I know what type that one is! Rossella turns to Luisa and laughs; Guido is trying to read his magazine. R O S S E L L A : Yes? It's precisely that type of woman who tends to be a good companion for weak, spineless, confused men. She shakes her finger at Guido. 501. As in 499. Guido looks at his his magazine. He then looks up. G U I D O (imploringly): Luisa . . . I didn't know. I see her now for the first time, just as you do. But really, in a place like this, where everybody comes, it's not so surprising to find that poor soul, is it? (Luisa looks at Guido, implacably.) Oh, so that's the reason you've been giving me a hard time since last night. Why didn't you say so right away? {He folds his magazine.) And anyway, if there's anything that I find insulting, it's the notion that people could believe I go around with a woman who wears a get-up like that! You've seen how she makes herself up, haven't you? Guido puts on his sunglasses. R O S S E L L A ( o f f ) : Come on. Let's go for a walk. G U I D O : Let's not talk about this any more, Luisa. It's been over for three ROSSELLA:

years . . . finished . . . that's all! The music changes to the 8V2 theme, played sweetly. L U I S A (bitterly): He's driving me crazy. He talks as if it were the gospel truth, as if he were sincerity itself. But look at him! And he thinks he's the one who's right! (As she addresses Guido, her anger increasing, he looks straight ahead, fidgets with his glasses, sighs, taps his nose repeatedly.) How can you stand living like this? It's not right to lie all the time, never letting people know what's true and what's false. Is it possible that for you it's all the same . . . everything? (Turning to Rossella.) Forgive me. I know . . . I know. You're right. I'm being a bore. What a sad fate . . . to play the part of the middle-class wife, the woman who doesn't understand. But what should I do? You tell me what I should do. I can't laugh about it the way you do. R O S S E L L A (with compassion, o f f ) : No, darling, I'm not laughing about it. (to Guido): What do you say to a woman like that? What do you talk to her about? (She laughs bitterly.) 502. c u : Luisa drinking. LUISA

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What disgusts me most is that you've included her in our life, that she knows everything about me and you. That whore! (Shouting.) Cow! 503. MS: Guido left, his back to the camera, Luisa in the middle, Rossella, right, touching Luisa's hand to calm her. G U I D O and R O S S E L L A : Luisa! R O S S E L L A (to Guido): You're a real pain, you know! 504. MCU: Guido in profile, then facing forward. He appears to have had an idea. G U I D O (to himself): And yet . . . He slides down in his chair and, nestling his chin on his hands, smiles with great self-satisfaction. The sound of a woman's voice, sweetly singing. 505. LS: Carla at her table, in profile. Track in to MCU as she gently sways to the music, rising straight in her chair as she raises her voice, enraptured by her song. L U I S A (off): How well you sing, Carla! Carla turns and smiles in Luisa's direction. C A R L A (standing): Oh, no. I'm just an amateur. L U I S A (off): And how pretty you are! Luisa enters frame left. In MCU, the two women face each other, smiling warmly. L U I S A : I've wanted to meet you for so long. LUISA:

CARLA: A n d I, y o u .

Holding hands, they kiss each other on both cheeks, then, radiating happiness, look in Guido's direction. The music becomes more peppy. 506. LS: Guido leaning back contendly in his chair, his feet up on the table. He applauds. 507. As in 505. Carla laughs. L U I S A : How elegantly you dress! C A R L A : You're the one who's elegant. L U I S A (looking down at her severely tailored shirt): Oh, no! The women walk forward, in time to the music, tracked in MCU. C A R L A : YOU know . . . frankly . . . I'm a bit vulgar. L U I S A : But what are you saying? You're very refined! C A R L A : Do you like it? It was a little something that I saw in Vogue. L U I S A (switching sides of the frame with Carla as their walk becomes yet more dancelike): Oh really?

140 8i/2 CARLA: If you only knew how long I had to look before I found it. LUISA: A h !

CARLA: But when Carla gets an idea in her head . . . The two women laugh. 508. LS: track follows Carla and Luisa dancing right to left, between the tables.13 The Farmhouse Kitchen, Guido's Harem Fantasy 509. cu: a large pot boiling on the hearth. Luisa reaches in to lift it out. Pan right follow hands, then tilt up to Luisa'sface in profile, MCU. Her hair is wrapped in a scarf; she wears the simple black dress of a farm woman. LUISA (smiling, overjoyed): Here he is! OTHER WOMEN (off): Here he is! Here he is! It's Guido! The music, a medley of the 8 Vi themes, becomes a fanfare. Pan follows Luisa as she walks right. We now see the farmhouse kitchen (the same one in which the wine bath sequence was played, 226-247), some of the other women, a harp, a sheet hanging. The women run toward the door in the background. 510. LS: Guido coming through the door, his arms filled with gifts. Snow is falling outside. GUIDO: Good evening, women. (The Nanny in White runs to close the door behind him.) Close the door! It's cold. There's a blizzard. Guido walks into MCU as the women cluster around him. We can see the back of the head of the Actress in the right foreground. ACTRESS (hysterically, in French): Did you have a good trip? GUIDO (to all the women): How are you? Are you all well? Please . . . every package has a name on it. Don't get them mixed up. ACTRESS (speaking at the same time as Guido): Oh, like gifts for the children! Oh, he's so adorable, so sweet? GUIDO (handing a package to the right): This one's for Caterina. 511. Luisa in the foreground, in MCU, turns directly to the camera, beaming. Behind her, the long table, another woman, and in soft-focus LS, Guido. LUISA: He's marvelous! She makes a "cute" face, lifting her shoulders in delight. 512. Pan follows Guido walking left, in MS. He hands a package to Luisa's Sister, whose forehead is smudged with coal. GUIDO: And this one for my dear little sister-in-law . . .

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(kissing Guido, taking his arm and walking left): Thank you. GUIDO: . . . who's finally learned to like me because she's understood that things have to be like this. A white veil is waved between Guido and the camera. It reappears several times during the shot. L U I S A ' S SISTER: We'll draw your bath right away. Pan follows the package in Guido's hand as he offers it, left. It appears behind the harp. GUIDO: Gloria. Here's what you asked for. Pan left to Gloria playing the harp. GLORIA: Oh, thank you. I must speak to you, Guido. As pan continues left, we see Carla walking down the stairs, eating grapes, wearing a white feather boa over an extravagant white dressing gown decorated in ostrich feathers. CARLA (pointing at Gloria): I know what that one wants to tell you. (She walks into MCU, smiling warmly.) But now we have to send her away because she'll be jealous. G U I D O ( o f f , to Carla): What do you do upstairs? CARLA: I went to be with those poor girls. As pan continues left, Carla leaves the frame. We see other women, including Saraghina, and several buckets. Luisa is carrying a heavy pot. CARLA (off): They would be alone all the time if it weren't for me. The pan stops on the Actress, in MCU. ACTRESS (contemptuously, in French): The role is not suited to her. She's only a common middle-class woman. She has no class. Track forward follows her briefly. Luisa enters frame from right in LS. Pan follows her left. LUISA: Leave him alone. That's enough now! He's tired. (She puts the pot on the table.) He has to take his bath. Pan left to the Beautiful Unknown Woman holding a tiara in her hands, in L U I S A ' S SISTER

MCU.

Oh, Guido, it's beautiful. I've always wanted one like it. Pan follows Luisa right, M s - L s. LUISA (clapping her hands): Gloria! Carla! Hedy! Get the buckets. At right, the Black Dancer is draping herself in a sheet. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N WOMAN:

142 8»/2 513 A flurry of veils in the foreground. From Gloria, pan right follows Hedy who is wearing a coolie hat with a black veil, walking past Guido and Luisa's Sister.74 The latter is folding his cloak, passes it to Hedy, and then helps Guido off with his jacket, in MS. C A R L A (first o f f , then in foreground M C U , her back to camera, as pan follows Guido right): Guido! My husband wrote that he'd like me home for New Year's, just for one day. But if you don't want me to go, I'll tell him I can't. G U I D O (magnanimously): Yes. I think that will be all right. (He looks at Carla.) Come on, Carlotta. (He holds up his hands. Carla moves right, in profile, and blows on Guido's hands as he rubs them together. He looks left.) Who's that little black girl? L U I S A ' S S I S T E R : A surprise we've prepared for you. She's from Hawaii. 514. LS: Luisa helping the Black Dancer adjust her sheet, the Nanny in White walking left with an empty bucket that she exchanges with Saraghinafor a full one. LUISA: Don't you remember her? (The Black Dancer curtsies grandly.) You always talked about her. The Black Dancer moves left and begins her dance. Some of the other women clap to the beat of the music, "Saraghina's Rumba." 515. As in 513. GUIDO: Thank you, Luisa. You're so kind. (Guido turns his back to camera as Luisa's Sister helps him off with his suspenders; Carla moves into c u , smiling and clapping her hands.) What a sweet thought! 516. As in 514. The Black Dancer continues her dance; some women are carrying buckets, others are clapping their hands. 517. Pan follows Luisa walking forward, MS to MCU, pointing. LUISA: That tiara is for me! The Beautiful Unknown Woman appears in cu, right. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N (in her soft, cultivated voice): Yes, 1 know. I'll return it to you right away. (Pan! track follows as she walks right, holding a sheet for Guido.) Oh, darling! G U I D O (first o f f , then in frame as she wraps the sheet around him): What a thrill to find you here! B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N : HOW are you? GUIDO: Fine. (Pan/track follows them, MCU, as they move left.) But please satisfy my curiosity, beautiful lady. Who are you?

8>/2 143 My name doesn't matter. I'm happy to be here. Don't ask me any questions. Black Dancer enters right. B L A C K D A N C E R : May I stay? 518. c u : the Black Dancer, Guido's hand on her chin. G U I D O ( o f f ) : Of course, my dear. She makes as if to bite him, snarls, and smiles. 519. MS: the Beautiful Unknown Woman, Guido, and Black Dancer. G U I D O : I'm busy now. Pan follows as he climbs the ladder to the vat in which he will take his bath. B L A C K D A N C E R (seductively, o f f ) : But later . . . Laughter from above. Tilt up to balcony, Rossella sitting on railing, LS. G U I D O ( o f f ) : Are you here too, Rossella? What are you doing here? R O S S E L L A : I'm Pinocchio's talking cricket! Do I bother you? G U I D O ( o f f ) : No. But what are you laughing at? R O S S E L L A : At nothing. I just want to see how you're managing. You finally got your harem, eh? King Solomon! G U I D O ( o f f ) : Wasn't it about time? R O S S E L L A : Sure, it was time. 520. LS: the women in two lines, passing buckets of hot water from foreground to the large vat in the background. Carla and Luisa, laughing happily, are nearest the camera. Guido, wrapped in a sheet, still wearing his black hat, is standing on a platform, his back to the camera, about to enter the bath. The Nanny in Black and the Nanny in White are on either side of him. BEAUTIFUL UNKNOWN WOMAN:

GUIDO: P u t m e in!

521. MCU: in profile, Rossella leans over the balcony railing, looking down in Guido's direction. R O S S E L L A : Tell me, Guido, aren't you a little afraid? G U I D O ( o f f ) : Afraid of what? Everything's going fine. R O S S E L L A : Can't I stay too? I'm having such a good time. I don't want anything. I'll just look at you. G U I D O ( o f f ) : There's a rule that has to be obeyed. Have you heard it? Pan right as Rossella turns to Hedy, who is now completely dressed in ostrich feathers. H E D Y (to Rossella): Come. Help me.

144 %Vi Tilt down as the two women lift a trapdoor. Track forward shows Guido through trap, still wearing his black hat, up to his neck in soap suds in the vat. His arms are crossed over his chest and he flaps his hands like wings. H E D Y ( o f f , except for her bare feet on the edge of the opening): Guido . . . a suit and busby of ostrich feathers.73 Will this be all right? G U I D O (looking up, smiling and spreading his arms): Oh, hi, Hedy. It's beautiful. He returns to his hand-flapping bath positon as the trap door is closed. ROSSELLA: What is this rule? Camera tilts up to Hedy in MCU. Track follows as she walks right. HEDY: I don't know anything about it. He promised me a part in his film. He told me that I would have a lot of costume changes. As she begins to descend staircase, pan past the bust of a woman, in a niche in the wall. 522. MCU: Guido swaying back and forth contentedly in the vat. Rapid track back as the two Nannies bring more buckets of water and pour it into the vat. GUIDO: That's enough, girls. Lift me out. 523. MCU: track back as the Nanny in White walks forward with a sheet to dry Guido. She smiles and crinkles up her nose as if she were looking at a "cute" baby. Then she looks right. N A N N Y IN W H I T E : Gloria . . . the talcum powder! As she leaves the frame, Gloria enters it, posing extravagantly with her hands on her head in MCU. The harp is behind her. GLORIA: A h , b u t y e s , b u t y e s , b u t y e s .

Track follows her briefly as she turns and dances away. 524. MS: Guido and the Nannies. He removes his hat and they dry his head. N A N N Y IN W H I T E : Guido, do you know that she prepared something just the way you like it? GUIDO: Oh really?

A cake. They dry his face with a towel and drape it around his neck. GUIDO: Are you happy, girls? N A N N I E S : Of course. GUIDO: Isn't this just what you always wanted? OLDER N A N N Y :

8Vi 145 N A N N I E S : Certainly! Isn't he the best kid in the world? Tilt down as Guido sits on the floor and is wrapped in a sheet. N A N N Y ( o f f , impatiently): Nadine, quick . . . bring the powder. G U I D O : Oh, Nadine. What was it you said in Copenhagen? Brief track forward. 525. Low angle MCU: track back as Nadine, the airline hostess, walks forward, waving a powder dispenser in the shape of a poodle's head, covered in ostrich feathers. She is wearing dark glasses and a white scarf over her hat. N A D I N E (in the typically soothng microphone monotone of the airline hostess): We are delighted to invite the passengers on this flight to spend the night in Copenhagen . . . 526. MCU: Guido, beneath a shower of talcum powder. N A D I N E (off ): . . . because of a small problem with the motor. G U I D O : Listen to that voice, girls! Listen! 527. As in 525. Nadine shakes more of the powder in Guido's direction. N A D I N E : The Company will pay all expenses. We wish everyone . . . 528. As in 526. N A D I N E ( o f f ) . . . a wonderful night. The sound of the women laughing. 529. cu: Luisa holding a lamp (the same one used by the Grandmother in the previous Farmhouse sequence, 240). As she turns, pan right, to LS, Carla and other women wrapping Guido in a sheet. The Black Dancer carries forward a large basket of fruit. C A R L A : Madeleine! Come help us! Pan continues right to the Actress who claps for Saraghina before continuing toward Carla. A C T R E S S : Saraghina! S A R A G H I N A : Here I am. I'll carry Guido. The Black Dancer dances forward into MCU, juggling pieces of fruit. A C T R E S S (in French): Oh, the poor man. The water was too hot. He's turned all red! In LS, the women surround Guido, who is hidden in the sheet. 530. Low angle MCU: Carla and Saraghina looking down admiringly at Guido, from Guido's POV. C A R L A : What nice thin legs he has!

146 8»/2 Straight as when he was a boy! He likes to act like a child, but he's really very complicated. I know all about it. Track back and tilt down to Guido, being carried in the sheet by the women. Arms folded across his chest, he is supremely contented. Tilt up to Actress on right, MCU. A C T R E S S (with an angry expression): Don't be fooled. I'm on to him. He's a hypocrite. 531. LS: track on the women carrying Guido in sheet, pan following left to right. In the foreground, the long table, the Beautiful Unknown Woman stands with her back to the camera; in the background, the staircase, Rossella leaning on it. N A N N Y I N B L A C K : He's not a hypocrite at all. Why should he tell everything to strangers? He knows how to defend us, doesn't he? Guido is carried between the long table in the foreground and the staircase in the background. J A C Q U E L I N E ( o f f , screaming): Help, Guido, help! G U I D O (being set down): Who's screaming like that? Guido and the women go out of focus; Gloria appears in cu, right. G L O R I A : It's Jacqueline. She refuses to go upstairs with the old women, so we put her in the cellar. 532. Pan right to extreme high angle shot down cellar stairs. A flurry of feathers. Jacqueline, in her befeathered vaudeville headpiece, is coming up. J A C Q U E L I N E (still shouting, nearly crying): It's a scandal! I don't want to talk to those hags. They're older than I am. (Track back and right as Jacqueline appears in MCU , then goes left.) I'm twenty-six years old. Go to the registry in Paris! (Pan follows as she now goes right. We see the details of her abbreviated costume; ostrich feathers at her back, a brassiere of feathers, enormous fake pearls in her hair and hanging in necklaces around her neck and arms. Her bangles jingle whenever she walks, unsteady on her high heels. The music has become lugubrious. Ai she circles the opening to the cellar stairs, she again comes in c u . ) Jacqueline Bonbon, twenty-six years old, July 4,1938. (In LS , she goes toward Guido, still on the floor in his sheet. Carla is kneeling in front of him, the others standing behind, embarrassed. Saraghina hides behind her apron.) You don't have the right to send me upstairs. It's not time yet. (Jacqueline walks to the right and executes a pathetic dance SARAGHINA: CARLA:

81/2

533.

534.

535.

536.

537. 538. 539. 540.

541.

147

step.) Look how agile I am! Look at my legs! (She walks in front of Guido and wiggles her backside.) Ha, ha. Which of you has a behind as firm as mine? (She thrusts forward her breasts.) Look at this bosom! (She kneels next to Guido.) Oh, Guido, Guido, don't send me . . . MCU: Guido, implacable, inspecting his fingernails, then putting on his hat. J A C Q U E L I N E (off): . . . upstairs. I don't want to go upstairs. GUIDO: It's the rule. It's the rule. It's the rule. J A C Q U E L I N E (off): But Guido . . . MCU: Jacqueline and Rossella. Rossella puts her hand to Jacqueline's chin to comfort her. ROSSELLA: Calm down, Jacqueline. Apparently, it's really nice to be upstairs, too. J A C Q U E L I N E : It's not true! c u : Guido holds up Jacqueline's earring without looking at her. GUIDO: Your earring, Jacqueline. Her ostrich feathers and her hand appear in the frame. J A C Q U E L I N E ( o f f , tearfully): Thank you. c u : Jacqueline. Pan left as she goes to Carla who appears in profile, c u . J A C Q U E L I N E : You've always liked me a lot. You tell him . . . you tell him to give me an extension. Tell him to. CARLA (turning in Guido's direction): Guido, couldn't you give Jacqueline an extension? MCU: Guido, inspecting his fingernails. GUIDO: What are you doing? Are you going to be a pain in the ass, too? Pan c u : Jacqueline leaning toward Guido. J A C Q U E L I N E : Please, only for a year, only one year, please, Guido! c u : Guido. G U I D O (harshly): No extension. As in 538. J A C Q U E L I N E (defiantly, straightening up): I won't go upstairs. G U I D O (off): What did you say? J A C Q U E L I N E : I won't go upstairs. G U I D O (off): Say it again, if you dare. J A C Q U E L I N E (shouting): I won't go upstairs. c u : Nanny in Black sobbing in foreground, Nanny in White in background, out of focus.

148 SV2 Look at her! She's crazy. We shouldn't have taken her in with us, Guido. I always said i t . . . Sharp pan right to another nanny and the Actress in MCU. N A N N Y : Hey, girl, why don't you study the rule! Sharp pan left back to Nanny in White and Nanny in Black. N A N N Y I N W H I T E (reciting the rule): "Whoever passes the age limit must go to the upper floor, where she will be well treated, just as before . . ." Sharp pan left back to other nanny and Actress. N A N N Y : " . . . but will live basking in her memories." A C T R E S S (in French): It's disgusting, absurd, absolutely unacceptable. Pan right toNadine, in MCU. N A D I N E : We shouldn't have accepted it from the beginning. Saraghina is sobbing loudly into her apron in the background. Pan follows her as she runs right into MCU, next to Gloria, who is smiling cruelly. When Saraghina removes the apron from her mouth her expression becomes fierce. S A R A G H I N A (shouting): It's not fair! 542. c u : Guido inspecting his fingernails. Music: "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's Die Walkure. A C T R E S S (off): It's a rule invented by a man . . . 543. Pan MCU: Actress walking left. A C T R E S S : . . . who himself doesn't have all the right credentials. As she turns accusingly in Guido's direction, Hedy appears in yet another costume, walks around her, speaking at the same time as the Actress. H E D Y : We're not lemons . . . A C T R E S S : A real man loves women and pays no attention to their age. In France, a man like you would be . . . 544. cu: Guido, a cruel smile on his face, still inspecting his fingernails. A C T R E S S : (off): . . . a national scandal. H E D Y (off): . . . to throw away . . . 545. As in 543. H E D Y : . . . after we've been squeezed. As the Actress walks away in a huff, pan left to the Beautiful Unknown Woman and Jacqueline in MCU, Gloria behind them, turned away from camera. B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N : Ah, Guido, Guido, they are certainly right! N A N N Y IN W H I T E :

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149

He's a monster! Gloria turns forward; pan right follows as she moves into MCU. G L O R I A (in English): We're all monsters. We are all women created out of his imagination. B L A C K D A N C E R (shouting as she runs left, mid-ground): The time has come to even the score! Hurray for Jacqueline, who showed us the way . . . 546. MCU: the Black Dancer grabs hold of a hanging sheet and prepares to swing on it. B L A C K D A N C E R : . . . to freedom! Down with the tyrant! 547. As in 545. Guido looks up sternly. B L A C K D A N C E R (off): Down with Bluebeard! 548. Low angle MS: Jacqueline, from Guido's POV. J A C Q U E L I N E : We have the right to be loved until we're seventy years old! Pan right on the Black Dancer swinging on the sheet in the background, LS. From this point until shot 566, the women are alternately in darkness and bright light, a fluctuating, erratic lighting pattern created by a swinging overhead lamp. The Actress jumps up in c u . A C T R E S S (in French): Down with him! 549. MS: Guido. He tries to rise, concerned at the revolt of the women. J A C Q U E L I N E (off): And what . . . 550. As in 548. Pan right from Gloria to Guido on the floor, Carla rising and pulling away from him. J A C Q U E L I N E (off): . . . makes him think he's still a young man? (The bottom of Carlo's dressing gown fills the foreground; Guido cowers against the wall in the background.) Let's all say it, once and for all. He doesn't know how to make love. Caresses and talk . . . that's all! A C T R E S S ( o f f , in Italian): He goes to sleep right away. Carlo's skirt and another woman's legs in fore ground frame Guido, now standing, his back to the wall, wrapped in his sheet, brandishing a whip. G U I D O : I'm not sleeping. I'm thinking. The frame is filled with the legs of the women, running right and left. Track toward Guido, cracking his whip. C A R L A (off): Guido! 551. Guido and Saraghina circle each other, Guido's back coming into cu, Saraghina in MS, facing him menacingly, snarling like a wild animal. C A R L A (off): Don't send us upstairs when we get old! JACQUELINE:

150

552.

553. 554.

555.

81/As Guido snaps his whip at the women throughout these shots, he gives orders as if he were an animal trainer. MCU: Rossella turning right. The Nanny in White runs left, then up the stairs after the Nanny in Black. N A N N Y I N W H I T E : Hurry! They're revolting upstairs too! Tilt up to swinging lamp. The doorway on the landing in the background goes out offocus as Guido's hand, holding the whip, appears in c u . MCU: Guido aiming his whip. MCU: Gloria, in foreground, receiving the lash with pleasure; Guido swinging the whip in background, LS. Pan follows Gloria right. G L O R I A : Oh, delicious! (In English.) Incredible! As Gloria exits right, Actress appears in c u , profile; Hedy in background. A C T R E S S (in French): Bastard! Liar! MS: Guido swinging his whip. A C T R E S S ( o f f ) I came from Paris . . .

8'/2 151 556. As in 554. The whip strikes away the snail antennae of the Actress's hairdo. She puts her hands to her head, backing away. ACTRESS (in Italian): What is my part? Ah! My part! Ah! She backs into the hanging sheet and covers herself with it. 557. MCU: Guido. Pan follows him left as he turns and snaps his whip again. ACTRESS ( o f f , her voice muffled by the sheet): Where's my role in the film? G U I D O : NO!

558. MCU: Jacqueline, bending forward in foreground. JACQUELINE (weeping): Guido, who'll dance the conga for you? You liked it so much! 559. As in 557, Guido whipping, barking orders. 560. As in 558. Pan follows Jacqueline as she turns and moves right, trying to escape the whip by hiding behind Luisa. JACQUELINE (screaming): Ah, Luisa! Help me! LUISA (calmly): No, no, no, my dear. This concerns my husband. (Pan left as she moves to the table, her back to camera.) If he's decided it's to be this way, it's to be this way. It's the rule. (She turns in Guido's direction.) Guido, hurry up. The soup's getting cold. GUIDO (off): Can't you see I'm busy? Luisa moves left to Rossella, in MCU. Saraghina is darting back and forth excitedly in background, LS. LUISA (smiling): What an extraordinary man! Rossella nods in agreement, then turns to Luisa. ROSSELLA: Excuse me, but . . .

LUISA: He needs to act like this. He does it almost every night. 561. c u : Hedy, wearing another extravagant headdress, yelping in delight as Guido whips her; Guido in background, brandishing his whip. As he walks forward into c u , the staircase and upper landing momentarily come into view. WOMAN (off): Do you remember me, Guido? Don't you remember any more? Pan follows Guido right; the Beautiful Unknown Woman appears in MCU and takes his hand. BEAUTIFUL UNKNOWN WOMAN: Darling, but you're wounded! (She

brings his hand to her face.) I want to get you a salve. GUIDO: I don't want a salve. BEAUTIFUL U N K N O W N WOMAN: A n unguent!

152

8%

Pan follows as she moves left. G U I D O (off): I don't want an unguent! B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N : Some drops! N A N N Y IN W H I T E (off): It's not true! 562. MCU: Nanny in White. N A N N Y IN W H I T E : It's not at all true that he throws you away like squeezed lemons. (Pan right, MS, follows Luisa and Rossella walking around table.) ( o f f ) Quite the contrary! He'd like to keep you all with him always. The truth is that he's too good, too patient. As Luisa and Rossella continue to stroll amiably behind the table, we hear the crack of the whip and the screams of the other women. Feathers are flying; Saraghina and Jacqueline run left, behind Luisa and Rossella. 563. LS: Guido's gigantic shadow on the wall. 564. MS: Carla walking forward, smiling, as if to placate a rambunctious child. CARLA: No, Guido, no. (She realizes that the whip is now aimed at her, turns, runs to the corner of the room and crouches, shouting, "No, no," but laughing at the same time. Zoom into c u of Carla, laughing heartily, her hand to her face.) 565. Guido is heard making an animal trainer's sound. In cu, Hedy's backside. As she moves away from the camera we see that she is wearing a transparent body stocking festooned with beads, and a coolie hat. Saraghina runs across the frame; the Black Dancer runs forward and pan follows her backside as she runs right, crouches on a table, turns, snarls, and assumes a tigerish stance. She catches a pearl necklace that has been thrown to her. The music of "The Ride of the Valkyries" comes to an end; the camera pans left past Saraghina, smiling and applauding (the sound of the other women applauding), to Guido, walking toward the Actress, who is still wrapped in a hanging sheet. He cracks his whip. Luisa's Sister and Gloria, in foreground, look at him. (viciously, to Jacqueline, o f f ) : He doesn't like you. You're old! ( o f f , still muffled by the sheet): Please, Guido, give her the extension. As pan continues left we see other women in LS, in other parts of room. Then Nadine appears in MS, her microphone in her hand. NADINE: Dear Jacqueline, we're so happy to have had the opportunity of living with you, and we wish you good luck on the upper floors. (Nadine turns away from camera. In LS, Guido releases the Actress GLORIA

ACTRESS

154 SV2 from the sheet. She exits right. Implacable, his arms crossed on his chest, Guido faces right, looking at Jacqueline who is crawling on the floor in front of him. Jacqueline stands.) In Guido's name, we assure you that you were the first vaudeville star in his life. (Music: the Cemetery theme. Pan left and slight track in to MCU as Nadine again faces camera.) You have the right to sing your last song, to dance your last dance, with a special spotlight. Fade out to black. 566. cu: Jacqueline, smiling contentedly, in the glare of a spotlight. J A C Q U E L I N E : Thanks, girls. You're so sweet and nice to me. (She turns around, waving her arms in joy.) So, do you want me to sing you a love song? No. A sexy song would be better. It was my specialty. (Looking o f f , in Guido's direction, her tone is now desperate.) Do you remember, Guido? Do you remember? At the Apollo Theater in Bologna. (Insisting.) Do you remember? G U I D O ( o f f , harshly): Yes, I remember. J A C Q U E L I N E (laughing again): No. A happy song would be better! Musical fanfare. The song: Padilla's "Qa c' est Paris."76 Dancing and singing, she backs up into LS, followed by the spotlight and pan through remainder of shot. She dances left. J A C Q U E L I N E (singing, in French): "Paris, queen . . ." (She stops abruptly as one of her necklaces flies off.) Oh, I've dropped all my pearls. (She bends over awkwardly to pick up the beads, her backside to the camera, her legs spread widely apart, then repeats the gesture, going from left to right, as the music continues. Turning, she tries to take up her dance, then her song.) "Her nose . . . " (When she reaches the right side of the room, yet another necklace falls and she again stops.) Again! (She bends to retrieve the beads, then comes forward slowly, dejectedly.) You're not even listening to me. 567. Track left past the table, some women in shadow, some in silhouette, MS to LS. They are crying. 568. cu: Jacqueline. J A C Q U E L I N E (whispering): Guido! Guido! 569. LS in silhouette: Guido, in a dressing gown, his back to camera, looking in a mirror held by Luisa and one of the nannies. 570. As in 568. Jacqueline pauses, sadly, then turns and runs o f f . J A C Q U E L I N E : Goodbye, Guido.

8»/2 155 571. As in 569. Guido turns and walks forward into MS, fanning himself with a towel. Luisa and the nanny walk to the right. 572. Low angle LS: Jacqueline going up the stairs in time to the music, still in the spotlight. Her song is played with renewed energy, as if in a finale. She hesitates, bending over, her hand on her hip. Two women come down the stairs and help her up the rest of the way. Pulling one arm away, she turns, waving. J A C Q U E L I N E : Goodbye! The spotlight goes out. At the top of the stairs, in silhouette, Jacqueline turns and waves again. J A C Q U E I N E : Goodbye, Guido! The gate at the top of the stairs is closed. 573. High angle MCU: Guido, with a serious expression. He wipes his lips with the towel and turns. Track left/pan right shows Luisa and Rossella over his shoulder. G U I D O {gently): I thought it would be so amusing. (Track/pan continues, showing the length of the table; at the other end, some women are seated, some standing. Subdued, abashed, they look at Guido. They maintain their serious expressions through the rest of the sequence. Guido stands at the head of the table, his back to the camera. Luisa crosses behind him and sits at his right.) I thought it might be the funniest part of my story. I even prepared a little speech to deliver from the head of the table. I would have said this. "My dears, happiness is being able to speak the truth without ever making anyone else suffer." {He sits. Camera is lowered to the level of his back.) Carla would have played the harp, as she does each evening. (The harp and Carlo's arms playing it appear in the foreground. Pan left to Carla with an expression of exaggerated sadness.) We would have been happy, hidden here, far from the world. Sudden blackout on Guido and the other women as camera moves slightly right, Carla in MCU. (off): All of you and me. What is it that's wrong? (Carla wipes a tear from her cheek.) Why . . . 574. The left side of the table: from foreground to background, Rossella, the Beautiful Unknown Woman, the Black Dancer, Luisa's Sister. G U I D O (off): . . . this sadness? B E A U T I F U L U N K N O W N W O M A N (reprovingly, to the other women): GUIDO

156 8>/t Do you see what you've done now? We've made him feel guilty. Track left/pan right shows the other side of the table: Gloria, Nadine, Hedy (in yet another costume), the Actress, finally Luisa, in MCU. She smiles nervously and wipes her brow. LUISA: That's not it at all, Guido. It's been a wonderful evening. You mustn't be sad, you know. Do you need anything? (She rises.) Now they're all going to bed. (She walks away. After briefly tracking right, the camera pans following her through remainder of shot in LS.) And I have lots to do. (Silhouetted in the shadows, in the background, she takes down a load of laundry from the ladder that leads to the vat.) There's still the laundry. And all the dishes to wash! (She walks left across the room, then throws the laundry into a large tub.) Then I have to mend the sheets . . . (She turns and goes right again where she picks up a bucket.) . . . clean the floor . . . (She carries the heavy bucket further away, into a lighted portion of the room.) . . . and prepare tomorrow's breakfast. (When she reaches the far end of the room she puts down the bucket, turns forward and sighs.) We're happy, all of us living together like this, aren't we, Guido? (She picks up another bucket and comes forward.) At first, I didn't understand. (She dips the bucket into a vat and pulls it out, filled with water.) I didn't really understand that this is the way things should be. (She comes forward with the heavy bucket.) But now . . . (In mid-ground, in shadow, she puts down the bucket and moves to the right.) . . . you see, Guido, how good I've become. (She goes right for soap and a rag.) I don't pester you any more. I don't ask you for anything. (She returns left to bucket, gets down on her hands and knees and starts scrubbing the floor. A spotlight illuminates her.) I was a bit dense, wasn't I? It took me twenty years to understand. Twenty years . . . from the day we got married. (She stops scrubbing and looks forward.) And you became my husband, and I your wife. (She resumes scrubbing.) Do you remember, Guido? Do you remember that day? Slow dissolve to next shot.71 Auditorium of Movie Theater, night78 575. cu: Guido leaning forward, three-quarter profile. GUIDO (whispering to himself): If you could only be patient for a little while longer, Luisa! But maybe you've reached the end of your rope.

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Guido turns as soon as he hears Daumier's voice. D A U M I E R (off): Frankly, I would have liked to have been able to help you with some advice. 576. LS: the upper section of the movie theater. Guido looks at Daumier who is seated one row behind him, a few seats away. D A U M I E R : This evening, I think I have finally understood that you are trying to solve a problem . . . 577. As in 575. D A U M I E R (off): . . . that has no solution, as far as I can see. (Guido looks forward, a wry smile on his face; he nods his head in agreement with Daumier.) You're trying to give individual, clearly defined shape to a mass of characters who, in the script, are so rough, vague . . . 578. In another part of the auditorium, MS ofLuisa looking straight ahead, smoking, nervously drumming her fingers on the seat in front of her; Rossella, smiling back in Guido's direction; Luisa's Sister sitting next to her; Luisa's Friend in front, turning to Rossella; Enrico in the row behind them, a few seats away. D A U M I E R (off): . . . ephemeral . . . L U I S A ' S F R I E N D (bored): What are we going to see? R O S S E L L A (turning to answer): I don't know. Screen tests. L U I S A ' S F R I E N D (takingLuisa's hand): You're not feeling well, are you? L U I S A : N O , I ' m fine. Luisa's Sister whispers something to Rossella who bursts out laughing. 579. MS: Enrico, looking in Luisa's direction, then smiling. R O S S E L L A (off): Listen, Luisa . . . 580. Through the exit, l s of auditorium: Agostini is pacing in foreground; the women and Enrico are in the lower section of seats; a couple is seating themselves a few rows back; Daumier and Guido are in the background. C E S A R I N O (off): Agostini, get up on the ramp and dance and I'll play the piano. The sound of a few notes played on the piano. 581. MS: Daumier, reading his newspaper. D A U M I E R : Listen to this! "The solitary ego that turns in circles around itself, that feeds on itself, finally chokes on a great cry or a great laugh." This was written by Stendhal, during his stay . . ,79 582. MCU: Guido.

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( o f f ) . . . in Italy. If people would read the sayings on candy wrappers, from time to time, instead of throwing them away, they would spare themselves a great many illusions. Still smiling wanly and nodding in agreement, Guido swivels his hand and raises a finger as if to summon someone. 583. The 8 Vi theme is played on piano. In MS, Daumier looks up from his newspaper as Agostini enters from left foreground. Daumier removes his glasses from his forehead when Cesarino appears right, next to him, then puts a black hood over his head. Pan left follows Cesarino, then Agostini, pushing Daumier to central aisle, then up a few steps. Cesarino pulls over a noose from frame left and places it around Daumier's neck. 584. cu: Cesarino adjusting noose, the back of Daumier's hooded head in the center, Agostini right. Cesarino and Agostino leave the frame; the noose is pulled taut. 585. LS: Daumier, back to the camera, hanging over the auditorium. 586. As in 582. ROSSELLA (off): There he is. 587. MCU: Rossella turned right, looking up in Guido's direction; in profile, Luisa in foreground, looking left, in the opposite direction; over Rossella's shoulder, Luisa's Sister, also looking left. ROSSELLA: He's seated himself by the exit, ready to run off, as usual. 588. LS: Guido and Daumier seated in their initial positions. Guido nods in agreement with Rossella. 589. LS: Pace, Conocchia, and the Accountant entering the auditorium. Pan follows as they walk right, in front of stage. PACE: Good evening, everybody. Pardon me for being late. (Pace looks up at Agostini on the ramp, and holds out his arms questioningly.) Well, what are you up to? (Agostini hops down; Cesarino rises from the pit and climbs over the ramp.) Guido, where are you? G U I D O (off): I'm up here. PACE: Come sit over here! G U I D O (off): I'd rather stay up here. PACE (doffing his hat in the direction of Luisa): Good evening. (Pace, Conocchia, and the Accountant sit and face the screen.) Good, you can help us too! (To Cesarino, who runs toward the camera, up the aisle.) Come on! Let's get started! CESARINO: Yes, right away, Boss. They skipped the vaudeville tonight to do us a favor. (Cesarino comes into MCU, puts his fingers into his DAUMIER

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mouth, whistles loudly and waves in the direction of the projection booth.) Get going! 590. MS: left to right. Accountant and Conocchia facing away from camera, Pace turned around in his place, looking in Guido's direction, Pace's Girlfriend eating an ice-cream cone.'0 PACE (handing a list of the screen tests to Conocchia): Young man, you've got to decide. CONOCCHIA (turning toward Guido): I brought all the screen tests, even the ones . . . The Accountant looks toward Guido also. PACE (interrupting): Look, Conocchia, there's no more time for fooling around. Doubts, reconsiderations, whims . . . He's had all the time he wanted. But tonight, he's got to choose. 591. MCU: Guido. GUIDO: That's what we're here for. 592. As in 590. Pace stands, paces, and gesticulates, his back to camera. PACE: Exactly! Conocchia had everything sent from Rome . . . the old screen tests . . . the new screen tests . . . 593. MCU: Conocchia biting a fingernail and fanning himself with the list of the screen tests, Pace's Girlfriend seated several seats away. PACE ( o f f ) : . . . even the ones shot five months ago. Now we're going to look at them again, each and every one of them. 594. MCU: Pace. PACE (to Guido): I want you to say: "This one is the girlfriend, this one the wife, this one's the Cardinal, this one Saraghina." (Raising his voice.) Is that clear? 595. As in 588. Guido waves his hands over his head, as if bending to Pace's will. PACE { o f f , angrily): I don't want to be the laughingstock . . . 596. MS: Agostini, seated, smoking a cigar. PACE ( o f f ) : . . . of Italian cinema. And above all, I don't want you . . . 597. l s of the front of the auditorium from behind Guido, his shoulder in right foreground MCU, his foot shaking nervously on the back of the seat in front of him; in the distance, Pace is striding in the center aisle. The screen looms above him. PACE: . . . to be! Everyone's waiting to shoot you down. You haven't got many friends left, either on the Left or the Right. (Raising his voice again.) But I'm here to help you in any way possible.

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The lights in the auditorium are extinguished. 598. MCU: Pace, silhouetted against screen. P A C E : But production has to begin and it has to begin right away. (He walks right, shouting up to the projection booth.) Start the screen tests 599. LS: the screen; the light shining on it is extinguished, then replaced by the rectangle of light coming from the projector, accompanied by the noise of the projector. This sound is often pronounced during the screen tests. In addition, the voices in the screen tests have been harshly recorded and are thus distinguished from those of the characters sitting in the auditorium. 600. Screen: c u of arms holding clapper board with the words "Screen test Miss Olimpia." M A N ' S V O I C E (off): Screen test Miss Olimpia. Slight pan left as the clapper is clapped and the board removed, revealing, in deep shadows, a rudimentary set: a door left with transparent glass panels, a bench right. In LS, a woman can be seen through the glass, wearing Carla's traveling costume. G U I D O (off): Come in, Olimpia.

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OLIMPIA (entering and pausing with her hand on the doorknob): Should I shut it? GUIDO (off): Yes. (She closes the door and pan follows her right.) Sway as you walk . . . sway your hips. (She walks to the bench, turns her back to the camera.) Put your things down there. (She drops her magazine, book, and white muff on the bench.) Good. Now go to the mirror. (Pan follows her right to full-length mirror where we see her reflection. She is taking off her gloves.) Look pleased with yourself. (She turns around, as if modeling her dress. She lifts her skirt above her knees.) More pleased. A work light goes on and off in the right background. 601. Auditorium: c u ofLuisa, looking intently, sadly. GUIDO ( o f f ) : Swell your chest. (Luisa lowers her eyes.) Now go to the telephone . . . slowly, please. (Luisa looks up and smiles bitterly.) But don't run! What are you running for? Off left, Rossella laughs; Luisa turns in her direction. 602. c u : Rossella, amused at what she sees, chuckling. OLIMPIA ( o f f ) : I'm not running. GUIDO ( o f f ) : Go . . . go up to the mark. Look, there's a mark there on the floor. 603. Screen: Olimpia walking forward in low angle MCU to c u , looking down for the mark. OLIMPIA (picking up telephone and smiling): Hello. Please give me the concierge, please. GUIDO ( o f f , speaking for the concierge): This is the concierge. What can I do for you? OLIMPIA: Um . . . I'd like a bottle of mineral water . . . uncarbonated. GUIDO ( o f f , speaking for the concierge): Then you want Fiuggi. OLIMPIA: NO. Fiuggi . . .

604. Auditorium: High angle MCU of Guido looking dejected. OLIMPIA (off): . . . is carbonated. He buries his face in his hat. GUIDO (in screen test, o f f , as concierge): No, Madame . . . (As director.) Look this way, look this way. (As concierge.) But Fiuggi is the least carbonated. He pronounces "carbonated" with a funny accent, mimicking Carlo's baby-talk. OLIMPIA ( o f f ) : All right. Send up some . . .

162 SVi 605. LS: the auditorium, the spectators looking forward in the direction of the screen. OLIMPIA (off): . . . Fiuggi. PACE: Will this one do, Guido? The sound of a buzzer, like the one heard in shots 33, 117. C O N O C C H I A : He has to decide because she's leaving for England. A G O S T I N I (off): She leaves next week, Guido. P A C E ' S G I R L F R I E N D : But who's this one? PACE (to the Girlfriend): Shut up! (To Guido.) Or do you prefer this one? 606. Low angle MS: Guido squirming in his seat, then bending over, wishing he were somewhere else. During the remainder of the screen tests we occasionally hear the voices of men (often that ofCesarino) announcing, unintelligibly, the name of the candidate and the number of the test, calling for silence and for the camera to roll. PACE (off): This is an important character. She has to be immediately likable. Isn't that right, Guido. Guido looks more and more uncomfortable. 607. Screen: from behind, MS of blond actress, with straight hair, wearing a severe black dress. She is trying out for the role ofLuisa. G U I D O (off): Miss . . . sit down . . . look exhausted. (A cigarette in her hand, she turns, facing the camera, and sits at a metal cafe table with a drink on it, like the table in 493 -508.) The character is a woman who has lost her desire to struggle. She has stopped struggling because . . . Say the line. The camera tracks in to CM. ACTRESS AS L U I S A : Without stopping? G U I D O (off): Eh? ACTRESS AS L U I S A : Without stopping? G U I D O (off): Oh, yes. Without stopping. The actress pauses to concentrate. ACTRESS AS L U I S A : I'm the one who's offering you complete freedom. In any case, I'm no good to you this way. I'm just a nuisance to you. She turns away. 608. Auditorium: MCU ofLuisa looking at screen, biting her fingernails, right foreground; her Friend, left, MS. ACTRESS AS L U I S A (off): Please give it serious thought. I feel as if I'm a burden.

8V2 163 LUISA's FRIEND: Which one is she? What is she supposed to do? LUISA: Can't you tell? It's the wife. GUIDO ( o f f , to the actress in the screen test): Relax. You're among friends. You knew the lines so well when you were prompted. As Luisa leans forward to look for a cigarette in her handbag, Rossella appears behind her, at the right of the frame. ROSSELLA: Hm. Still, she's a likable sort, isn't she? Sensitive, don't you think? LUISA (looking at screen while extending her hand toward Rossella): Give me a cigarette. ROSSELLA: I don't have any more. (Turning to her right.) Enrico, I need some supplies. Rossella leans back; Enrico has rushed over and eagerly offers an open pack of cigarettes. ENRICO: Here's a cigarette! Luisa, Rossella, and Luisa's Friend take cigarettes. LUISA: Thank you.

ENRICO: You're welcome. GUIDO ( o f f , screen test): . . . take it from the line, "Because I can't go on like this way any more." Action. ACTRESS AS LUISA ( o f f ) : Because I can't go on like this way any more. GUIDO ( o f f , as himself, in screen test, raising his voice): OK, let's hear it. You tell me how I should behave. Enrico exits frame, returning to his seat. 609. Screen: c u of Actress as Luisa. ACTRESS AS LUISA: Like someone who doesn't swear he's telling the truth when he isn't. . . every day, over and over. That would be enough. What you actually do is the least of the problems. Never knowing . . . never, never . . . 610. Auditorium: MCU of Guido leaning on the back of the seat next to him, a cigarette in his hand, his face partially lost in shadow. ACTRESS AS LUISA ( o f f ) : . . . once knowing the truth, not even about the unimportant things. Guido leans forward. GUIDO (whispering, knowing that Luisa can't hear him): Luisa, I love you. 611. As in 609. ACTRESS AS LUISA: Lying is like breathing for you. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Repeat that, please.

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8>/2 (lowering her voice, slightly): Lying is like breathing for you. Auditorium: MCU ofLuisa's Friend, Luisa's Sister, andRossella with her knees up against the seat in front of her. L U I S A ' S F R I E N D : Oh, what nerve! She turns right, looking in Luisa's direction. G U I D O ( o f f , to Actress in screen test): Now stand up again . . . make your expression hard, aggressive. (To Cesarino.) Let me see the script. C E S A R I N O ( o f f , in screen test): Here, Guido. L U I S A ' S S I S T E R (looking right, in Luisa's direction, then leaning forward and speaking into the Friend's ear): All this is taken from his life. L U I S A ' S F R I E N D : Of course. Pan right. Now only Rossella and Luisa are in frame. Luisa, looking on in stony silence, is fidgeting with the collar of her blouse. R O S S E L L A (amused): Oh, that's the Princess. I know her. G U I D O ( o f f , to actress in screen test): Repeat this line. "Why? Aren't I alone now?" A C T R E S S AS L U I S A ( o f f ) : Why? Aren't I alone now? c u : the Actress as Luisa. A C T R E S S AS L U I S A : What do you give me? What do I have to look forward to? G U I D O ( o f f , to actress in screen test): Look over here. Now put on your glasses. (Sheputs on the glasses.) Repeat this last line, "Why? Aren't I alone now?" Miss, you must say it . . . Auditorium: MCU of Enrico, serious. G U I D O ( o f f , to actress in screen test): . . . aggressively, of course, but also with deep bitterness. He said, . . . c u : Luisa. She takes a puff of her cigarette. G U I D O ( o f f , to actress in screen test): "Come on now. You can't really want a separation. Do you really want to be alone?" (Lowering his voice.) But what would you do alone? And you answer, "Why? Aren't I alone now?" Don't be afraid. Go ahead. Pan left to Luisa's Sister and Rossella who looks in Luisa's direction, then toward screen. LS: Guido and Daumier. P A C E ( o f f ) : Guido, there is no question about this one. A C T R E S S AS L U I S A ( o f f ) : Why? Aren't I alone now? A C T R E S S AS L U I S A

612.

613.

614.

615.

616.

8'/2 165 (off): She's perfect. Guido spreads his arms in a gesture of uncertainty and then buries his face in his hand. A C T R E S S AS L U I S A (off): What do you give me? What do I have to look forward to? P A C E (off): Guido! 617. MS: Conocchia's back, Pace in profile gesturing his bewilderment, his Girlfriend in right background. C O N O C C H I A (raising his hand, his fingers spread): This has been going on for five months. P A C E ' S G I R L F R I E N D (licking her ice-cream cone): But they're all so old. P A C E (putting his finger to his lips): Sh! 618. Screen: c u of second actress testing for the role of Caria, on telephone. In the remainder of this sequence, the various actresses in the test will be referred to as "Second Carla, Third Carla, First Saraghina, etc." S E C O N D C A R L A : But Fiuggi is carbonated. G U I D O ( o f f , speaking for the concierge): No, Fiuggi is the least carbonated . . . 619. MCU: Luisa looking at her watch, then up toward the screen. G U I D O ( o f f , speaking for the concierge): . . . of the mineral waters. (To the crew.) Sound! S E C O N D C A R L A ( o f f ) : All right. Send up the Fiuggi. Luisa yawns, rubs her eyes. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test): Put down the telephone. C E S A R I N O ( o f f , in screen test): Screen test, Miss Olimpia. 620. c u : Pace. P A C E : HOW about this one, Guido? G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test): Repeat it, more seductively, more . . . O L I M P I A 8 1 ( O # ) : You know that it's dangerous . . . 621. Pan follows Luisa in LS, walking left, up the exterior aisle toward an exit on Guido's level. Pan left to Guido who notices her exiting through curtains. O L I M P I A (off): . . . to leave me alone. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test, playing himself): Oh, really? Why? What is it that you do? O L I M P I A (off): Should I repeat it? PACE

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623.

624.

625.

GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): No, no, no. Put down the phone. (Track in to MCU as Guido takes a drag on his cigarette.) Pull your head over to this side a bit. (He rises to follow Luisa.) Wonderful, Olimpiona. Cut. From Guido's POV, track through exit following Luisa in lobby, LS, walking away from camera. GUIDO (off): Luisa! (She turns and faces forward, in Guido's direction.) Where are you going? LUISA: I'm sleepy. I'm going to the hotel. Good night, Guido. She begins to exit, frame left. GUIDO (off): Wait a minute. Listen . . . She stops, looks back in his direction. Lobby of Movie Theater, night LS: Guido coming through the curtains of the exit. GUIDO: What's wrong? What happened? LUISA (off): Nothing has happened. Nothing ever happens between you and me. Guido is now in MS, his face completely in shadow. GUIDO: Did something you saw in the screen tests offend you? It's only a film. c u : Luisa. LUISA: Oh, I know better than anyone that it's just a film, that it's a fiction . . . another lie, even if you put . . . Pan of Guido moving toward Luisa, in MCU. LUISA ( o f f ) : . . . all of us in it. GUIDO: Luisa . . .

LUISA ( o f f , raising her voice in anger): But as it suits you! (Pan right as Guido sits dejectedly on a staircase.) The truth is something else altogether. And I'm the only one who knows it. 626. As in 624. LUISA: You're just lucky that I'll never have the shamelessness to tell it to others like you do. (She looks toward him with contempt and begins walking away.) But make i t . . . make your film. GUIDO (off): No, I won't make it. Luisa is now walking away from the camera, in the lobby, MS. LUISA: Indulge yourself . . . 627. As in 625. LUISA (off): . . . pat yourself on the back . . .

8Vi 167 GUIDO: NO, I won't make it. LUISA (off): . . . make everyone think you're wonderful! 628. LS: Luisa standing in the lobby, looking back in Guido's direction. LUISA (with utter contempt): What can you possibly have to say to others, you who have never been able to tell the truth to the person closest to you, to the woman who's grown old by your side. GUIDO (off): Luisa, don't be . . . 629. c u : Luisa. GUIDO (off): . . . melodramatic. LUISA (pausing, then more calmly): You were right to have me come here. We needed . . . a conclusion. And you can rest assured that I'll never turn back. You can go straight to hell! She exits right. 630. Ai in 627. The sound ofLuisa's footsteps. Guido stands. Pan follows him left toward the curtains that lead to the auditorium. The buzzer sounds; he throws down his cigarette and goes through the curtains. We hear someone singing Saraghina's melody. Auditorium of Movie Theater, night 631. MCU: Guido regaining his seat, depressed, shaking his head wearily. O f f , Saraghina's melody. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Cut! 632. Screen: LS: in silhouette at right, First Saraghina; center, a power console, with cables tracing over the floor. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Come on now! Run . . . faster . . . run . . . run . . . run! Pan left follows First Saraghina as she moves behind the full-length mirror in which Olimpia admired herself. In the foreground, a boy, his back to the camera, wearing the cape and hat Guido wore in the Saraghina episode. MAN (off): The Boss told you to run! Tugging on her shawl, chewing gum, First Saraghina comes into MCU. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): You! Keep quiet! 633. Auditorium: c u of Guido, leaning forward. He looks up at the screen, , then turns away in disgust, burying his head in his arm. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Throw this idiot out! (To First Saraghina.) Now sing. A different voice begins to sing.

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634. O f f , voice continues, MS: the Accountant, Conocchia, Pace, and Pace's Girlfriend, sitting in a row. Slight track back and pan right as Conocchia rises, then squats in front of Pace to show him some papers. C O N O C C H I A : BOSS, you may think I've gone soft in the head, but the figures . . . the figures . . . they're all down here. Pace puts on his glasses and looks at the papers. 635. Screen: Second Saraghina sits on some stairs, in front of the glasspaneled doors, in LS silhouette. P A C E (off): No, I'll never pay this, not in a million years! Conocchia, you have gone soft in the head. Camera tracks in to a high angle MCU of Second Saraghina, eating from a plate. Only her face, her arm, a bit of her hair, and the plate can be seen in the deep shadows. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test, playing himself as a schoolboy, whispering): Saraghina, look, we have the money! Saraghina, the rumba, the rumba! 636. Auditorium: MCU of Pace turning back in Guido's direction. The sound of the buzzer. PACE: Guido, say something! 637. c u : Guido, again leaning forward. In the screen test he is speaking inaudibly. P A C E ( o f f , with great annoyance): Please! (Guido rises as if to leave.) And this one, Guido? (Guido sits again.) Frankly, I preferred the one before. She's Neapolitan, isn't she, Conocchia? G U I D O (speaking to the absent Luisa): But can't you see that I'm . . . I'm stammering. (He buries his face in his hands.) I'm stammering. 638. Screen: c u of Second Carla, on telephone. S E C O N D C A R L A (serious): When are you coming? I'm tired of waiting. 639. c u : Fourth Carla, on telephone. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test, commandingly): Look right at me! F O U R T H C A R L A (with a high-pitched, wheedling tone): Don't leave me alone! You know it's dangerous. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test) Turn around! 640. c u : Third Carla, on telephone. T H I R D C A R L A (in a low-pitched, sexy voice): Don't leave me alone! You know it's dangerous, darling. G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test): Look over here. 641. c u : Fifth Carla, on telephone.

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FIFTH CARL A (ending on a bit of a threat): Why don't you come right away? You're making me wait. You know it's dangerous when I have to wait. 642. c u : Guido looking forward through his hands, then hiding his eyes behind them. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test, with increasing anger): Louder, louder, louder! 643. Screen: c u of a large plumed fan being waved. In shots 643-648 there is a babble of voices, the repeated sound of the buzzer, and the intensified sound of the projector. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Countess . . . walk . . . come on! When the fan is pulled away we see, in LS, a woman dressed in the Cardinal's regalia in mid-distance, the glass-paneled door and two men in the background. Guido's shoulder is in the foreground. He then enters the frame and goes to take the arm of the Cardinal, indicating where he should walk, forward right. GUIDO (in screen test): I told you to walk. Follow the line traced . . . THE COUNTESS TESTING FOR CARDINAL (crankily): Don't touch me

with your hand! GUIDO (in screen test): Go this way. 644. c u : three-quarter profile of one of the Carlas, her head bent back, laughing raucously. A clapper board with the words "EVENING ILLUMIN" is placed on her shoulder, then drawn down in front of her face. 645. LS: the set, the Countess testing for Cardinal standing on a rotary platform, being turned; in foreground silhouette, some workers; a different clapper, "EVENING ILLUM'ED" is inserted at bottom offrame. 646. Low angle MS of Third Saraghina. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Uncover your shoulders quickly. She pulls blouse off her shoulders. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test, playing himself as schoolboy): Saraghina . . . 647. c u : one ofCarlas, walking forward. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test, as schoolboy): . . . we have the money. Saraghina, we have the money. 648. Low angle MCU: the Countess testing for Cardinal, no longer wearing the mitre, being turned around. GUIDO ( o f f , in screen test): Stop. That's fine. 649. Auditorium: MCU of Daumier looking slightly puzzled.

170 G U I D O ( o f f , in screen test): Was that all right? 650. Screen: extreme low angle c u offan. When it is pulled away we see, in LS, the ceiling of the sound stage. 651. Auditorium: MCU of Pace, turning around. PACE (to Rossella): And what's your opinion? Come on, speak up! This is a democracy. Say something! If he won't talk, maybe you'll say something. (Turning away and mispronouncing a mild French expletive.) Eh, sacré bleu! 652. Pan right follows Claudia's Agent toward Guido, MS. He leans over to Guido in cu. The sound track of the screen tests—the singing of the actresses testing for Saraghina, Guido's instructions, the projector, etc.— persists into 654. C L A U D I A ' S AGENT: Don't try to hide. We can find you anywhere. How are you? GUIDO: H i .

Pan continues right as Guido, still in c u , turns toward the face of Claudia's Press Agent, next to his. C L A U D I A ' S PRESS AGENT: Hi. I'm Conetti, from Claudia's publicity office. We met fifteen years ago. Do you remember me? G U I D O (nodding): Yes, yes. C L A U D I A ' S PRESS A G E N T (looking left, behind Guido): Look! She's here. G U I D O (looking left): Where is she? 653. Low angle LS: the back of the auditorium, from Guido's POV. A young woman wearing white, Claudia's Secretary, takes a seat in the back row. Claudia, wearing a dress with ostrich feathers at the neck, is silhouetted by the light coming from the open exit; the light of the projector floods the top of the frame. 654. MCU, from the row behind them, of Claudia's Press Agent, Guido, and Claudia's Agent turned in their seats, looking in her direction, away from camera. Guido remains in MCU as he stands. G U I D O (looking down at the two men): Excuse me. Tracking pan follows Guido down aisle then upstairs toward Claudia. 655. ms: Claudia standing in profile, looking in the direction of the screen, her secretary seated just beyond her. The secretary rises and looks in Guido's direction. C L A U D I A ' S SECRETARY (in English): He's calling you.

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Claudia looks in Guido's direction. Camera tracks forward slightly as she walks into MCU, a broad smile on her face, her hair brightly lit by the projection beam. G U I D O (off, with great sweetness)-. Claudia! C L A U D I A : How are you? G U I D O (off): Fine. And you? (He pauses, laughs slightly.) So you finally came! Shall we go outside? Track follows Claudia as she turns and walks toward her secretary. C L A U D I A : I'd like you to meet Caroline, my secretary. Claudia turns back to Guido as Caroline walks into MCU. G U I D O (off): Yes. C L A U D I A ' S S E C R E T A R Y : I'm glad to meet you. G U I D O (off): But I'd like to speak to you alone. C L A U D I A ' S S E C R E T A R Y : All right, I'll wait here. Claudia's Secretary exits left; pan follows Claudia up a few stairs and out the door.*2

172 816 Exit Stairway Leading to Street, night83 656. MCU: track on Claudia walking downstairs. CLAUDIA: When do we begin shooting? G U I D O (off): Soon . . . very soon. She pauses at the bottom of the stairs, looks up toward Guido. C L A U D I A : But what part am I going to play? Music of orchestra in public square, outside, playing "Blue Moon." G U I D O (off): Eh? (She laughs.) I'll tell you everything later. Pan follows Claudia into street. 84 C L A U D I A : I'm very happy to be working with you . . , Street, night 657. MCU- MS: track follows Claudia as she walks around the front of her car. C L A U D I A : . . . and I hope that I'll be a help to you. But I want to know everything. (Track right shows her at car door.) Where are we going now? Pan left and tilt down, as she gets into driver's seat. 658. MS: from outside through car window, Claudia in foreground. She looks at Guido as he gets into car. Camera tracks closer. C L A U D I A : Well? G U I D O (looking at her, pausing, then pointing ahead): This way. 659. LS: street. Pan right follows car as it approaches, veers right in MS, then drives away down the street past a line of parked cars, toward a blinking traffic light, then, again in LS, turns right. An elderly woman, smoking a cigarette, is briefly seen walking right on the street."5 Driving in Claudia's Car, night Throughout this scene, shafts of light from the road illuminate Guido's eyes and forehead. He looks in Claudia's direction, then down or straight ahead, occasionally taking a drag on his cigarette. Looking at Guido, then at the road, Claudia is usually shown in three-quarter profile, her face brightly illuminated, shining in the black night. There is little suggestion of what lies beyond the windows of the car. The conversation is frequently punctuated with pauses, and facial expressions of reaction. 660. MCU: Guido. The music stops. G U I D O : HOW beautiful you are! You make me feel timid. You make my heart beat like a schoolboy's. 661. c u : Claudia. G U I D O (off): You don't believe me, do you? You inspire true and deep re-

8'/2 173 spect! Claudia! Who are you in love with? Who's the man in your life? Who do you care about? C L A U D I A (laughing): You. 662. c u : Guido. GUIDO: You've come just in time. Why do you smile like that? 663. As in 661. Claudia laughs again. G U I D O (off): I can never tell if you're criticizing, forgiving, or teasing me. C L A U D I A : I'm just listening. You said you wanted to talk to me, to tell me about the film. I don't know anything about it. 664. As in 662. A particularly long pause. G U I D O (speaking with increasing rapidity): Would you be able to give up everything, to start life all over again . . . to choose one thing, just one thing, and be faithful to i t . . . to make it the thing that gives meaning to your life . . . something that contains everything else . . . that becomes everything else just because of your boundless faith in it? Could you do that? Say . . . if I asked you . . . 665. As in 663. G U I D O (off): . . . Claudia . . . C L A U D I A : Where are we going? I don't know the road. And what about you? Could you? The sound of water. G U I D O (off): The springs . . . 666. MCU: Guido, Claudia's hand on steering wheel in foreground. GUIDO: . . . must be nearby. Listen. Try turning here. She turns the steering wheel. 667. c u : Guido. G U I D O : NO. This guy couldn't. He wants to take hold of everything, to devour everything. He can't give anything up. He changes direction every day . . . 668. As in 665. Claudia is now serious. G U I D O (off): . . . for fear he might miss the right path. And he's dying, bleeding to death. C L A U D I A : And is this how the film ends? G U I D O (off): No, it begins like this. Then he meets the girl at the springs. She is one of those girls . . . 669. As in 667.

174 SYi GUIDO: . . . who pours the healing water. She's beautiful. . . both young and ancient . . . a child yet already a woman . . . authentic . . . radiant! There is no doubt that she is his salvation. 670. As in 668, Claudia in perfect profile, emphasizing Guido's POV, then looking in Guido's direction. GUIDO (off): You'll be dressed in white. You'll wear your hair long, like this, just the way it is now.86 Courtyard of Old Building, night87 671. Pan right and track forward, following the headlights of the turning car as they play over the edge of the building, a façade and then into the depth of the couryard. 672. MS: Claudia right, brightly illuminated, through windshield; Guido, left, in shadow. The sound of the car's motor has been replaced by that of the wind whistling. GUIDO: Turn off the headlights.88 Courtyard of Old Building, Guido's Fantasy, night 673. As in many of the other fantasy sequences, there is no sound. Crane up the dark façade to a brightly illuminated window on an upper floor. In MS, Claudia, dressed in white as she was in the first sequence at the springs, 43—49, and during Guido's fantasy in his bedroom, 304—315, takes a lamp from the window sill. She turns her back to camera and walks into the bright room. 674. LS: Claudia, barefoot, coming through a doorway into the courtyard, carrying the lamp. Pan right follows as she walks with the particular dancelike movement of her other fantasy scenes. She places the lamp on a table set for two in the center of the courtyard. It is illuminated from directly above by a spotlight. 675. MCU: Claudia looking down at table. Pan follows as she moves left, apparently to inspect one place setting, then right to inspect the other. She looks up, smiling, then moves left again.*9 Courtyard of Old Building, night 676. LS: the courtyard, now without the table and Claudia. The sound of the whistling wind resumes. Camera tracks back slightly. 677. cu: Claudia in profile, seated in car as before. CLAUDIA: And then what? The sound of Guido's door opening and closing. Claudia turns; her gaze follows him right. We hear his footsteps.

8V2 175 678. LS: track follows Guido walking away from camera, in courtyard. He puts on his jacket. 679. MS: Guido, his back to the camera. He stops, looks around. 680. MS: Claudia walking forward, wrapped in her flimsy, gauzy shawl, her head bent. The car is in the background. C L A U D I A : Let's get away from here. 681. As in 679. C L A U D I A (off): This place scares me. It's doesn't. . . 682. As in 680. Claudia looks up. CLAUDIA: . . . seem real. G U I D O (off): I like it enormously. Isn't that odd? Claudia smiles, laughs, walks to the right, her back to the camera. C L A U D I A : I've understood almost nothing about the story you told me. (She has now reached the side of the courtyard and is in LS.) Listen, a man like t h a t . . . the way you describe him . . . who doesn't love anybody . . . (Leaning against the wall in the shadows, next to a brightly illuminated doorway, she turns and faces forward.) . . . no one is going to feel very sorry for him, you know. (She moves to the right and sits on the door sill.) Basically, it's his fault. 683. cu: Guido, his head bent forward, his big black hat pulled down on his forehead. C L A U D I A (off): What right does he have to expect anything from others? Guido looks up. GUIDO: Don't you think I know that? 684. MS: Claudia sitting on sill, her head on her knees, her ostrich-plumed mantle hanging down symmetrically on either side of her.90 G U I D O (off): You're a bit of a bore, just like everyone else! C L A U D I A (looking up, laughing): Oh, so you don't want to hear any criticism at all. You look so funny in that big ugly hat—just like an old man! 685. Low angle LS from Claudia's POV: Guido standing in courtyard, tying his tie. C L A U D I A (off): I don't understand. He meets a girl who can help him come back to life, who revives him. And he rejects her. GUIDO: Because he no longer believes in it. He turns and walks left. C L A U D I A (off): Because he doesn't know how to love. 686. cu: Claudia, her head leaning against the door.

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8'A GUIDO (off): Because it's not true that a woman can change a man. CLAUDIA: Because he doesn't know how to love. GUIDO (off): And especially because I don't want to tell . . . another story that's filled with lies. CLAUDIA: Because he doesn't know how to love. LS: Guido, near the other side of the courtyard. He turns in Claudia's direction. GUIDO: Claudia, I'm sorry I made you come all the way up here. (He walks left.) Please . . . mcu: now standing, Claudia turns forward. GUIDO (off): . . . forgive me. CLAUDIA: What a cheat you are! So there is no part. . . c u : Guido. CLAUDIA (off): . . . in the film? GUIDO: You're right. There is no part in the film. There's not even a film. There's nothing at all, anywhere. As far as I'm concerned . . . ECU: Claudia, her face completely in shadow. GUIDO (off): . . . the whole thing can end right here. The sound of a car driving up. Claudia's face is brightly illuminated by the headlights. LS: Guido and Claudia, Claudia's car in the left background. The headlights blind them. Pan follows Guido who walks forward, right, shielding his face with his hat; Claudia leans over to pick up her ostrich-plumed mantle. LS: the archway leading into couryard. A convertible sports car drives through it into MS, Cesarino at the wheel, Agostini next to him. They speak simultaneously. AGOSTINI: Here they are! CESARINO: Guido, what are you doing? AGOSTINI: Good evening, Boss. CESARINO: Everyone's looking for you. Where have you run off to? By the way, you know, we begin next week. LS: Cesarino's car, right; Claudia's car, left; Claudia being escorted to the left by her Publicity Agent. CLAUDIA's AGENT (first o f f , then entering right and walking forward): Guido, your producer has had a terrific idea—the most spectacular cocktail party to ever launch a film! And do you know where? Music: "La Conferenza stampa del regista (The Director's Press Confer-

8'/2 177 etice)," based on various themes in the film, is played with an insistently energetic, nervous beat. It continues into the next sequence. While the Agent is speaking, Pace's car pulls into the center in MS. Pace is leaning out the window on the driver's side, Conocchia is seated next to him. P A C E : At the spaceship. Tommorrow afternoon. Radio, television . . . 694. MS: Guido holding up his hat, trying to shield his face from the lights. His eyes move left, following the direction of the car. P A C E (off): . . . and the foreign press. Come on, Guido, now we're starting for real.91 Spaceship Set on the Beach, day 695. Starting from behind Guido's car, the camera tracks back and cranes up to reveal a whole fleet of cars converging on the two towers, ELS. People are walking on the network of stairs between and inside the towers, in the background. 696. LS: Guido, his arms held by Agostini and Cesarino, being escorted left past a series of cars parked diagonally. Pan follows as the three men approach a line of decorative posts, connected by ribbons billowing in the wind. Just as they turn away, heading toward the towers, Guido stops and collapses. His companions hoist him back upright. Track behind them as they continue walking, Guido now gesturing that he can walk on his own. A moment later he suddenly turns forward to make a break for it, but Agostini and Cesarino grab him around the waist. C E S A R I N O : Grab him! Track follows them toward the towers; Guido collapses again and is dragged forward. 691. MCU: track follows Guido being held up by his arms; tilt up left to Agostini. A G O S T I N I : Come on. Get up. Walk! Pan right to Cesarino. There is a babble of voices encouraging Guido to walk. Claudia's Agent appears in the center of the frame, MS, runs backwards waving his arm, then turns away. C L A U D I A ' S A G E N T : Here he is! Guido is lifted into the frame. 698. LS, track follows journalists running, klieg lights and posts in the foreground, the base of one of the towers in the background. Led by the American Journalist, the group turns forward, in MS. C L A U D I A ' S A G E N T (off): He's arrived! A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T (in English, waving): Hello, Guido! Welcome!

178 9Vi A white veil is wafted in front of the camera. 699. Pan left to right, M S - L S - M S , past a table laden with bottles and pitchers. Bartenders bow as Guido and the others quickly move by, out of frame. A glimpse of Guido as he escapes the clutches of Agostini and Ceserino, then flees behind the bandstand. AGOSTINI: Where are you going, Guido? It's over here. Pan continues right, tilting up to the band playing, then tilting down as Guido is seen behind the drummer, then through the framework of metal poles holding up the bandstand. He continues right, brushing himself off with his hat. At right, sitting on a large cable core. Tilde and her Boyfriend who jumps down and extends his hand to Guido. Standing next to them at right, a woman wearing a black sheath dress covered with a flimsy white gauze. She holds her large black hat against the wind. T I L D E ' S B O Y F R I E N D : Oh, Guido, I'm sure that today it'll be a beautiful . . . Guido, now calmer, looks around and walks forward into MCU. Track continues as he proceeds, right to left in front of bandstand, shaking the hands ofjournalists, their backs to the camera. AMERICAN J O U R N A L I S T (in Italian): I'm very curious to hear the story that you're finally going to tell. Met by Agostini, Guido walks away from camera. 700. Pan from the face of one journalist to the next, tracking in MCU. Initially, the frenetic pattern of the pan is controlled by Guido's POV; then Guido himself appears in the shot, thereby violating the conventional spatial logic. AMERICAN J O U R N A L I S T ' S W I F E : Don't you take yourself a little too seriously, Mr. Anselmo (sic)? BEARDED J O U R N A L I S T (in English): Are you for or against eroticism? A blond female journalist appears in the frame and asks an unintelligible question. BEARDED J O U R N A L I S T (off): Are you afraid of the atomic bomb? Do you believe in God? As the blond journalist exits to the right, track left follows Guido walking between Agostini and Cesarino, LS, pursued by the journalists. Several models, wearing flowing capes and extravagant headdresses, are seated in foreground, their backs to the camera. As Guido passes behind the row of models, he stops and turns angrily to Cesarino and Agostini.

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Leave me alone! I'll walk by myself. The procession continues to move away toward a row of people sitting in the background. 701. MS: track with Guido and entourage moving forward. A photographer walking backwards is trying to take Guido's picture but Guido thwarts him by making peculiar gestures with his fingers. Pan left as photographer tries to get a better angle and leaves the frame, LS of Maurice, dressing in front of a mirror, Maya seated next to him, inspecting her necklaces. 702. From Guido's POV, MS of Maurice waving at Guido, smiling broadly. Track away from Maurice who holds up his hands, his fingers crossed. MAURICE: Hello there! Good luck! 703. MS: Guido, looking over his shoulder at Maurice. Guido is then rushed out of the frame, right, by the procession. 704. Tracking pan left, MS to LS, follows Cesarino who breaks away and jumps onto the dais. Photographers and journalists are mid-distance. Pace is standing on the platform, right. On left, a long table, on top of which are models of the spaceship. CESARINO (to Pace): Boss, here he is! PACE (walking forward and signaling to the journalists to have patience): Calm down! Pace and Cesarino are now in MS, bending over to help Guido onto the dais. J O U R N A L I S T ( o f f , in English): Well, are you afraid of the atomic bomb? Do you or don't you believe in God? PACE (to Guido): We've been waiting for you for three days. It's winter already. Pace and Guido continue left, toward Conocchia and Claudia's Publicity Agent who are already seated at the table. C O N O C C H I A : Attention, please. There is a load roar and laughter from the journalists. In LS, as Guido takes his seat next to Conocchia, Conocchia indicates to someone to move. Daumier appears in MCU, frame left, facing the camera. 705. Long rapid track, MCU-MS, past seated journalists who are throwing out questions, gesticulating insistently, waving pencils, and taking notes. The voices become a cacophony that persists, nearly uninterrupted, through 734. Although most of the dialogue is unintelligible, several words and phrases, in Italian and English, can be distinguished: "Do you think that GUIDO:

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pornography is an art form or . . . ? Do you think that pornography can be a more intense form of . . . ? Have you ever fallen in love with an actress in one of your films?" Behind the row of journalists, two workman are carrying a decorative column. MCU: track follows Daumier as he walks left in front of the platform. Pace and the others are trying to calm the journalists, MS. J O U R N A L I S T (off): Why don't you ever make a film about love? When Daumier exits frame left, we see Pace trying to make Guido stand up after he has just sat down. Brief track right next to a group of journalists, to MCU of a photographer looking through a camera with a huge lens. MCU : track past Claudia's Press Agent, then panning on Pace and Guido. P A C E {in English, to the crowd): A thousand apologies for his being late. Pace leans over and whispers in Guido's ear; Guido whispers in Pace's ear. P A C E (in Italian, addressing crowd): I wish to announce that. . . Guido sits. G U I D O (protesting to Pace and Agostini): Tomorrow . . . tomorrow. They force him to rise. LS pan follows group of journalists moving energetically from the left to the dais on right. Their backs to the camera, they seem to want to assault Guido who ducks down behind the table. Tilt up to Pace and the others standing. Out of the babble of voices we can hear, "What do you think you can teach us?" Do you really think that your life can be of interest to others? . . . " A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T : Can you honestly admit that you have nothing to say? A journalist mounts the dais, waving his arm. J O U R N A L I S T : DO you know that this film is the story of . . . Female journalist, in MCU, turns and faces the camera, smiling cruelly. She walks into low angle cu. F E M A L E J O U R N A L I S T (in English, triumphantly): He's lost. He has nothing to say. She laughs maniacally. MS: Guido seated, protesting to Pace, Agostini, and Cesarino, who surround him. PACE: He wants to say something. M C U - M S : the faces of the journalists, laughing mockingly.

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712. cu: Conocchia, looking in Guido's direction. C O N O C C H I A : Answer. Say something, go ahead. 713. cu: Guido. Tilt down to his inverted reflection in the glass top of the table. C O N O C C H I A (off): Guido, anything at all! Say anything at all! Pan left to Pace's inverted reflection. PACE: DO it f o r m e !

714. cu: Claudia's Press Agent speaking into Pace's ear. PACE (repeating, to the journalists): I promise you . . . 715. From Guido's POV, MS pan right, tilt up as more journalists jump up on platform. One journalist in profile, c u . J O U R N A L I S T (to Guido): . . . this film. And afterwards, afterwards, what will you live on? 716. From Guido's POV, pan left to right over the journalists faces M C U - M S , first those below him, then those standing on the platform. J O U R N A L I S T S : Are you for or against divorce? Tell me, frankly. . . . Is that your basic problem . . . that you cannot communicate, or is that just a pretext? . . . Mocking laughter. 717. From Guido's POV, low angle CU of Pace, in profile, addressing journalists. PACE: Although your questions betray a certain hostility, I assure you that my director is in top form. 718. cu: Guido, confused, looking left and right. G U I D O : What should I do? What am I supposed to do? 719. cu: Conocchia wiping his eyes with his handkerchief, turning in Guido's direction, from Guido's POV. The sound of the wind, heard intermittently throughout this scene, becomes more insistent and menacing from this point through 736. PACE ( o f f , addressing journalists): . . . he should be treated with respect, because . . . 720. cu: Guido, from Conocchia's POV. G U I D O (with tenderness)-. Conocchia, forgive me if I treated you badly. You were wonderful, the best of them all. 721. As in 717. PACE (to the journalists): He ponders, he considers, he reflects. (To

182 8Yz Guido, with great anger.) Speak! Answer! I've been paying for your confusion, your breakdown. 722. High angle cu: Guido bending his head down, shaking it negatively, from Pace's POV. PACE (off): I've been paying for everything for months! 723. As in 721. PACE: If you don't make thisfilmI'll destroy you. (Turning to the journalists.) He will now be at your disposal. The press has always been . . . 724. As in 722. Reflections can be seen in the glass table. G U I D O (to himself): Claudia, where are you? And your "spirits," Rossella? 725. Track down the table, the models of the spaceship in the center, Guido and his party on right, journalists on left and at back. Tilt down to table top where we se the inverted reflection ofLuisa in a white wedding dress, MCU.

(first o f f , then in reflection): What am I supposed to do? Go away? Disappear? For me, you will never again be what you were before. I will no longer be your wife. When will you truly marry me? 726. cu: Guido, three-quarter profile, frame right; Pace's dark overcoat in background. G U I D O : Luisa, is it really true that you want a separation, that you want to leave me? LUISA (off): But how can I go on like this, right to the end! 727. MCU: track right, from Luisa, her eyes downcast, to left, the journalists asking questions. J O U R N A L I S T : What does your wife think about this? More unintelligible questions. 728. From behind, MS, Agostini, Pace with his arm around Guido's shoulder, Cesarino gesticulating to the journalists. Track left as Guido sits again. A photographer is leaning on the table opposite Guido. A G O S T I N I (speaking in Guido's ear): In your right-hand pocket, Boss! Conocchia leans over to Guido. C O N O C C H I A : SO long, Guido. 729. High angle cu: Guido in profile, looking down at the table, Agostini speaking in his ear. AGOSTINI: I put it in your right-hand pocket. As Agostini exits frame Guido looks up in his direction, with the beginLUISA

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ning of a smile on his lips. 730. Low angle MCU: Agostini, looking in Guido's direction, with a conspiratorial expression. 731. MS of Agostini's right shoulder, Guido looking toward him and nodding. Camera is lowered as Guido ducks under the table. PACE (off): Oh, no! No one can get away with this. 732. MS: Guido crawling forward on his hands and knees. Slight track to right as Pace leans down to shout at him. PACE: Buffoon!

733. MS: track right, behind people's legs, following Guido's progress beneath the table. PACE (off): Get out of there, get out of there, you coward. 734. cu: Guido's back as he crawls beneath the table. He looks up, over his shoulder. Track follows as he continues to crawl forward. GUIDO: Just a minute. Just a minute while I think of what I should say. Track forward to show Guido's face cu. He removes his glasses, looking up to the right. G U I D O (interior monologue): That's right, that's right! GUIDO: I'm coming right away. I'm coming right away. He turns over on his back, removes a gun from his jacket pocket and puts it to his head. DAUMIER (off): He's an incurable romantic. 735. The music stops, the sound of the wind increases. MS of Guido's Mother, her back to the camera, standing on the beach, looking at the sea. She turns abruptly and begins running left. G U I D O ' S MOTHER: Guido! Guido! (Track follows her, then pulls back and up, leaving her in LS, her arm raised.) Where are you running to, you naughty boy? The sound of a gunshot links this shot and the next. 736. As in 734. Guido is still lying beneath the table, his back to the camera in MCU. Having shot himself, his head hits the floor.92 Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening 737. LS: low angle pan left from one tower to the other, streamers blowing in the wind that whistles even more loudly. The sound of the wind, joined at first by that of the surf, varies in intensity until 763. 738. LS: Guido, Agostini, and workers, looking up at the towers. The set is desolate, abandoned. AGOSTINI: Take everything down, boys. The film is off. In two days it

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m has to be all gone. You have to start right away. Get going. Tear it down. Looking around, Guido walks aimlessly. AGOSTINI (to Guido): Is that it, Boss? GUIDO (waving his hat): Yes, thanks. So long, boys. I'll see you on another film. Pan follows Guido left. MAN'S VOICE: Let's hope so.

Guido waves at the Sailor who does a few steps of his dance. GUIDO: SO long, Sailor. Track back as Guido walks forward, then stops to take another look at the tower behind him. Daumier appears in MCU, profile, frame left, sitting at a table. DAUMIER: YOU did the right thing. Believe me . . . today is a good day for you. (Looking straight ahead rather than at Guido, he stands.) These are difficult decisions, I know. But we intellectuals—I say " w e " because I consider you one—we must remain lucid right to the end. (He turns left and walks a few steps, pan/ trackfollows him in MCU. The beach can be seen in the background.) There are already too many superfluous things in the world. It's not a good idea to add more disorder to disorder. (He turns, leans on a car and smokes.) In any case, losing money is part of the producer's job. I congratulate you! You had no choice. (He leans down, opens door, and gets in on the passenger's side.) And he got what he deserves. To have so thoughtlessly embarked on such a frivolous project! (Trackforward as he leans out the window, then leans back in and looks down.) Believe me, you should feel neither nostalgia nor remorse. It's better to destroy than to create when you're not creating those few things that are truly necessary. And finally, in this world of ours, is there anything so just and true that it has the right to survive? For him, a bad film is only an fiscal event. But for you, at this point in your life, it could have been the end. 739. Pan left follows Guido walking beside car, MS to MCU. From here, until 755, he wears a fixed, sad expression. DAUMIER ( o f f ) : It's better to knock it all down and strew the ground with salt, as the ancients did, to purify the battlefields. In profile, Guido again looks up at the tower. DAUMIER ( o f f ) : What we really need is . . . 740. Low angle LS: the workmen on platform, throwing down a tubular struc-

SVi 185 ture. Pan follows structure as it falls and hits the ground. (off): . . . some hygiene, some cleanliness, some disinfection. 741. As in 739. Guido gets into car. D A U M I E R ( o f f , then in frame, next to Guido): We're stifled by words, images, sounds that have no right to exist. . . 742. High angle MS: Guido, right foreground, in driver's seat, Daumier, left background. D A U M I E R : . . . that come from the void and go back to the void. Anyone who deserves to be called an artist should be asked to make this single act of faith: to educate oneself to silence. (Track in to MCU of Guido. Daumier is now out of frame.) Do you remember Mallarme's praise of the white page? And Rimbaud . . 743. From behind Guido, we see Maurice in LS through the windshield. Pan right follows Maurice as he runs excitedly to Daumier's window, MS. M A U R I C E (to Guido): Wait, Guido! Wait! D A U M I E R (to Guido): . . . a poet, my friend, not a movie director. Do you know what his finest poetry was? His refusal to continue writing and his departure for Africa. M A U R I C E : We're ready to begin. (Pan follows Maurice as he runs around to Guido's side. In MCU, he leans into Guido's window.) All my best wishes! (He straightens up, looks up, and waves his cane.) D A U M I E R (off): If you can't have everything, . . . 744. cu: the back of Claudia's head. She is walking on the beach, now dressed in the white costume of the girl of the springs. From this point through 756, various characters from the film reappear on the beach, dressed in white. Most of them look at Guido with love and compassion. D A U M I E R (off): . . . true perfection is in nothingness. Her head bent, as if in an act of devotion, Claudia turns toward the camera. D A U M I E R (off): Forgive me for making all these learned references. But we critics . . . Claudia looks up. 745. cu: through car window, Guido's head bent in thought. D A U M I E R (off): . . . do what we can. Our true job is . . . 746. MS: track/pan around Nannies, one of them holding the child Guido in her arms. D A U M I E R (off): . . . to sweep away the thousands of abortions that every day . . . DAUMIER

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747. Low angle MS: Saraghina at right of frame, her arm on her hip. D A U M I E R (off): . . . obscenely . . . 748. High angle LS: Guido's Father and Mother standing in field, right. D A U M I E R (off): . . . try to come into the world. 749. MCU: Guido's Father and Mother. D A U M I E R (off): And you would really like . . . 750. c u : Daumier in car, his face almost completely in shadow. D A U M I E R : . . . to leave behind you a complete film, just like a cripple who leaves behind his crooked footprint! 751. c u : track with Claudia moving left, smiling. D A U M I E R (off): What a monstrous presumption to think that others might enjoy the squalid catalogue . . . 752. LS: track follows Claudia moving left on beach. D A U M I E R (off): . . . of your mistakes! And what good would it do you to string together . . . 753. c u : track follows Carla smiling, moving right, the Cardinal, his entourage, and Saraghina, moving right in the background. D A U M I E R (off): . . . the tattered pieces of your life, your vague memories, or the faces of . . . 754. LS: track with Cardinal's entourage, Saraghina, the Nannies and the child Guido, the Grandmother, walking right. D A U M I E R (off): . . . the people that you were never able to love? Pan to Guido's Father and Mother, Jacqueline, the Beautiful Unknown Woman, and Carla, walking forward. 755. As in 745. Guido rubs his head. G U I D O (interior monologue): What is this sudden joy that makes me tremble, gives me strength, life? 756. LS: Rossella andLuisa walking forward. Rossella is speaking. Behind them, a section of a circus ring with lights in its base. A long white veil blows diagonally through the frame. G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): Please forgive me, sweet women. (Rossella stops, then walks left. Luisa, unsmiling, walks forward into c u a ! camera rises.) I didn't understand. I didn't know. How right it is to accept you, to love you! And how simple it is! Luisa, I feel as if I've been freed. Everything seems good. Everything is meaningful. Everything is true. (Luisa momentarily tightens her lips in emotion.) Oh, I wish I knew how to explain myself. 757. As in 755.

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(interior monologue): But I don't know how to say it. So that's it. Everything is as it was before! 758. LS: pan right follows Maurice (in his black costume) running, then tilt up to men standing on platforms, adjusting arc lights. M A U R I C E : Turn them on! G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): Everything is confused again! M A U R I C E ( o f f ) : The lights! G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): But all this confusion . . . it's me, myself. 759. LS, from further away, of men, platforms, and arc lights, part of the tower rising behind them. A large white curtain hangs left, a white veil floats across the top of the frame. M A U R I C E ( o f f ) \ All the lights! G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): Myself as I am, . . . 760. LS: the arc lights aimed down through floating veil, the tower with streamers, right. G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): . . . not as I would like to be. And it doesn't. . . 761. As in 757. Guido continues rubbing the side of his head. There is a glimmer of a smile on his face. G U I D O (interior monologue): . . . frighten me any more. To tell the truth . . . what I don't know . . . what I'm looking for . . . what I haven't yet found! Only this way do I feel alive, and can I . . . 762. As in 756. Luisa looks down, as in response to Guido. G U I D O ( o f f , interior monologue): . . . look at your faithful eyes without shame. Life is a holiday! Let's live it together. I can't say anything else, Luisa . . . neither to you nor to the others. Accept me as I am, if you can. It's the only way we have to try to find each other. LUISA: I don't know if what you said is right. 763. As in 761. L U I S A ( o f f ) : But I can try . . . Music: "La Passarella di addio," a medley of many of the film's themes, played in a "circus" style. L U I S A ( o f f ) : . . . if you help me. 764. Pan left follows procession of four clowns approaching LS to MS, the first two playing clarinets or recorders, the third a tuba, the fourth a sousaphone. They are followed by Guido as Schoolboy, wearing a white uniform, playing a fife. This group of musicians continues left, away from GUIDO

188 8Vx the camera, toward the towers and lights. They continue playing the same tune repeatedly until the end of the film, either by themselves, or accompanied by the orchestra on the bandstand. 765. ls: Maurice running forward, a curtain billowing behind him, in front of the towers and lights. The group of characters dressed in white, led by Guido's Mother and Father, enter the frame from right and left foreground and walk toward Maurice. He doffs his hat and motions for them to continue. m a u r i c e : Welcome back! Come forward, come, come forward! 766. Pan right follows Maurice in mcu. His back to camera, he waves his cane and a white curtain is raised up, filling the frame. Maurice turns in right profile and signals with his cane. 767. ls: Guido walking right, then facing forward, first lost in thought, then gesticulating and talking to himself. The raised circus ring is behind him; a long white veil flutters over it. Guido energetically waves his hat, left, signaling to the five musicians to come toward him, then looks around. The musicians enter frame left; pan follows right as Guido moves with them, showing them where he wants them to go. In the background, a trailer and workers. Pan follows the musicians as they circle inside the ring. Guido lags back, then walks beside Guido as Schoolboy. As the musicians exit right, Guido takes a megaphone from a chair and runs forward into mcu, looking right toward the marching musicians. g u i d o : Just a minute, just a minute. I'll give you the signal. Pan right follows Guido approaching the musicians, who are moving left to right, then toward the camera. As they come closer, he moves away and then left. Now in MS, they face left and march in place. g u i d o ( o f f , to Guido as Schoolboy): There! Now go toward the curtain. Pan follows Guido as Schoolboy who moves right toward the large white curtains, then turns his back to the camera while he continues to play. Track forward as he moves left toward the opening of the curtains. g u i d o (off ): Open them! (Ai the orchestra joins in, the music reaches a higher level of intensity. The curtains part; track left shows the staircase leading to the tower. Many of the other participants in the film, along with the production crew, are descending the staircase in random order. They are all chatting amiably.) Come down, everyone! When the procession comes into MS the camera pans left on Cesarino, Pace, and Agostini as they walk by. 768. The musicians walk away toward the far side of the circus ring; Guido

8>/2 189 crosses through their line, from left to right, to the Cardinal and his party. A spotlight is turned on Guido as he kneels to kiss the Cardinal's ring. In the background, the others are standing on the ring, holding hands. Guido as Schoolboy crosses from right foreground to left background, followed by Guido. The Cardinal and his party retreat toward the others who are now moving to the right on the circus ring. The circle is closed as Maya leads the line in from the left and joins hands with the Twelve-Year-Old Girl. Pan right as Cesarino and Pace move towards the ring. Gloria and Mezzabotta appear walking left, their arms around each other, in MS in the foreground.*4 She is talking and playing with his nose; he is smiling contentedly. Pan follows them left MCU. AI they exit, Guido's Father and Mother, with serious expressions, enter left and move right, in MS. Pan follows as they slowly head toward the ring where the others are dancing in place. When they are mid-distance, their backs to the camera, Guido enters the frame MCU, his back to the camera, looking at them. GUIDO: Mother! Guido's Mother stops and turns; Guido waves at her. She shrugs her shoulders, then runs to catch up with the Father, who has not stopped walking away. Guido looks down, in resignation. CARL A (off): Sgulp! (She giggles. As Guido turns to her, pan left shows her in MCU profile, facing him.) Now I've got it. You can't do without us. What time will you call me tomorrow? G U I D O (impatiently patting Carlo's cheek): Yes, yes. Now, hurry up! Get in line with the others. He exits left. G U I D O (off): Maurice! (Pan follows Carla as she ambles left. Maurice runs toward her, doffing his hat, smiling while Guido runs in the opposite direction, turns in LS, puts the megaphone to his mouth and gives an order.) Come ahead, quickly! (Maurice leads Carla away from the camera, right, to the ring. Guido faces right, speaking into the megaphone.) Stop fooling around. Everybody hold hands! Spread out! Everyone together, everyone together! (The orchestra strikes up a fanfare. Guido turns in its direction and holds up his arms as a signal to begin.) Maestro! MAURICE: Everybody hold hands! He begins laughing. 769. cu: Maurice, his cane raised, smiling his broad smile, then leading to

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the left. Pan left. Maurice leaves the frame and Carla replaces him. 770. ls: Guido walking to the right. The musicians are playing, their backs to the camera; a photographer in front of the ring trains his camera on the cast moving left on the ring in time to the music, holding hands. Pan follows Guido right to Luisa, standing next to a tubular structure. Guido takes her hand. At first she hesitates, then accept Guido's gesture. Pan left follows Guido and Luisa walking in foreground, the cast dancing in the background. Dusk has fallen. Guido and Luisa enter the dancing circle. 111. From the opposite side, LS of the cast dancing along the ring, left to right, the large curtains and the scaffolding in the background. Pan right. A man standing inside the ring is motioning for everyone to continue moving. 112. Night. The figures, now unidentifiable, dance right in mcu. Tilt down to the center of the ring where the four clowns and Guido as Schoolboy are marching forward and back in time to their music, l s . Pan and spotlight follow them as they move left and away from camera. Guido as Schoolboy

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separates himself from the others, then turns to face and conduct them with one hand while continuing to play his fife with the other. Crane up to the left as the clowns march o f f , exiting right, leaving Guido as Schoolboy, a small figure in the large oval of the spotlight. The lights in the surrounding ring shine brightly in the darkness. We now hear only the fife, accompanied by the orchestra. Pan right follows Guido as Schoolboy and his spotlight into the dark center of the arena. The spotlight is turned o f f ; the boy exits right. The remaining lights in the ring are turned off.95 The music continues as the credits begin.

Notes on the Continuity Script

1. Federico Fellini, 8V2, ed. by Camilla Cederna (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965): 87. All subsequent quotations from the shooting script, including those referring to scenes and shots that are not in the continuity, will be drawn from this edition. 2. In 1966, L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma published a continuity of 8V2 that incorporated the variants from the published shooting script. Although this version contains much valuable information, it offers an incomplete continuity, and a sometimes incorrect transcription and attribution of the dialogue. 3. In Intervista sul cinema, ed. by Giovanni Grazzini (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1983): 174, Fellini asserts that the decision to use this toning technique to mark the dream and fantasy scenes was made by the producers, against his will. 4. Shooting script. There is no mention of the underpass; some of the people in the other vehicles are more precisely individualized; the car in which Carla appears is described as "a large black automobile furnished like a living room" (p. 90); the drivers, including Guido, honk their horns impatiently. 5. Shooting script. Guido's flight through the air is more extensive. 6. This was filmed near Ostia.

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7. "Avvocato" is Italian for "lawyer." It is frequently used to mark respect for the person being addressed, even when that person is not a lawyer. The same is true for "dottore-doctor" and "ingegnere-engineer." Married women are addressed as "signora." The equivalent "madam" or "ma'am" is no longer common English usage. In the continuity, these forms of address will often be eliminated. Pace, the producer, is addressed as "Commendatore-Commander" by his subordinates. This will be translated as "Boss," as will "dottore," the title used to address Guido. 8. Shooting script. Claudia's Press Agent is described as wearing a costume in the style of "science-fiction" rather than his white turtleneck shirt; Claudia's Agent is decked out in full medieval attire rather than the long cape over his business suit, and the pendant on his forehead. 9. Shooting script. There is only one doctor; the exchanges between Guido and the Doctor are more conventional and more extensive; Guido admits to being forty-six years old; Daumier is referred to as Carini, a much younger man, and is identified as the man on horseback in the previous sequence. 10. Shooting script. The action (with the exception of Guido looking at himself in a mirror) and location of shots 32-33 are absent. 11. This set was constructed in the woods near the e u r section of Rome. 12. "Guidone" is a friendly nickname. The suffix "-one" also indicates bigness. 13. Fellini gave Marcello Mastroianni the nicknames "Snàporaz" and "Snap" during the filming of La dolce vita (Deena Boyer, The Two Hundred Days ofS'/i [New York: Macmillan, 1964]: 152). The protagonist of Città della donne (City of Women, 1980) is Snàporaz, played by Mastroianni. 14. Shooting script. The music that the orchestra is initially playing is specified as the "Light Cavalry" or "Poet and Peasant" overtures, or something by Leoncavallo. Absent elements: Claudia's appearance in the archway and her run; the elaborate playfulness of Guido and Mezzabotta during their meeting. 15. This was shot in a small railroad yard used for cleaning trains, in the Via Prenestina, Rome. 16. Shooting script. This is one of the few scenes that was filmed with only insignificant changes. 17. Shooting script. The sequence takes place in a restaurant. Absent elements: the solitaire-playing waitress; Carla's references to Donald Duck and to the dream in which she and Guido are murdered by her husband.

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18. "Ferrovia" means "railroad." Modest hotels with this name are sometimes found near railroad stations in Italy. 19. Shooting script. The scene begins as Guido wakes up, after he and Carla have made love. Absent elements: references to Carla being made up and acting like a prostitute and to her reading a comic book while she eats a piece of fruit; Guido's mother at the end of the sequence. 20. This set was constructed on the military reservation at Cecchignola, near the EUR section of Rome. 21. Shooting script. There are two exchanges between Guido and his mother, and some action, that are not in the film (see The Shooting Script, below). Absent elements: the exchanges with Pace and Conocchia; the exchanges between Guido and his father after the references to the size of the tomb. 22. The wrought-iron pattern, the same as that of the gate on the Father's mausoleum, recalls that of the Hotel Plaza in Rome, where Fellini often had a preluncheon drink (Boyer, The Two Hundred Days of 8V2, 30). 23. Shooting script. Claudia appears to Guido. This was actually filmed, as documented by Boyer, The Two Hundred Days of8'/2, 4 0 - 4 1 , who also includes a production still of Claudia wheeling a bicycle. An absent element: the Cardinal's Secretary. 24. A kilogram is equal to 2.2046 pounds. 25. "Guidino" is an affectionate diminutive of "Guido." 26. Shooting script. The lines and business of Conocchia are attributed to Bruno Agostini; the lines and business (with some modification) of the French Actress are attributed to Edy, a model who will appear in the Harem sequence, 509-574, and who is referred to there as Hedy. Her agent, Mattia, is Italian and clearly much older than the Agent of the French Actress. Absent elements: references to the workman building the set (129); Claudia's Agent; the Beautiful Unknown Woman; the Wife of the American Journalist; the appearance of Pace and his Girlfriend (138-147). 27. The music to this song was written by Franz Lehàr for a 1916 operetta, Der Sterngucker (The Star-gazer), with book and lyrics by F. LohnerBeda and A. M. Willner. Lehàr's score was twice adapted into Italian, in 1922 as La danza della libellule (The Dance of the Firefly), and in 1926 as Gigolette. The lyrics to the song in the operetta are not the same as those sung in 8V2. Known as "Gigolette," the song was published in the United States in 1925 with two different sets of lyrics, and it was performed on Broadway in the popular André Chariot's London Review.

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28. Approximately 211 pounds. 29. At the time of the making of 8V2 the exchange rate was approximately 620 Italian lire to the dollar. 30. Pace says, in Italian, "croce e delizia." This is a quotation from the Act I aria, "Ah, fors'fc lui," of Verdi's opera La traviata. 31. Shooting script. The only developed sections are the dialogue between Guido and Mezzabotta and Guido's telepathic exchange with Maya; Maya is described as "a beautiful brunette"; Guido and Maurice do not recognize each other. 32. The model for this set has been attributed to Piero Gherardi's farmhouse in Tuscany by Boyer, The Two Hundred Days of 8V2, 146, and to the home of Fellini's grandmother in Gambettola by Donald P. Costello, Fellini's Road (Notre Dame and New York: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983): 102. 33. Romagna is a province in the east central portion of the Italian peninsula. 34. The term "nanny" will be used to designate the women who tend to the children. Although suggestive of someone more formal than these country people, it seems more appropriate than "nurse," the term used in the previously published credits. In order to differentiate between them I have identified them by their apparel; one has removed her bodice, showing her white slip, while the other is dressed completely in black. The one in the white slip is clearly the younger of the two. 35. Shooting script. The only characters mentioned are Guido, a little cousin, Michele, the Grandmother, and a middle-aged nurse; the sequence begins as Guido is being put in the wine vat; the prohibition about the children getting drunk on the wine is the major issue; the only other action is that of Guido being put to bed; there is no mention of the hidden treasure or explanation of " a s a n i s i masa." 36. "Urgent" is the classification of a high-priority long-distance telephone call in Italy. At the time of 8V2 Italy had no direct-dial long-distance service. 37. Shooting script. With the exception of a reference to the arrival of an American actor, who is dozing in the lobby, the only action described concerns Guido's telephone call to Luisa; Rossella is referred to as Tina. 38. We do not see Guido pick up this object, nor is it possible to make out what it is. It is, however, identified by Camilla Cederna in "La bella confusione," in Fellini, 8V2, 47.

Notes on the Continuity Script

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39. Shooting script. The only action is Guido's silent meeting with the Accountant who is working on the books. 40. Shooting script. This sequence is absent. 41. "Falco" means "hawk"; "-accio" is a pejorative suffix. 42. Shooting script. Guido's encounter with Claudia is developed much differently (see The Shooting Script). Absent elements: Guido being awakened by the phone call and his conversation with Carla, 316-317. 43. The equivalent of 40 degress Celsius is approximately 104 degrees Fahrenheit. 44. Shooting script. The Hotel-keeper and the Waitress are not present; the sequence ends with Guido looking at Carla sleeping rather than the exchange in 322-324. 45. Shooting script. Although this particular scene is absent, there is another one (following 392-395; see The Shooting Script, below) that does show the Cardinal seated at a table in the garden of the hotel. A few small children, some in cowboy suits, approach and begin to play with him. Guido observes from afar. 46. This scene was filmed at a religious school in Viterbo. 47. The name, Saraghina, is derived from the word for "sardine" in the Romagna dialect. Saraghina exchanged her favors for the fishermen's dregs. 48. This was filmed on the beach near Fiumicino, not far from Rome. 49. Shooting script. Saraghina does not do the rumba. Her "act" consists of raising her skirt above her waist. At its climax she is covered by the smoke from her fire that gives her "a mythical appearance." The speededup motion of the end of the sequence is not indicated. 50. Fellini explained his decision to use women in these parts to Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Federico Fellini, 8'A, 204. "A professional actor with more or less fine features wouldn't have taken so small a part. As for extras—at that age they all look too much like people who eat and drink and make love. So I thought women of a certain age might have the faces I wanted: ascetic, full of complexes, as a priest should look." 51. Costello, Fellini's Road, 112, identifies the portrait as that of "the pure boy saint, Dominic Savio, the model Italian schoolboy." 52. Shooting script. There is no mention of the priests being played by women, nor of the presence of characters other than Guido, the Principal, and the Mother. It is explicitly stated that there is no dialogue in the se-

198 8V2

53. 54.

55. 56.

57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62.

63.

64.

65.

quence since Guido remembers only "the expression on his mother's face, his own fright and shame, and the two slaps his mother gave him" (118). Shooting script. This scene is absent. Shooting script. The only element present is the description of Guido kneeling on the kernels of corn. This takes place in a closet rather than in the refectory. Shooting script. This scene is absent. Shooting script. There is reference to the other children making their confessions. After confession, they take communion. The face of the statue of the Virgin is modeled on the actress who plays the Beautiful Unknown Woman, Caterina Boratto. Shooting script. This scene is absent. Shooting script. There is no implication that there will be dialogue in this scene; there is no mention of the pianist and the singer. The sets for the staircase and the underground steam rooms were constructed in a government building in the EUR section of Rome. A meter is equivalent to 39.37 inches. During the Harem sequence, 509-574, we will recognize this voice as that of the Airline Hostess, Nadine. The only difference between the release prints of the film in Italy and in the United States occurs at this point and in 656. In the Italian release, in both instances, the orchestra plays "The Sheik of Araby." Shooting script. The entire sequence is a sketch, indicating simply the staircase and the steam rooms. The only characters mentioned are Guido and the Cardinal. The latter is seated in the large steam room, along with everyone else, rather than in a private chamber. The set, modeled on the square in the spa of Montecatini, was built on the firing range of the Cecchignola military reservation, near the EUR section of Rome. In the film's cast of characters, Tilde is only identified as a Friend of Luisa's, played by Matilde Calnan. She is identified as Tina by Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Fellini, 8V2, 66, but is clearly referred to as Tilde by Luisa, 432. The character "Tilde's Boyfriend" is not listed in the film's previously published credits. He is identified in Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Fellini, 8V2, 66. Francesco Rigamonti, who plays him, is listed

Notes on the Continuity Script

66. 67.

68. 69.

70. 71.

72. 73.

74.

75.

199

in the official credits with other participants not attributed to specific characters. A luxurious automobile. An Isotta-Fraschini limousine is prominently featured in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. Shooting script. The first meeting of Guido and Luisa is elaborately worked out; from the car he is driving, he observes her walking. The scene ends just after they greet each other, during shot 432. This was filmed on the beach near Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber. Some of the attributions of dialogue indicated for these shots are made on the basis of context and sound of voice since the figures themselves are often obscured by shadow, distance, and the large number of people involved. Also, some of the dialogue is simultaneous and unintelligible. The quintal is 100 kilograms. Shooting script. This is one of the scenes that has the most extensive dialogue. Although some of it is changed, certain lines are attributed to different characters and the order is altered, in the finished film the sense of the scene remains the same. The significant additions are the character of the Sailor and Guido's remarks on the kind of film he intended to make, shot 468. Shooting script. The scene begins at shot 483, when Luisa begins laughing. Shooting script. The scene takes place inside a crowded cafe. Carla is already seated at a table when the scene begins. Absent elements: Carla's song and the dance of the two women. Instead, Luisa invites Carla to sit next to her, and they chat together amiably. In the previously published credits, "Hedy" is referred to as "Edith, the Model," played by Hedy Vessel. She is, however, called "Hedy" by Luisa in 512, and will be referred to as such here. This is consistent with other characters in the harem scene who answer to the names of the actresses who are playing them—Madeleine, "the Actress," Nadine, "the Stewardess." At the beginning of this scene, it appears that Guido addresses the Beautiful Unknown Woman as Caterina, the name of the actress playing her, despite the fact that later in the scene he asks (but is denied) her name. Hedy's hat is loosely modeled on the busby, the tall fur hat worn in certain British regiments.

200 8V2 76. The few words Jacqueline manages to sing are very indistinct. The original lyrics are: "Paris, reine du monde, Paris, c'est une blonde. Le nez retroussé, l'air moqueur . . ." ("Paris, queen of the world, Paris is a blonde. Her turned-up nose, her mocking ways . . ."). The song, with music by José Padilla and lyrics by Lucien Boyer and Jacques-Carles, was written for Mistinguett for performance at the Moulin Rouge (1926). 77. Shooting script. The action is developed with considerable differences from what we see in the film (see The Shooting Script). 78. This scene was shot at the Italia Theater, in Tivoli, not far from Rome. 79. Stendhal, pseudonym of Henri Beyle (1783-1842), French novelist and essayist. 80. Pace's Girlfriend does not enter with Pace, nor is she seen in the auditorium during preceding shots. Her absence in the sequence, prior to this shot, can be undoubtedly attributed to an error in shooting. 81. Although we do not see this screen test, the context makes it clear that it is a rerun of Olimpia's. In her first screen test, however, Olimpia's voice recalls the baby-talk soprano of Carla; the voice of the rerun is that of another actress, a seductive mezzo-soprano pitched even lower than that of the Second Actress who tested for the role. 82. Shooting script. The sequence is in a much simpler form. Tina, an ugly old woman, makes sarcastic remarks during the screen tests. (Tilde, the character who first appears in shot 438, is similar temperamentally, if not physically.) Absent elements: the hanging of Daumier, Luisa's departure from the auditorium and her encounter with Guido in the lobby, the screen test for the Cardinal, the appearance of Claudia, her agent, her press agent, and her secretary. Guido meets Claudia while she is signing autographs on the street, where he met Luisa in the Public Square sequence, 423. 83. This was shot on the staircase leading from the seamstresses' workroom to the courtyard, at Scalera Studios. 84. Shooting script. This scene is absent. 85. Shooting script. This scene is absent. 86. Shooting script. The scene takes place in Guido's car (see The Shooting script, Guido's Car, night, 658-668). 87. This scene was shot in the Piazza Umberto I at Filacciano, thirty-five miles from Rome. 88. Shooting script. There is only a brief scene in the Courtyard. Claudia ad-

Notes on the Continuity Script

89. 90.

91.

92.

93. 94. 95.

201

mires its beauty; Guido speaks to her of his confusion (see The Shooting Script, Courtyard of Old Building, night, 677-691). Shooting script. This scene is absent. Both the pose and the costume are strongly reminiscent of certain shots in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad, a film that many critics have treated in the context of 8'A. In an interview with Costanzo Costantini (see Contexts), Fellini denies having seen the film when he made 8V2. Shooting script. The action of this scene is absent; some parallels in the dialogue, through Claudia's lines in 688, can be seen in the second scene in Guido's car, 676-694 (see The Shooting Script). Shooting script. Guido meets the American actor (he appears in the Shooting script equivalent of "Lobby, Spa Hotel, night," 248-273) who is to play him in the film. During the press conference, which takes place on the upper platform of the spaceship, Guido at first attempts to answer the journalists. Their questions become more and more aggressive, they turn on him physically and finally begin to lynch him. Stéphane Mallarmé, (1842-1898) and Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) were French poets. The hair of the actor playing Mezzabotta, Mario Pisu, is no longer dyed grey. Shooting script. This episode is absent. See The Shooting Script for the first version of the ending.

The Shooting Script

Sequence of Episodes: Continuity and Shooting Script In order to make clear parallels and differences, the shot numbers and the exact nomenclature of some of the locales in the the shooting script scenes will be made to correspond to the appropriate sections of the conti-

nuity. The scenes that are marked with an asterisk (*) are extensively quoted in the next section. All references and pages numbers are drawn from Federico Fellini, 8V2 (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965).

Continuity

Shooting Script

An Underpass, 1 - 9 The Sky, 10-12 A Beach, 13-18 Guido's Hotel Room, day, 19-31 Guido's Bathroom, 3 2 - 3 3 The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day, 3 4 - 6 4

City Street, 1 - 1 8

Guido's Hotel Room, day, 19-33 The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day, 3 4 - 6 4

204 %Vi The Train Station, day, 6 5 - 7 3 Dining Room in Carta's Hotel, day, 74-92 Carta's Hotel Room, day, 93-104 Country Cemetery, Guido's Dream, 105-116 The Hotel, a Corridor, day, 117-119 The Elevator Car, 120-128 Lobby, Spa Hotel, day, 129-147 The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, night, 148-225 The Farmhouse Kitchen, night, 226-238 The Farmhouse Bedroom, night, 239-244 The Farmhouse Kitchen, night, 245 - 247 Lobby, Spa Hotel, night, 248-273 Hotel Room/Production Office, night, 274-288 The Corridor, outside the Production Office, night, 289-302 Guido's Hotel Room, night, 303-317 Carta's Hotel Room, day, 318-324 The Grounds of the Spa, day, 325-351 The Schoolyard, day, 352-355 The Beach, day, 356-371 Corridor and School Principal's Office, day, 372-378 The Schoolroom, day, 379 The Refectory, day, 380-382 Chapel in School, day, 383

The Train Station, day, 6 5 - 7 3 Restaurant, day, 7 4 - 9 2 Carta's Hotel Room, day, 93-104 * Country Cemetery, Guido's Dream, 105-116 The Hotel, a Corridor, night, 117-119 The Elevator Car, 120-128 Lobby, Spa Hotel, night, 129-147 Nightclub, Interior, night; Spa, nightclub, Exterior, night, 148-225 The Farmhouse Kitchen, night, 226-238 The Farmhouse Bedroom, night, 239-247

Lobby, Spa Hotel, night, 248-273 Hotel Room/Production Office, night, 274-288

* Guido's Hotel Room, night, 303-317 Carta's Hotel Room, day, 318-324

The Schoolyard, day, 352-355 The Beach, day, 356-371 A Closet, School, day, 380-382 School Principal's Office, day, 372-378

The Shooting Script Church in School, day, 384-389 The Beach, day, 390-391 The Dining Room, Spa Hotel, day, 392-395

The Thermal Baths of the Spa, day, 396-421 Public Square and Adjoining Shops in the Resort Town, dusk, 422-445

The Set of the Spaceship, night, 446-473 Guido's Hotel Room, night, 474-492 Café in the Public Square, day, 493-508 The Farmhouse Kitchen, Guido's Harem Fantasy, 509-574

Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 575-622 Lobby of Movie Theater, night, 623-630 Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 631-655 Exit Stairway Leading to Street, night, 656 Street, night, 657-659 Driving in Claudia's Car, night, 660-670 Courtyard of Old Building, night, 671-672

205

Church in School, day, 384-389 The Dining Room, Spa Hotel, day, 392-395 The Grounds of the Hotel, day, (see note 45 to the Continuity Script) The Thermal Baths of the Spa, day, 396-421 Public Square and Adjoining Shops in the Resort Town, dusk, 422-432 Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 575-622 The Set of the Spaceship, night, 446-473 Guido's Hotel Room, night, 483-492 Café in the Public Square, day, 493-508 *The Farmhouse Kitchen, Guido's Harem Fantasy, 509-574 •Church, Interior, day •Café at Spa, Interior, day •Streets of Chianciano, Exterior, evening

•Fakir's Stand, Interior, night

•Guido's Car, night, 657 - 6 7 0 •Courtyard of Old Building, night, 671-672

206

8'A

Courtyard of Old Building, Guido's Fantasy, night, 672-675 Courtyard of Old Building, night, 676-694 Spaceship Set on the Beach, day, 695-736 Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737-772

* Guido's Car, night, 676-694 •Street and Level-Crossing, night Spaceship Set on the Beach, day, 695-736 •Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day *Guido's Hotel Room, Interior, day •Corridor of Hotel and Production Office, Interior, day •Lobby, Spa Hotel, Interior, day •The Spa Garden, Exerior, day •Street in the Resort Town, Exterior, day •Bus, Interior, day •The Station Shed in the Spa City, Exterior, night •Dining Car, Interior, night

Sections of Shooting Script Not Included in Finished Film Country Cemetery, Guido's Dream, 105-116 Near the beginning of the sequence, just after the Mother finishes weeding the grave (106), she addresses Guido. " M O T H E R : If we don't look after it, who will? That way we have a clear conscience. The most important thing is not to come empty-handed. We mustn't be selfish. Look at your uncle. Sooner or later you have to pay for it. Have you eaten? What do you want to eat? G U I D O (reprovingly, almost annoyed): Stop it. You'll tire yourself out. (Then, hesitating, and in a familiar tone of sadness.) You're Mother, aren't you? The woman stops weeding and turns to look at Guido, smiling intensely. Moved, brimming with affection and gratitude at being recognized, she speaks softly. M O T H E R : Guido! . . . (Then in a voice trembling with sobs.) Never—it

The Shooting Script

207

never ends! Everything was in order just a moment ago. From morning to night all I do is start over from the beginning . . . for nothing! Since I was married, that's all I've done! I can't stand it any more! . . ." (p. 101) Following the exchange with his father, Guido is again addressed by his mother. " M O T H E R (with the false seriousness of a journalist): What is the extent of your nonconformism? G U I D O (jarred): I don't know. M O T H E R : Will you please list the ten things, of a practical nature, that bother you most in life . . . G U I D O : I can't remember . . . M O T H E R (saddened): Oh, Guido, Guido . . . why are you behaving like this? (Again using the tone of the journalist.) Do you ever lie to yourself? And if so, under what circumstances? (Then sorrowfully.) Do you still bite your fingernails? A small procession is passing on the cemetery path below: two or three women in tears, a police official in an elaborate uniform, a weeping ballerina in tutu, two clowns, and three children licking their ice-creams." (pp. 101-102) Guido's Hotel Room, night, 303-317 "Guido opens the door and enters. He is suddenly surrounded by a deep, unreal silence. The dark-haired girl who previously appeared to him is turning down his bed. She is dressed as a maid; she turns to him, smiling expectantly. For a few moments, Guieio stares at her without speaking, he too smiling; then, making something of an effort, as if to prevent the girl from reappearing, he speaks in a hollow voice. G U I D O : What is your name? C L A U D I A : Claudia. Guido moves slowly toward her and takes her hand. She gives it to him, smiling, but a bit agitated. G U I D O : Claudia . . . Dissolve. Guido and Claudia are lying next to each other in bed. In the unreal silence that continues to surround them, their voices seem slightly abstract. C L A U D I A : Do you want me to stay here so that you can steal in to see me

8% once in a while? Whatever you like will be fine. Do you want to come back next year and start over? I'll be waiting for you. Or perhaps you never want to see me again? That too is possible, if you prefer . . . Do you want me to leave with you? I don't want to be a bother, that's all . . . GUIDO: Would you come away with me? C L A U D I A : Today, if you like. I don't even need to return home . . . GUIDO: To go away and start over . . . Doesn't this frighten you? You know, I won't be able to marry you. Do you know what kind of life we'll have? C L A U D I A : It would be worse if we were apart. GUIDO: Look straight at me. I'll tell you in one word what I am: a coward. CLAUDIA: I don't believe you. And even if it were . . . Claudia kisses Guido passionately; he returns her kiss with force." (pp. 112-113) The Farmhouse Kitchen, Guido's Harem Fantasy, 509-574 The scene is divided into four distinct locations: (1) Described as a Flemish farmhouse, the set is first shown from the exterior. Guido arrives by sleigh. (2) Guido enters the kitchen and distributes the presents. Many of the women have names different from those in the film. Among them are a trapeze artist and a ballerina in tutu. There is no indication that Luisa is dressed as a peasant. There is a shot from the kitchen into Carlo's sumptuous bedroom, where Carla is singing and eating ice cream. When Guido goes to take his bath he finds a "gift" from the other women—Moana, an oriental girl. Luisa complains that Kiki (Jacqueline in the film), a German soubrette, is jealous and answers back. Guido scolds Kiki. There is no reference to her age or to her exile "upstairs," and very little of her dance. After everyone sits down to eat, two of the women begin fighting and are silenced by Guido. Then, all the women turn on him. (3) A wild animal cage in a circus. Guido is dressed as a trainer. With his whip, he makes the "women transformed into tigers" jump through a hoop. The tigers attack him, but he forces them back to another cage. An invisible audience applauds. (4) A cell and corridor in a convent. Guido bids the women good night. After going to bed in his own cell, he hears a woman weeping and discovers that it is Luisa.

The Shooting Script

209

"An expression of infinite remorse, of terrible pain appears on Guido's face; he doesn't dare go near her. LUISA (still crying softly and desperately)-. Why this shame . . . this mortification? Why, Guido? Why do you make me live like this? I am your wife . . . you are my husband . . . Now bitter tears streak Guido'sface too: tears of remorse, suffering, anguish. He keeps looking at his wife, proudly." (pp. 130-135) This sequence is followed by four scenes that are not in the film: Church, Interior, day A brief flashback to the wedding of Guido and Luisa, fifteen years previously. Café at Spa, Interior, day Guido and Luisa are seated together, both very upset. They have just quarreled. Luisa suddenly gets up and leaves; Guido follows her. Streets of Chianciano, Exterior, evening Walking alone, Guido passes by shop windows. In one of them he sees a large aquarium; wpmen wearing breathing equipment are swimming in it, publicizing American bathing suits. Young men are watching. He passes by other shops and stands. A blond woman tending a shooting gallery invites Guido to try, but he refuses. At another stand he sees the glass coffin of a fakir. (Elements of this part of the scene appear in the continuity, 424.) Posters announce, "The great wonder: Fakir Toulah will be reborn for you after being dead for forty days." Admission is 100 lire. (pp. 136-137) "The stand is empty except for a woman about fifty, perhaps German, seated next to the glass coffin, reading a Mickey Mouse comic-book album. She looks up at the window, sees Guido, looks down again. She is dressed simply, in a cocktail gown. Over it, she wears a green sweater made of second-rate wool. Fakir's Stand, Interior, night Guido enters slowly. The woman rises, comes toward him and gives him a ticket. Guido pays. GUIDO: Are you his wife? F A K I R ' S W I F E : Yes.

Guido looks curiously at the glass coffin. A bee is buzzing around it, its

210

m buzzing mixing with the hissing of the defective neon lights that go on and off. Guido slowly approaches. G U I D O : When will he wake up? F A K I R ' S W I F E : Monday. G U I D O : And how long has he been inside this thing? F A K I R ' S W I F E : For twenty-five days. The woman tries to shoo the bee away with her hand, then turns to fix a neon light. In silence, Guido looks inside the coffin; a little snake has awakened and is lazily crawling up the fakir's leg. Guido shudders slightly. He looks up slowly, and mechanically directs his gaze straight ahead, to the window of the stand. On the other side of the window, in the street, he sees a darkhaired girl, elegantly dressed, who looks just like the Claudia he has been imagining. For a moment or two, Guido is motionless, as if he fears that what he sees is an hallucination, but the everyday noises around him haven't stopped. Actually, everything is solid and real: through the window, in the street he sees two or three girls who surround the dark-haired girl, asking her for something. Other people stop and stand around, looking on with curiosity. The dark-haired girl smiles, answers, while the people who have clustered around hand her slips of paper or autograph books that she begins to sign. Guido rapidly goes out the door of the stand. G U I D O : Claudia! (waving at him at laughing): Hi! Guido makes his way through the thickening crowd of people. G U I D O : When did you arrive? Why didn't you let me know? More and more besieged by her admirers, she doesn't answer. Still smiling, but now a little annoyed, she tries to defend herself and to ward off her fans and the repeated requests for autographs. C L A U D I A : That's all for now . . . please . . . excuse me. Just this one CLAUDIA

and that's all. I can't. . . please. Guido intervenes, takes her by the arm and tries to clear a path. Then, finding no other solution, he pulls her inside the stand, pushing away the people who want to follow them and closing the door. G U I D O : Pardon me . . . let us through . . . that's all! After a moment of surprise at finding herself next to the fakir's coffin, Claudia laughs, amused, with a nearly childish innocence.

The Shooting Script

211

But what is this? Oooh! Look, look! This scares me! Because the people continue to crowd the street, in front of the window, Guido turns to the fakir's wife. GUIDO: Will you please close up . . . for just a few minutes. Then we'll go. Here, see . . . (He himself pulls a curtain in front of the window, hiding the interior from the view of the crowd. He excuses himself once more to the woman who is disconcerted and a bit hostile.) Excuse me . . . just a few minutes. (He then turns to Claudia, taking her hands.) Claudia! You're so beautiful! Weren't you supposed to arrive tomorrow? I would have met you in the hotel.(He leans foward to kiss her on her cheeks. With spontaneity, laughing, she kisses him back.) C L A U D I A (eagerly): When do we begin?" (pp. 137-138) CLAUDIA:

This scene dissolves to Guido's Car, night, 657-670. "Guido is slowly driving down a dark and deserted country road; Claudia is sitting beside him, listening attentively, trying hard to understand, absorbed like a little girl listening to a fairy tale. GUIDO: He's seen her, spoken to her, then built on this in his imagination . . . disconnected notions that he is unable to articulate. He can't get at their meaning. In a word, your character . . . the character of this girl . . . ought to in some way represent his romantic aspirations. Even if he isn't able to give her form, to bring her to life, she's important to him . . . very important. He can't give her up, because if he did, it would be like giving up all hope. Do you understand? (He laughs, changes tone.) In fact, that's why I asked you to come. A bit troubled, Claudia barely smiles. C L A U D I A (seriously): But who is this girl? A student? Or does she work? Where did he meet her? GUIDO: He's supposed to have met her here. No, she's not a student. First I thought that she was the daughter of a museum guard, brought up among old paintings . . . almost an ancient image herself . . . really Italian. Then, I changed my mind. Perhaps she lives near a levelcrossing. She works at the spa, or in a hotel. It's a possibility. Solid and sincere, Claudia looks at him with alarm. C L A U D I A : A possibility? But is this role in the film? I'll bet you haven't even written it yet.

212

8Yi Guido answers as if he were making a playful confession, as if he were a bit of a cheat. GUIDO: NO, it's not written. It hasn't even been thought up. Claudia doesn't really understand if Guido is kidding her or telling the truth, and she plays along, but is obviously concerned. C L A U D I A : Listen . . . when do I begin? And how will you ever begin? G U I D O (with a feigned, playful certainty): Don't worry. I'll begin. In two weeks. (He laughs, then changes his tone.) You know, this film is a bit special for me. The characters must take shape as things happen, especially in your case . . . They don't have an autonomous life. (Kidding her affectionately.) Do you know what 'autonomous' means? C L A U D I A : Autonomous? Yes, autonomous. G U I D O (aggressively): You, for example, have you ever been in love? Could you fall in love with a man like him? Claudia is barely ruffled and in her own well-balanced way, she gets back to the facts. C L A U D I A : But he's married, isn't he? GUIDO: Yes. I told you that. And he even has another woman, a mistress. C L A U D I A : Oh! So what is it he's looking for? If his wife really loves him, I don't think he's such a nice guy. GUIDO: NO, maybe he isn't nice. Why does he have to be nice? C L A U D I A : But does he at least love his wife? Who's playing the wife? Does she have a big part? GUIDO: He doesn't know if he loves her. Basically, he does, a lot. But she is the source of his constant guilt. . . can you love what makes you guilty? She had become more and more foreign to him, like a judge who you know thinks you're guilty even while he smiles. And the other woman is a kind of memory, a kind of nurturing but destructive mother. Do you follow me? Do you understand? Worried, Claudia shakes her head from side to side, only half kidding. C L A U D I A (candidly): I only understand that there's a big confusion . . . " (pp. 138-140) Courtyard of Old Building, night, 671-672 "GUIDO: Sometimes I think I have everything clearly in mind . . . I actually think that the film is already finished . . . perhaps because they are my memories . . . my things. But sometimes, I lose it all, everything

The Shooting Script

213

becomes confused . . . useless . . . a little like my life. What sense does it make? Oh, well! . . ." (p. 140) Guido asks Claudia not to repeat any of this to the newspaper men. They resume their conversation in the car. Guido's Car, night, 676-694 "Back in the car, once the doors are shut, instead of driving o f f , Guido turns to look at Claudia in an entirely professional way. She is in the shadows. GUIDO: Have you ever tried to wear your hair up? How do you look with your hair up? Try it for a minute. Claudia obeys the director at once. CLAUDIA: I don't like it. It's not becoming. GUIDO: Turn. This way. You look wonderful. Turn the other way. (He looks at her in silence for a moment, then starts the car.) GUIDO: I had also thought he might picture her in many different poses. This way, for example . . . as you are now. Then, in a meadow. Then, once, in his room in the hotel. She goes there unexpectedly, and they sleep together. CLAUDIA: But is she in love with him? GUIDO: Yes, I think so. She must be in love. Actually, it is exactly this— the offer of something new—that surprises him, that changes his life. CLAUDIA: You have to forgive me, but this girl is really a little odd . . . after all, she's seen him only once! GUIDO: That's just the point. It's as if she had always seen him. For example, she should say to him, 'You are the first man in my life. I've been waiting for you. If you want, I'll leave with you . . . if you want, I'll wait for you. I'll do anything at all, as long as I can be with you.' Would you say such things to a man? CLAUDIA (a bit troubled): I don't know. It depends . . . If I really loved him. But then, it depends on what you want to do. Obviously, if that poor girl has really fallen in love with a guy like that, she's in for a lot of pain. What's her name? GUIDO: I'd like to call her Claudia. CLAUDIA: But that's my name. GUIDO: Yes. Do you mind? She must be like you. Actually, I chose you . . .

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8Vi Smiling, Claudia throws him a confused glance and looks a bit upset. GUIDO (in a different tone): I know that I'm explaining myself badly. OK, think of a man about forty . . . like me. CLAUDIA: Oh! You're forty? I thought. . . GUIDO: Older?

Girlishly, Claudia tries to cover up her gaffe. CLAUDIA: No? Because you wear glasses. Guido takes them o f f . GUIDO: Like this? CLAUDIA: Thirty-nine.

They laugh. GUIDO: NO. Seriously, now. Picture a man of my age. Because he refuses to face the truth, he has never wanted to examine his feelings clearly . . . or perhaps simply he isn't able to examine them. One day he happens to meet a girl, someone like you. How old are you? CLAUDIA: Twenty-one.

GUIDO: Does that seem too young? Claudia appears frank, serious, a bit troubled. CLAUDIA: NO. Why? If I really loved someone, age wouldn't matter. There is a silence. Guido has slowed down so much that the car stops, almost by itself. They are surrounded only by the nocturnal countryside, full of crickets and rustling noises. For a few moments, Guido seems absorbed and lost in his own thoughts. CLAUDIA (softly): Well, how does it all end? Guido rouses himself, looks at her for a moment. Then, instead of answering, he speaks as if he were following the thread of his thoughts. GUIDO: He feels that there is something behind a glass, meant just for him . . . like a rebirth. That is, this thing ought to make him understand that he was outside everything, outside of life. And even though he understands the sincerity of this offer with dazzling clarity . . . he . . . he's so . . . so . . . CLAUDIA: Cowardly? Claudia has been frank and direct, but there is something very personal in her tone. Guido starts slightly. GUIDO: Well, a little too . . . cowardly? Suppose that when I saw you at the fakir's, on the other side of the window, I had understood that you . . . you yourself, Claudia, just as you are . . . were ready to . . . love me. That with you, I could begin all over again. Naturally, I don't know

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how . . . but suppose it had really happened like this, and that then I hadn't had the courage to break the window, because there were people around . . . because I didn't want to be taken for a madman. Now, do you understand? Yes . . . essentially a coward. And if you had waited a little, smiling at me, and then gone away . . . You know, when I saw you, for a minute I wasn't sure if it really was you. (Teetering between fiction and reality, his tone has become more and more emotional; even Claudia is touched.) CLAUDIA (whispering): But does he say these things to her? If he loves her, why doesn't he say them to her? It would be much simpler. Guido stares at her in the shadows. GUIDO: And even if he said them? This is exactly the point. He's so entangled, so tired. What kind of courage can he have? What can he hope for? What should they do afterwards, in your opinion? Go off together? There is a thoughtful silence. CLAUDIA (softly, troubled, but still direct and truthful): Well, if he can't love either his wife or the other woman, his mistress . . . why should he love this one? Perhaps he isn't able to love . . . and then nothing's of any use. Another brief silence, but the charm has been broken. Starting the motor, Guido speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, somewhere between the playful and the bitter. GUIDO: SO that's that, it's over. Let's cut the part. Or, let's not make the film at all. Almost relieved, but a little worried, Claudia goes along with the joke. CLAUDIA: It doesn't make any difference to me. I have a contract and you'll have to pay me. GUIDO: And yet she does exist. That girl . . . she exists. I know that she exists. I know her. So there. {He applies the brakes a bit abruptly.) I even know where she lives. She lives over there. That house, near the level-crossing. Now I'll let you see her so you'll be convinced. Amused like a child, a bit excited, Claudia laughs. CLAUDIA: Where are you going? What are you doing? Guido helps her out of the car. GUIDO: Get out. We'll ring, and I'll get Claudia for you. Street and Level-Crossing, night The car has stopped close to a level-crossing, before which there is a

216

8Yz small house, closed and silent. Heading toward the house, Guido takes Claudia by the hand. She laughs like a little girl, excited and a little frightened. GUIDO: Come. Where's the bell? Claudia pulls her hand away from Guido's and runs back. CLAUDIA: No, no. What will you say? At this time of night! Don't act crazy. In any case, it's not true. (But she is amused, and not really absolutely sure that Claudia doesn't exist. Guido rings, knocks at the door.) GUIDO: Claudia sleeps up there. That's her room. She's coming down now. He is interrupted by the opening of a window: an old woman, disheveled and barely awake, leans out. Laughing and frightened, Claudia is not sure whether she should hide in the car. She looks on, vastly amused. WOMAN: Who is it? What do you want? GUIDO: Pardon me . . . The bookkeeper . . . the one who works for the township . . . I don't know his name . . . does he live here? WOMAN: Who?

GUIDO: The township bookkeeper . . . I don't remember his name. WOMAN: NO, no. What bookkeeper? It's only us here. GUIDO: I'm sorry. Please forgive me. They told us he lived here. Good night. The woman closes the window. Guido turns to Claudia who is now laughing openly, like a girl. CLAUDIA: Is that your Claudia? Playfully, but now a bit mischievously, Guido takes her by the hand. GUIDO: It's you who are Claudia. (And he tries to kiss her hair. Claudia laughs and slips into the car, pulling away from him.) CLAUDIA: Shall we go back? I'm a bit hungry. GUIDO (closing the car door, vaguely): Yes. Let's go back." (pp. 140-143)

First Version of Final Sequences It is difficult to ascertain exactly which elements of the following scenes were shot. There are production stills of Guido and Luisa leaving for the train station

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in a car, walking near railroad tracks, and sitting in the station, on the bench where Guido waited for Carla, as in 65. Deena Boyer1 recounts the filming of the following: Guido's death dream: Maurice driving a car (not a hearse) in the lobby of hotel; Pace wrapped in sheet, made up to resemble Oscar Wilde or Rossini, kissing the windows of the car; Guido emerging from beneath the press conference table, then approaching a large black curtain hanging over the launching pad stairway Guido and Luisa leaving their hotel room Guido and Luisa in lobby, departing for train the dining car scene At a preliminary screening of the film, on November 10, 1962, the dining car scene still concluded the film.2 Dissolve to Guido on the beach, half-dressed, bleeding. An assistant tells Guido that he is really dead. A hearse pulls up and Guido happily gets in next to the driver, who is the American actor madeup as Guido. As the hearse pulls away, the beach is replaced by a "marvelous green valley full of flowers." (p. 146) The hearse drives through a great church, splendidly adorned for a festival, then through a long picture gallery hung with masterpieces. These vanish and are replaced by a magnificent public square. Then the hearse goes down a spiral road, past scenes from Guido's life: a statue of the Cardinal, his hotel room with Carla waiting for him on the bed, Luisa in the lobby, the production office, his desk in school, the farmhouse, Saraghina on the beach. The scenes are repeated in an accelerated rhythm. Guido screams. Guido's Hotel Room, Interior, day Guido is packing his bags. Carini (Daumier) speaks as he does in 738. They exit together. Corridor of Hotel and Production Office, Interior, day Walking down the corridor with Carini, Guido stops for a moment in the production office. It bears the marks of the abandoned film: scattered objects, models thrown to the floor, etc. Two people are packing up. Guido hopes they will work together again, as in 738. 1. Deena Boyer, The Two Hundred Days of 8'A (New York: Macmillan, 1964). 2. Ibid., 202.

218

8 Yi Lobby, Spa Hotel, Interior, day. Luisa is sitting on a couch in the nearly deserted lobby. When Guido and Carini come out of the elevator, she collects her things and exits. Guido has all the luggage taken out. The Spa Garden, Exterior, day (sunset effect) The porter loads the baggage into a little bus. Guido distributes tips and thanks Carini for taking care of his car. He and Luisa get into the bus; it drives o f f . Street in the Resort Town, Exterior, day (sunset effect) The bus goes quickly down the street. There are fewer shops open than before and fewer people in the street. "The little city is reacquiring its dreary, provincial look" (p. 149). Bus, Interior, day (sunset effect) "Inside the bus heading toward the station, Guido and Luisa have begun and are continuing a bitter argument, but in a dense and calm manner. LUISA: But wouldn't you feel freer, too? Now I'm the one who's offering you complete freedom. In any case, I'm no good to you at all this way. I'm just a nuisance to you. GUIDO: I never said that. If that were the case, I would be the one to insist on a separation, wouldn't I? (With a genuine attempt at cordiality, almost smiling.) Instead, you're the one. Luisa reacts to this with bitter resentment because she thinks it is an effort, prompted by his selfishness, to reach a superficial compromise. LUISA: But I would feel freer, too. Please think about it seriously, because I don't feel I can go on like this. It's not very pleasant, you know . . . feeling that I'm always a burden to you . . . forcing you to lie. I can't stand it any more. GUIDO: YOU talk as if your life were hell, all because of me. I don't think that's true. LUISA: What do you know about it? I don't report to you every time I feel desperate. There is a pause. GUIDO: Suppose we separate. What then? We've talked about it so often. So we separate, and then what do we do? What would change? You would always be my wife, I your husband. Would you look for another man? Tell me the truth, Luisa . . . would you live with another man?

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Now Luisa's answer has a tone that is almost aggressive, that then turns bitter. LUISA: SO you've understood nothing at all. Listen to him! I want it so I can live calmly . . . in peace. If nothing else is possible, I want at least a little serenity. I'll have some peace of mind. I made a mistake . . . well, it's finished, over! It didn't work out for me. Worriedly, Guido looks at her as if she were a little girl. GUIDO: By yourself? But you're thirty-seven, Luisa! What are you going to do alone, at your age? Ten, twenty years alone, until you get old . . . LUISA: Why? Aren't I alone now? What do you give me? What do I have to look foward to? I can begin again, that's all. Before it's too late. I'll find something. I'll begin again. GUIDO: And who would have the strength to do that? Another life, after fourteen years . . . He stops talking as the car pulls to a stop. Guido immediately opens the door while the driver, who has already gotten out, comes around to him. The car is parked in front of the Station. GUIDO (hurriedly, to the driver): Please unload immediately. (Calling out.) Porter!

The Station Shed in the Spa City, Exterior, night Now Guido and Luisa are on the platform, waiting for the train. There are not many departing passengers so the long platform seems almost deserted in the deep evening shadow. The bell signaling the arrival of the train rings insistently. Guido and Luisa continue speaking, but they now converse in even lower voices, in a tone that is even more bewildered, anguished, emotional. GUIDO: It's not that we make a bad couple. Even if divorce were possible 3 . . . Luisa, I'm sure that even if I remarried I wouldn't find a better wife than you. That's the problem. It would be exactly the same . . . actually, worse. LUISA: That may be true for you . . . but how about me? You always think only of yourself. GUIDO: No, it would be true for me, for you, for everyone. Change? What does that mean? Are you really convinced that another husband . . . another man, would be better than me? Maybe so, but so much 3. Divorce was illegal in Italy when the film was made.

220 8Vi better as to justify the strain of beginning all over again? The strain, the risk, the pain . . . Luisa is quiet for a moment, overcome by deep, almost desperate bewilderment. LUISA (choked up): And so? Guido has the same disconsolate bewilderment in his voice. GUIDO: And so, nothing.

Can we go on like this? For how long? Always this way, until the end? GUIDO: I know that there's a misunderstanding, a big misunderstanding. We have to see if it's our fault. The train has appeared down the tracks and comes forward quickly, its signal light on, finally slowing to a stop. The din increases. LUISA: But I don't want to go on like this! Right to the end, always like this. Dissolve. Dining Car, Interior, night Guido and Luisa are seated at a table, waiting for dinner to be served. Lost in their thoughts, they are not speaking. There are few people at the other tables. A sense of silence and solitude hangs over everything. The train is traveling very fast. Guido follows the rapid appearance and disappearance of the nocturnal countryside beyond the window—a group of illuminated houses, then suddenly the dark countryside again, upon which races the outline of the train with its lighted windows. Guido's deformed shadow is lengthened, shortened, disappears, reappears. A short tunnel swallows the train for a moment. Amidst a clanging of metal, the brightness of the windows rapidly plays on the black walls, then is again projected on the countryside. In the distance the dark outline of mountains appears, still rimmed by a feeble light. In a wood enclosure, some horses appear for a moment, still as statues in the darkness. Guido's shadow lengthens and shortens again, rapidly dancing over the deserted fields. Guido distractedly turns his gaze to the interior of the dining car and looks at Luisa intensely. Luisa raises her eyes; she stares into his. Their gazes are like a reciprocal questions, reciprocal attempts to discover LUISA:

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each other . . . Guido again looks out the window; Luisa looks elsewhere. And again, the unreal, fantastic images of the night world that the train is rapidly crossing, appear and disappear, appear and disappear, to the rhythm of the wheels on the rails. Once again Guido looks at the interior of the dining car, but now, with its tables lit from beneath pink lampshades, it seems very long, as unreal as the landscape outside; and the tables are filled with people. It's a strange crowd—quiet, composed, silent: the Father and the Mother, the Cardinal and Saraghina, Claudia and Carla, the women of the harem and Carini, the Fakir, the telepathists and Mezzabotta, all the characters from Guido's life, all together on the same journey toward the same goal, no one refutable, no one rejectable, all of them calmly smiling at Guido like good companions. Guido's face changes as he is deeply moved, grateful. His eyes are lit as if by a sudden discovery. He stands; his lips move as if he were uttering disconnected, broken words. Luisa looks at him amazed. Even the waiter who was about to serve stops in the middle of a gesture, dumbfounded. Standing straight up, his face lit up, Guido is speaking confusedly to everyone, even to the audience at the movies. GUIDO: Yes, yes. That's right, that's right. . . I've got it. It's very easy . . . yes everything . . . is as if . . . everyone together . . . me . . . you . . . oh God, how can I explain this to you? Thank you, thank you, everyone . . . All we have to do is not hold back . . . not object. It's very easy . . . everything is fine . . . fine . . . if only . . . He stops and looks around, bewildered. The dining car has regained its normal dimensions, its normal appearance; the crowd has disappeared. A few people are seated at the tables. Luisa and the waiter, dumbfounded, are looking at Guido. Embarrassed, but still very moved, Guido attempts a smile and sits down again. He keeps his head bent, in a state of complete and happy bewilderment, while the waiter serves him. When the latter has gone away, he looks up at Luisa. The perception that he had for an instant has already vanished like a dream; now he is anxiously trying to clarify it, to confirm it, to define it, and although he is unable to, he is still intensely moved, happy.

222

8'A With a sudden gesture, he stretches his hand across the table and clasps Luisa's hand. He again looks toward the audience at the movies in a last effort to communicate 'something' that is already far away, forgotten, ungraspable. The screen slowly darkens; from the dark screen can be heard only the secure, grandiose, powerful, unstoppable rhythm of the train, confidently hurling itself into the night." (pp. 146-152)

"

Contexts, Reviews, and Commentaries

Contexts

F

Bellini's letter to Brunello Rondi I reveals that many of the director's intentions were reasonably detailed before the script of 8V2 was written. In fact, this letter constitutes a treatment and thereby allows us to measure the distance between a stillpreliminary sketch and the finished film. The chronology of the shooting of 8V2 is drawn from Deena Boyer, The

Two Hundred Days of8'/2 (New York: Macmillan, 1964). This is a partial record; it stresses the order in which the major scenes were filmed. Fellini has given many interviews about 8'/2 and, as is inevitably the case, has had to respond to many similar questions. In the following selections, an effort has been made to eliminate repetitions.

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A First Draft

A Letter from Federico Fellini To His Friend Brunello Rondi, October 1960 Brunellaccio,1 instead of the scattered notes I had promised you, I'll try to summarize in this letter everything that I now have in mind. Well then—a guy (a writer? any kind of professional man? a theatrical producer?) has to interrupt the usual rhythm of his life for two weeks because of a not-too-serious disease. It's a warning bell: something is blocking up his system. He has to spend two quiet weeks at Chianciano. 2 1 spoke to you at length about the place, so you know all about it. The guy has gotten himself into a number of situations that sometimes weigh heavily on him, but he can't seem to free himself. He has a wife; he has a mistress. He maintains an infinite number of relationships in which he is caught, like a fly in a spider-web, but without these bonds he would probably fall into the most painful void because he feels anchored to nothing. In the long run, his total availability has come to be a kind of frightening delirium, without meaning or purpose. What would be the point of trying to put some order in his life? Perhaps some real sense would emerge if he, with all the vitality that is his, were able to participate in this sort of fantastic ballet by only guessing at its rhythm? At Chianciano, our hero spends his days taking the water cure, sleeping a lot (and dreaming whenever we like), walking through town (movie house, evening auctions, pinball machines, masked balls) like any good vacationer, and at the most, sightseeing in the old towns nearby (castles, enchanted Medicean villas, abbeys, fabulous grottoes). His day passes on two levels: the real one composed of meetings in the hotel and at the spring; friends from Rome who come to see him, the mistress hidden away in a little hotel, and the wife who appears one fine day to keep him company. And a fantastic level of dreams, imaginings, and memories, that assail him, showing up whenever we decide it's useful. 1. A diminutive. Often denoting a "bad" person, the suffix -accio is here used playfully. 2. Fellini is writing shortly after his own stay at this health spa in Tuscany.

228 Contexts So here is what we have so far: Level of Reality The spa doctor. This is a character who will appear at the beginning of the film, entering the room of the hero who is still dreaming that he's flying over Amsterdam. The doctor is very young, very serious, and in a big hurry. He examines the man in a strictly scientific way, without any human warmth at all. He looks at the X-rays, listens to the chest, and quickly writes the dosages and the schedule for the water and mud treatments. We learn some essential things about our hero from this interrogation: first name, last name, age, that he's married, his business, father, mother, previous illnesses, everything that it's useful to know. Maybe this is a character we'll see again during the film, maybe not. The mistress. Naturally, she has a big fat ass, white skin and a small head; she's placid, goodnatured, and seems to be the ideal mistress because she doesn't bug you, is very simple and submissive. Married, she speaks about her husband with great affection and would like the hero to help him get a good job. She's the typical Italian middle-class woman: buys everything on credit—refrigerator, television; sets herself no moral problems, shows everyone a picture of her little girl, whom she adores. She has happily agreed to come to Chianciano because she has deluded herself into believing she'll spend three or four days in a good hotel and go for strolls or to the movies or to the theater with the hero; he, on the other hand, is already sorry he asked her to come and doesn't have the courage to tell her to go back home. The relationship that links him to the placid big-assed broad is based on a kind of dull physical well-being, as if he were sucking at a stupid and nourishing nurse, and then falling asleep, sated and spent. The woman talks a lot but isn't annoying because she has a pleasant voice that doesn't grate, and she's satisfied if you smile at her once in a while even if you don't bother to follow what she's saying. She also eats a lot, slowly but relentlessly, all the while making cute little faces and wiggling on her imposing white backside. A kind of fat swan, slow, stupid, and, in her own way, fascinating and mysterious. He goes off to pick her up at 3:00 on an August afternoon at the'Chiusi station. She arrives decked out with a veil around her head, twenties' style, and she hasn't eaten on the train. She's hungry. A dreary lunch at 4:00 in the afternoon in a desolate little restaurant. Lovemaking in the dirty hotel (from the square outside comes the sound of train whistles because it's the square in front of the station), and then a brief nap on her well-cushioned back (while he sleeps, she quietly eats grapes without making the slightest movement so as not to wake

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him). He sleeps and dreams of his mom who shows him how nice dad's tomb is. Mom tells him to wait because Dad is coming right away. "But isn't he dead?" he asks in the dream. "Of course he's dead," says Mom and points to a corner of the chapel with a sad smile. Now Dad, his hat on his head, is seated on a chair next to the big stone arch; he greets the hero a little distractedly because he is giving his full attention to looking around the walls and ceiling of the chapel. He seems to not approve and clearly he is not completely satisfied; pouting a bit, he examines some dark corner, up above. Chatting quietly, the hero and his mom then leave the chapel, but now his mother has his wife's face, and the hero accepts this as well. It's clear that the mistress will also be seen again during the film. One evening, she will be seen taking a stroll while he is standing with his wife in front of a shop window and he pretends not to see her. Fatty too will gently change direction with a little, inoffensive smile. She will look back only after walking on a good bit, when she is absolutely sure she will not be seen. The white-skinned broad with the big ass will also appear in the house-harem fantasy. She is stringing beads in front of the television set. The girl of the spa. Picture Claudia Cardinale, beautiful, very young, but already mature inside, solid—an offer of authenticity that the hero is no longer able to accept. The first time we see the girl, we see only her hand as it comes out from the depth of the spring, offering the hero a glass full of steaming water; then, the eyes that look right at you and smile, and the hero feels certain that the girl could be the solution to everything. Now the girl is already bent on her work, together with all the other girls, as if they were in a dressmaking establishment (giggles, nudges, little conspiratorial winks, innocent gibes at one client or another). And that night the hero waits for the girl at the spa exit. At night, the spa changes completely; it becomes a damp, silent woods. There is not a living soul; everything is turned off. All you can hear is the subterranean gurgle of the springs. The girl talks about life in this place during the winter and how she would like to go off to a big city. Walking side by side, they reach her home: the house of the level-crossing keeper in the open country, with the girl's father, mother, and sisters. It is a midsummer's night—crickets in the darkness and bonfires on the hills. The kitchen opens almost directly onto the tracks that shine by the light of fireflies; in the corner is the television set with its absurd programs. Young farmers come by on bicycles to pick up the sisters and they go off in the darkness along scented paths. In the air is love-filled enchantment that brings

230 Contexts rapture and oblivion. I think the two of them ought to kiss very naturally and then kiss over and over again. Or rather, instead of living in the house at the level-crossing, she could be the daughter of the guard at the village museum. Everything would be the same in terms of the love-filled family atmosphere. In addition, the girl shows the hero a marvelous painting, half-packed up, in a corner of the dreary room. It might be a sixteenth-century portrait of a beautiful Italian woman. I'll speak to you about this in person because I don't yet see it clearly and I wouldn't want it to recall the castle sequence in La dolce vita with Anouk and Marcello. I don't know how the story between him and the girl will end: I mean, when it is, exactly, that he pulls back. Something will happen, even though I have the sense that there's no need to end any of the stories we're going to tell. The friend who's in up to his ears. He's an intellectual, about sixty. Imagine whomever you like.3 Cultivated, intelligent, polite, and funny. The hero meets him at the spa swimming pool. This friend of his, egged on and provoked somewhat cruelly by a group of young men, jumps from the diving board and does a bad belly-whopper. He gets out of the pool limping, pale. He is spending the afternoon at Chianciano with his very young girlfriend, for whom he left his wife after forty years of marriage. The girl trapped him with erotic/intellectual games. She makes herself up to look like a corpse; she expresses a kind of wounded amazement even over a tomato pizza, saying, "Look at the colors! But it'snot to be believed! . . ." She's the classic bitch who plays at being eccentric, anguished, and also wants to be daddy's little darling, in short, to appear very interesting. Examples? There are many around, even in the movie world, and you know them very well.4 Two days later, the hero goes to the friend, who is in bed recovering from the dive. The room is full of medicines and gym apparatus. The friend speaks beatifically of his own situation. "I know I may seem ridiculous. But the important thing is that I don't give a damn. I'm happy . . . I drink in my life day by day, and she, believe me, is extraordinary. . . ." The extraordinary girl is right there, stretched out on the bed, in cute little pyjamas. She lets her friend caress her head and, looking into the hero's eyes with a gaze that tries to be modest but is instead false like everything else about her, she too says, "Yes, we're happy. . . ." 3. [Note in original text]: "And here Fellini gives the names of two or three very famous people." 4. [Note in original text]: "And here, the names of two or three models."

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The telepathist couple, Maurice and Maya. At night, the spa is once again transformed. It becomes an enormous, dark nightclub where people dance and various acts are presented. One evening, the hero watches a telepathy act that both amuses and upsets him. In the center of the dance floor, blindfolded, her back turned to the audience, Maya captures the thoughts of her partner and shouts them loudly into a microphone. Maurice, the partner, passes among the tables, touching watches and asking his companion to name the brand; then identity cards, numbers of drivers' licenses. He even has the spectators whisper to him, and down on the dance floor Maya loudly repeats, "Longines! Number 78967. . . . The gentleman is Puerto Rican. His name is José Pinto . . . etc." Maurice comes over to the hero, and the blindfolded Maya loudly announces the first name, last name, age, and even one of the hero's thoughts. The sentence, shouted in the big room, hangs in the air like an unsettling revelation. The audience is amused and frightened. At the end of the show, the hero goes up to the two actors and, spurred by curiosity and a childish and superstitious hope, invites them to supper, as if they might be able to reveal to him some guiding truth. But seen up close, these two characters are very dreary; he speaks with a strong Turin accent, she in a mixture of French and Spanish. They are but two lowly strolling players, and it is they who are flattered and shy in front of the hero. Can this be the truth? Returning late that night to his hotel, the hero meets the friend who speaks to him in a fatherly tone, suggesting he be more direct in his relationship with his wife. Thus, he gives him advice that is exactly contrary to what he himself is doing. And then there is the Bishop. But my ideas are very confused about this character. I think that this high prelate, who awakens in the hero a whole series of memories (the first confession— the small wooden door opens and through the little holes of the grate appears the thin face of a bearded monk, his eyes closed, who says, "Go on, my son, confess your sins"; the examination in front of an entire panel of "Carissimi fathers" when the hero is ten years old), I think, as I was saying, that this character can add something to my story. We see him arrive in a Mercedes, with a sweaty, excited little monk, two little priests, and a secretary. All the guests at the hotel run to kiss his hand. We'll see him in the large dining room, crossing himself before the meal, forcing everyone to rise and repeat the brief prayer. At night he will

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walk alone in the garden and the gravel crunches beneath his slippers. He has asthma; he can't sleep and he smokes anti-asthmatic cigarettes all by himself. We will see him at the spa, in the mud pavillion, completely nude and covered with mud like a big mummy, crusts of dry mud dropping from his elbows and knees. A female bath attendant will kiss his hand. He should be a character who awakens memories, guilt complexes, and all kinds of other messes. I feel that one evening the hero and the bishop should also speak to each other. However, I don't know what they would have to say to each other. I also thought the bishop might appear to the hero in a dream. The wife. A very important character in the film. Theirs is a tortured relationship, but tender in its own way. Both of them believe that only by fleeing each other will they have peace, but as soon as they are apart, they seek each other out so as to be together again. They talk of separating, but without conviction any longer, like two prisoners who discuss an escape that they are the first to know is impossible. Picture for a minute. . . .5 Unexpectedly, the wife arrives in Chianciano to be near him. At night in bed, he looks at her sleeping; she wakes up and he pretends to sleep. He meets her on the street, in front of a shop; she puts on her glasses to look at a piece of material inside the shop window. And without being seen, he looks at her, fascinated and dismayed. . . . That then is his wife. But who is she truly? In a montage of memories, he tries to reconstruct the character of the wife, but everything is contradictory. She seems more and more a stranger and yet beyond question. Impulses of real affection and rancor, resigned acceptance and rebellion continue to torment him. Perhaps it is his chronic infidelity that keeps him from getting to the core of his wife's being any longer, from possessing her innermost self . . . but what does "fidelity" mean? This might be a starting point for a fantasy about his wife's fidelity imagined by the hero. I think that the memory of his marriage suddenly assails him, and he is greatly moved, even to tears. Or there in Chianciano, one morning, wandering, he goes into a little church and there's a wedding and he watches the whole ceremony and kisses the bride and shakes the groom's hand. Brunellone,6 there is more stuff—in part, I've already told you about it. For instance, the homosexual friend who is traveling with his sullen lover. Together, they visit the abbey where there's a saint who died a thousand years ago, mum5. [Note in original text]: "And here a name well known to the author of the letter." 6. Another affectionate diminutive. The suffix -one denotes great size.

Letter from Fellini to Brunello Rondi

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mified inside a glass coffin. Or perhaps, the two friends have come to help stage a theatrical show in the square of a medieval church (AmintaV The Tempest7s). I think that actors made up as emperors, directors, magicians, and priests fit in well with this story. The homosexual is slugged ferociously by his sullen friend and the hero takes him to the pharmacy, or better yet to the little town hospital. It's night. Only a very old nun and a very young doctor are on duty at the hospital. There are also three old people who are peacefully awaiting death. And then the episode of "Saraghina," a horrible and splendid dragon who represents the first traumatic view of sex in the life of the hero. And then the guardian angel. The guardian angel is a character who follows us until we're thirteen years old. The hero might have a memory and a fantasy in which he thinks about how he imagined his angel to be, the angel he saw in a dream. And then the now inevitable sequence of the house-harem with all his women, including his wife: one is sewing, another is in the kitchen, two are watching television. The hero arrives with a new girlfriend who is welcomed very cordially by all the other women. The hero is a kind of serene patriarch. At dinner he converses with them. He puts them to bed. Then, all alone, he opens the little door in the corridor, beyond which there is a spiral staircase that leads to a small room upstairs. In the lighted room sits Father Arpa, reading a book and waiting to have a friendly chat with the hero about how an initiation might take place. And then the circus with all the characters of his life. So, there you have it, the whole shooting match, more or less. I still like it. I don't yet know why. I'm determined that the film have a humorous tone and that visually, it be extremely neat, shiny, and limpid. I was thinking of Botticelli.9 I've also thought that the hero might be working on a literary project during his vacation. That is he has to write an essay and an encyclopedia "entry" on an historical character—Messalina,10 St. Francis"—a character from the pagan world would be better. This character might appear occasionally, as if evoked by the concentration of his thought. What does all this mean? Well, Flaiano suggests the title "The Big Confusion" 12 but I don't like it much. Actually, I don't like it at all. 7. A pastoral play by the Italian poet, Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). 8. A comedy by Shakespeare (1564-1616). 9. Sandro Botticelli (1444/5-1510), Italian painter. 10. Valeria Messalina (d. A.D. 48), third wife of the emperor Claudius. 11. St. Francis of Assissi (1181/2-1226), founder of the Franciscan order. 12. In Italian, "La bella confusione."

234 Contexts I think I understand that the true key to this whole concoction is still the one I told you right at the beginning: a multidimensional portrait of a so-so guy. An enchanted ballet filled with fanasy, a magic kaleidoscope . . . but these too are words that lend themselves to many, many misunderstandings. By making periodic violent efforts, I think I'll be able to finish this story. I realize that reflecting on it is not useful. If I force myself to concentrate on this subject, I run the risk of completely muddling my thoughts. That's why I peacefully wait for something or someone to make me take a step foward. A great big hug. Good-bye for now. P.S. Don't show these pages to anyone or speak to anyone about this film. I hope to see you soon and to have from you a dazzling illumination.

Chronology of the Shooting of 8Y2

1962 May 9: Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 5 7 5 - 6 2 2 (Miss Olimpia's screen test) May 11: Hotel Room/Production Office, night, 2 7 4 - 288 May 13: Guido's Hotel Room, day, 19-31 May 17: Guido's Bathroom, 3 2 - 3 3 May 18: Departure from Hotel (discarded first ending) May 19: Claudia in Hotel Corridor, with bicycle (discarded) May 21: Guido's Hotel Room, night, 303-317 May 23: Dining Room in Carta's Hotel, day, 7 4 - 9 2 May 25: Carta's Hotel Room, day, 9 3 - 1 0 2 May 28: The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day, 3 4 - 6 4 June 4: The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, night, 148-225 June 12: The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day, 3 4 - 6 4 (the meeting of Daumier, Mezzabotta, Gloria, and Guido); 325-351 (Guido going to meet the Cardinal) June 15: The Elevator Car, 120-128 June 16: Carla's Hotel Room, day, 9 3 - 1 0 4 (retakes) June 18: The Corridor, outside the Production Office, night, 2 8 9 - 3 0 2 June 19: Guido's Hotel Room, night, 4 7 4 - 4 9 2 June 20: Driving in Claudia's Car, night, 6 6 0 - 6 7 0 June 21: The Grounds of the Spa, day, 325-351 (Guido's meeting with the Cardinal) June 22: Guido's death dream: a car in hotel corridor, driven by Maurice (discarded) June 26: The Thermal Baths of the Spa, day, 396-421 (the descent down the long staircase) June 30: Lobby of Hotel, day, 129-147 July 3: Lobby departure (discarded first ending); Lobby of Hotel, night, 2 4 8 273 (Guido on telephone)

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July 4: Lobby scenes later discarded—the guests making up games on a rainy day; the death dream, Pace, wrapped in sheet, kissing the windows of the phantom car July 5: Chapel in School, day, 383 July 6: Courtyard of Old Building, night, 671-694; The Dining Room, Hotel, day, 392-395 (Guido, Daumier, the Cardinal, and the Russian singer) July 13: The Schoolroom, day, 379; Corridor and School Principal's Office, day, 372-378 (Guido on staircase) July 14: Corridor and School Principal's Office, day, 372-378 (Guido being examined by Principal) July 16: Chapel in School, day, 384-389 (Guido's confession); departure of Guido and Luisa from Hotel (discarded first ending); the wedding of Guido and Luisa (discarded) July 17: Auditorium and Lobby of Movie Theater, night, 575-655 July 23: Driving in Claudia's Car, night, 660-670 July 24: The Dining Car (discarded first ending) July 25: Exit Stairway leading to Street, night, 656 July 27: Café in the Public Square, day, 493-508; dusk, 422-445 (Luisa's walk) July 28: Street, night, 657-659 July 30: Café in the Public Square, day, 493-508 (Luisa and Carla dance); dusk, 422-445 (Guido follows Luisa) August 2: Café in the Public Square, dusk, 422-445 (Luisa and Guido dance) August 4: The Thermal Baths of the Spa, day, 396-421 (Guido's interview with the Cardinal) August 6: Dining Room in Carla's Hotel, day, 74-92 (Carla eating chicken) August 7: The Farmhouse, Guido's Harem Fantasy, 509-574 August 9: Country Cemetary, Guido's Dream, 105-116 August 11: The Train Station, day, 65-73 August 12: The Train Station, departure of Guido and Luisa (discarded first ending) August 13: The Farmhouse Bedroom, night, 239-244 August 18: The Farmhouse, Guido's Harem Fantasy, 509-574 August 30: Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 575-622 (the hanging of Daumier); Lobby of Movie Theater, night, 623-630 August 31: The Farmhouse Bedroom, night, 239-244; Auditorium of Movie Theater, night, 575-622 (the screen test for the part of Luisa) September 1: The Sky, 10-12; An Underpass, 1 - 9

Chronology

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September 3: The Dining Car (discarded first ending) September 4: The Schoolyard, day, 352-355 September 5: Carta's Hotel Room, day, 318-324; 93-104 September 6: The Beach, day, 356-371 September 8, The Set of the Spaceship, night, 446-473 September 14: The Sky, 10-12; A Beach, 13-18 September 17: Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737-772 September 18: An Underpass, 1 - 9 (Guido's flight) September 22: The Set of the Spaceship, night, 446-473 (the conversation between Guido and Rossella) September 25: Spaceship Set on the Beach, day, 695-736 September 27: Guido's death dream; he emerges from beneath table and sees black curtain hanging over stairway (discarded first ending) September 28: Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737-772 (the dance on the circus ring, filmed now as a possible new ending) October 3: Spaceship Set on the Beach, day, 695-736 (Guido's suicide fantasy) October 4: Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737-772 (Guido and Daumier) October 5: The Terrace and Grounds of the Spa, day, 35-64 ( c u of Guido at spring, taking water from Claudia); Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737-772 (Guido, Daumier, and Maurice) October 6: Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737772 (the procession of the white-garbed characters) October 11: Spaceship Set on the Beach, later the same day, then evening, 737772 (the parade of the clowns and young Guido, the grand procession down the stairs of the launching pad, the reconciliation of Guido and Luisa, the dance around the ring) October 12: Guido and Luisa in the Dining Car (discarded first ending) October 14: Guido's final speech to characters in the Dining Car (discarded first ending)

Interview with Costanzo Costantini

Fellini: I always worked right in the streets, in the homes of people I didn't know, subject to chance influences, unexpected circumstances, incredible characters. I was open to everything that the day offered me, responsive to the strangest contacts and the most mysterious suggestions. However, in the case of this film, I had to shoot in the studio because its special quality required that distractions be avoided, because I had to be extremely faithful to the imaginings that are at its heart. In the beginning, it was a nightmare for me. Int. : Why did you keep the title 8V2I Fellini: Because it was the working title to which I had grown accustomed and because I couldn't find another. But I think it is the most appropriate, most honest, and least rhetorical. . . . Int.: Are you satisfied with the film? Fellini: Yes. Why not? But I don't know how to judge i t — I don't want to judge it. Making a film is my way of life: when I'm not shooting, I'm preparing a film. 8V2 is a liberating film. M y greatest ambition is that the joy it gives me will be perceived by the viewers. Int.: But is it a confessional film? Fellini: Superficially it's autobiographical, but only superficially. I hope it concerns everyone. It's extremely simple: it puts forth nothing that needs to be understood or interpreted. From II Messaggero, February 4, 1963.

Interview with Angelo Solmi

Int.: Did you build your film day by day, as you were shooting it? Was it something like the way Rossellini worked in the first years of neo-realism? Fellini: Well, let's not carry this too far. At the beginning, let's say about two years ago, right after La dolce vita, I had in mind some fragments for a film: a weak, confused man, who doesn't know how to get out of the difficult position he's gotten himself into; a man who escapes into fantasy and thinks about living with lots of women; a meeting with a cardinal; a futuristic, science-fiction episode; an optimistic, almost joyous ending in which everything becomes clear. I spoke about it to Flaiano and then to Pinelli. At that point, they didn't really get it either. Then they agreed to write lots of little scripts, lots of autonomous short stories. Once I had them, I mixed them together to look for some ordering on the emotional level, but I didn't succeed in finding it. Fortunately, at this point I interrupted my work to shoot the episode for Boccaccio '70, a distraction that did me a lot of good. You know, after La dolce vita I was in a delicate position: my enemies were gunning for me, my friends expected great things, and I myself wanted to pursue the subject introduced in that film, to create a work that would be even more sincere, one free of all compromise. I wanted to draw the portrait of a man who is outside of history—his past and future together, with his dreams, his fears, his guilt, his illusions. Int.: Why didn't you place this portrait in a normal script, as you had always done? Fellini: What can I tell you? Given what I had in mind—as I said, sections of a film—it annoyed me to see the story written down exactly, and then, after the scripts were bound, I felt that too many things had been left out. At the beginning of last year I began—God, it doesn't make sense to say I began. Everyone else believed I had begun because it looked like I had: I was searching for the portly woman all over Italy, I was keeping myself busy. I went on like this for three months, with a fully engaged company, hoping I would get some ideas in the meantime. Fifty times at least, I was on the point of taking Fracassi, the producFrom Oggi Illustrate), February 9, 1963.

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tion director, by the arm and saying, "I don't remember the film any more. I'm not going to make it any more." In short, the preparations were stormy. Afterwards, everything was much easier. Int.: And no one had any suspicions? Fellini: They trusted me. They thought I knew what I was doing, that not letting even the actors know the plot was only a publicity stunt. Instead, all of this became part of the film itself, or more accurately, its connective tissue. But you can imagine my state of mind. Two days before shooting I was about to go to the producer, Angelo Rizzoli, to tell him the whole truth and beg him to shut down the production. But how do you say to a serious person: "I can't make a film I don't remember—please forgive me, I was joking?" He wouldn't have believed me either. Int.: Even if you didn't have the guiding principle in mind, did you at least have the character, as he now appears in the finished film? Fellini: Only in his broadest outline. In the meanwhile, for a long time I was unsure about his profession. I wanted to keep this Guido Anselmi, played by Marcello Mastroianni, vague. But the movies need precise IDs, so at first I thought of scriptwriting for him, the only profession I know well because it's contiguous with mine. I thought that describing a director would be altogether too brazen. I already knew that everyone would identify the character with Federico Fellini himself, that they would bring the autobiography into it, and so on. Int.: Well, we've gotten to the point. The character of Guido is autobiographical, isn't it? Fellini: Up to a certain point. As I said, I was thinking about the film in segments, and every once in a while others were added—the Saraghina episode and the one in the boarding school in Fano where I was as a boy. Inevitably, all the episodes referred to my real life, as you well know since you collected them for the recent book written about me. But little by little these episodes changed, while others took shape during the shooting. Finally there emerged 8V2, or the story of a director who has to start a film, who doesn't remember it any more, and goes ahead anyway, on two different levels: reality and imagination. (At this point in the interview Fellini gives a long synopsis of the film. He is then asked about the final sequence.) The ending restores some hope to the hero, who finds a kind of reconciliation with himself and with his wife. I shot two endings, but I preferred the one that takes place at the base of the rocket constructed for the film that Guido is not able

Interviews/Federico Fellini

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to make (originally, however, the spaceship was to have served another purpose). The second ending showed Guido on a train, with his wife, and they spoke of separation; then the train went into a tunnel, Guido began to feel sick, and the carriage filled with the characters of his life. At that point, Guido understood that he had to begin all over again with Luisa. . . . Int.: Are you afraid that viewers might find the film difficult to understand? Fellini: I hope not. 8V2 is full of funny episodes and actually, from a certain point of view, it is a comic film, perhaps the most humorous I've ever made. In my view, it is a step forward with respect to La dolce vita; it has a hint of future happiness, a joie de vivre, that La dolce vita didn't have. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if many people didn't like it—the Communists, for example, who will find it agnostic, decadent, individualistic; the right-thinking; probably women, or at least some of them. In that case, the only audience left is children, and they aren't allowed to see the film. . . . Int. : Finally, there are no negative characters in the film: if people try hard to communicate, they can understand and love each other. This is a view you've always held. Fellini: That's the way it is. Everyone has his or her truth. For example, in the film there is a critic who continuously makes unfavorable and acid judgments on Guido's efforts (and at one point we see him hanged in one of the director's fantasies). People will say that here, more than ever, I've protected myself in advance, because in fact criticism against 8V2 is already expressed by that character, as are the responses to his criticism. But that man—an intellectual, a writer who has some symbolic value—isn't wrong. Fundamentally, everyone in the film is right: Guido with his faults, Guido's wife, the priests at school who say that Saraghina is the Devil (and in some way she is), and even Saraghina herself. Int.: The film takes place in a thermal spa. Is it Chianciano? Fellini: It might be Chianciano, or Montecatini, or Ischia. I reconstructed everything in the studio. Actually, this is the first film I shot entirely in a studio. I could have spent less by shooting on location in Chianciano, but I was afraid of falling into the trap of realism. The film needed exactness, but the exactness of dreams. Besides, I wanted to make sure that the work's faithfulness to those ten key images I had in mind from the start not be dispersed by cold reality. Int.: Why did you choose a spa as background? Fellini: For the reason that is made clear at the very beginning of the film. A while ago, like Guido, the director in 8V2,1 had to go to Chianciano for the cure.

242 Contexts While there, I grasped the cinematographic possibilities offered by that sort of Valley of Jehoshaphat,1 with its crowd of white ghosts, its time marked off into schedules created by doctors—a limbo in which everyone would meet, in which it was possible to fix the images and the faces of the past. 1. The Valley of Jehoshaphat is where the Last Judgment will supposedly be held.

Interview with Costanzo Costantini

Int.: Why do you maintain an attitude toward critics that is both disdainful and reverential? Is [Ingmar] Bergman's attitude of absolute contempt no longer tenable and acceptable? Fellini: I work in such a disorganized way that I don't think about criticism at all. Criticism is foreign to the germination period of my work. Then, when the film is finished, in my humanly petty way I enjoy favorable criticism; on the other hand, negative criticism awakens my defensive instincts. I must admit, however, that criticism has always helped me. In the case of 8V2,1 felt a sense of solidarity on the part of critics that goes beyond the demands of their job, beyond aesthetic considerations. Int.: What do you think of the comparisons made between 8V2 and Last Year at Marienbad? Fellini: I haven't seen Resnais's film. I've only seen some photographs, and it seems to me that Last Year at Marienbad is on the level of pure intellectual abstraction. From this perspective, 8V2 is the anti-Marienbad. What I am saying is embarrassing, but true. If a man is open to life, he is also open to culture; certain problems are in the air, are intuited, are picked up. Int.: Have you read Joyce's Ulysses? Have you read it and thought about it, as Moravia says you have? Does Guido Anselmi resemble Leopold Bloom? Fellini: I'm sorry to disappoint Moravia, but I haven't read Ulysses. Int.: Do you think the references to Kierkegaard,1 Marino Moretti,2 and Gozzano3 are pertinent? Fellini: On the one hand, the references please me because they put me in the company of highly respectable people, but on the other hand, they make me sad, because literary references aren't necessary in order to understand my films. The critics who haven't made references have come closer to 8V2 than the others. Furthermore, I can't judge the pertinence of such references because I am unfamiliar From IIMessagero, February 19, 1963. 1. S0ten Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish philosopher and religious thinker, influence on twentiethcentury existentialists. 2. Marino Moretti (1885-1971), Italian poet and novelist known for his simple and anti-ihetorical style and realistic subject matter. 3. Guido Gozzano (1883-1916), Italian poet, of the same school as Moretti.

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Contexts

with the authors cited. I know Kierkegaard and Moretti by name; perhaps I read some of Gozzano's poetry in school. In saying this, I don't mean to excuse my ignorance. I plan to read many books, but I never find the time. In addition, life always fascinates me more and more. Museums and picture galleries are not made for artists. Certainly, if you read a book, you encounter a great soul, you have a profitable meeting, but my readings are casual, occasional. I am not well informed. I am aware of the dangers of this sensuality of mine, but on the other hand, things have value at the moment they are discovered and experienced, that is, at the moment they are invented, even if they are centuries old. I must add that critics need labels for works of originality; this is in part due to fact that they are wary of mystification. Int.: Have you seen Wild Strawberries? Some critics have found analogies between Bergman's film and 8V2. Fellini: Wild Strawberries is the only film of Bergman that I've seen. I only needed to see this one film to understand what a great artist and what a great brother Bergman is. But I had 8V2 in mind for about six years. The comparison flatters me, however. Bergman is a true man of the theater, who uses everything, even magic, an esoteric sort of magic, to present a disturbing, problematic reality in a playful, joyful manner. He's not a man who does things for the sake of "good taste," of "decoration." Bergman has the same affinity for me that I have for him. He smells the strain of blood that also has the taste of the sawdust of the circus. Int.: How many and which films and how many and which books have you seen and read in the last five years? Fellini: I've seen Bergman's Wild Strawberries and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Bergman and Kurosawa are true creators, magicians, but not in the sense of mystification. They possess a true, rich, fantasy-filled world, that they propose to others in all their violence and trickery. Then I saw Chaplin's A King in New York, Pasolini's Accattone, Rondi's Una vita violenta, Ferreri's The Wheelchair, and Rossi's Nude Odyssey. I've read Moravia's La noia, Flaiano's Tempo da uccidere, the books of Pasolini, Tommaso Landolfi, Gadda, and Palazzeschi. Moravia is disconcertingly lucid, but he never gives himself up to the irrational. I think that his unshakeable defense of reason will lead him to a form of mysticism. Flaiano has a great talent, a great richness, and it's a shame that he doesn't write any more. But the writers I love most are Landolfi and Gadda.4 I'm a passionate 4. Alberto Moravia, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Tommaso Landolfi, Carlo Gadda, and Aldo Palazzeschi are mid-twentieth-century Italian writers of fiction and poetry. Flaiano has collaborated on the screenplays of several of Fellini's films, including 8'A.

Interviews/Federico Fellini

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reader of books of magic, of trial proceedings, and of the human interest items. Int. : You have written that it is necessary to free oneself from Catholicism. But what would you be without the conflicts, the fears, the complexes, the anguish that Catholicism creates for you? You would be a radical intellectual, you would be like the intellectual you hang in 8V2. Fellini: That's true. But at the end of 8V2 the film's hero recognizes that complexes and anguish are also part of his wealth. Int.: Don't you think your quotation from St. Augustine is too pat: "Love and do whatever you want"? Such a sentence can be interpreted so as to justify all sorts of individual license. Fellini: No. I understand the dangers and the misunderstandings to which such a sentence can give rise, but St. Augustine says that you must first love and then do what you want. Love is the most difficult thing in the world. It is unattainable. I meant love in the Christian sense, love that makes you whole, that places you in a vital dimension of great attraction. But this is the highest summit, the most unreachable.

Reviews

T

I he reviews of 8V2 were overwhelmingly favorable. It was hailed by Newsweek, Variety, Film Quarterly, Cahiers du Cinéma, by Stanley Kauffman in the New Republic, Alberto Moravia in L'Espresso. Most of the Italian critics thought it a work of genius. The influential Bosley Crowther praised the film in the New York Times but found

weaknesses in its structure. The few dissenters, whose disapproval ranged from mild to strong (Pauline Kael, John Simon, the reviewers for Time and for Positif), spoke of the film's excessively personal nature, its superficiality, and what they considered the simple-mindedness of its symbolism and conclusion.

I Lost It At the Movies Pauline Kael

S

ome years ago a handsome, narcissistic actor who was entertaining me with stories about his love affairs with various ladies and gentlemen, concluded by smiling seductively as he announced, "Sometimes I have so many ideas I don't know which one to choose." I recall thinking—as I edged him to the door—that he had a strange notion of what an idea was. The director-hero of 8'A is the center of the film universe, the creator on whose word everything waits, the man sought after by everyone, the one for whom all possibilities are open. Guido can do anything, and so much possibility confuses him. He's like the movies' famous couturier who can't decide what he's going to do for the spring collection. ("I've simply got to get an idea. I'll go mad it I don't. Everybody's depending on me.") I'm afraid that Guido's notion of an "idea" isn't much more highly developed than my silly actor friend's, and it's rather shockingly like the notion of those god-awful boobs who know they could be great writers because they have a great story—they just need someone to put it into words. Indeed the director conforms to the popular notions of a successful genius, and our ladies'-magazine fiction has always been fond of the "sophisticated" writer or director looking for a story and finding it in romance, or in his own backyard. "Accept me as I am" is Guido's final, and successful, plea to the wife-figure (although that is what she has been rejecting for over two hours). Just as La Dolce Vita confirmed popular suspicions about the depravity of the rich and gifted, 8V2 confirms the popular view of a "big" film director's life—the world is his once he finds that important "idea" (it's so important that the boobs will never tell theirs for fear of "giving it away," i.e., having it stolen—the fewer their "ideas," the greater their fear of plagiarism). Perhaps the irrelevance of what we see (principally his conflict between his love for his wife, the pleasures of his mistress, his ideal of innocence, and his dreams of a harem) to the composition of a work of art may be indicated by a comparison: can one imagine that Dostoyevsky, say, or Goya or Berlioz or D. W. Griffith or whoever, resolved his personal life before producing a work, or that his personal problems of the moFrom Pauline Kael, I Lost It at the Movies (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1965): 261-266.

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ment were even necessarily relevant to the work at hand? This notion of an artist "facing himself" or "coming to grips with himself" as a precondition to "creation" is, however, familiar to us from the popularized Freudianized lives of artists (and of everyone else). It is perhaps easy for educated audiences to see an "advance" in film when a film maker deals with a "creative crisis" or "artist's block," a subject so often dealt with in modern writing; but is it applicable to film? What movie in the halfcentury history of movies has been held up by the director's having a creative block? No movie with a budget and crew, writers and sets. The irrelevance of what we see to the processes of making a movie can, of course, be explained away with, "He's having a breakdown and all this is his fantasy life." Someone's fantasy life is perfectly good material for a movie if it is imaginative and fascinating in itself, or if it illuminates his non-fantasy life in some interesting way. But 8V2 is neither; it's surprisingly like the confectionary dreams of Hollywood heroines, transported by a hack's notions of Freudian anxiety and wish fulfillment. 8V2 is an incredibly externalized version of an artist's "inner" life—a gorgeous multi-ringed circus that has very little connection with what, even for a movie director, is most likely to be solitary, concentrated hard work. It's more like the fantasy life of someone who wishes he were a movie director, someone who has soaked up those movie versions of an artist's life, in which in the midst of a carnival or ball the hero receives inspiration and dashes away to transmute life into art. "What's the film about? What's on your mind this time?" asks Guido's wife. In 8'A2 the two questions are one. Creativity is the new cant—parents are advised not to hit it with a stick, schoolteachers are primed to watch for it, foundations encourage it, colleges and subsidized health farms nourish it in a regulated atmosphere; the government is advised to honor it. We're all supposed to be so in awe of it that when it's in crisis, the screen should be torn asunder by the conflicts. But the creativity con-game, a great subject for comedy, is rather embarrassing when it's treated only semisatirically. When a satire on big, expensive movies is itself a big, expensive movie, how can we distinguish it from its target? When a man makes himself the butt of his own joke, we may feel too uncomfortable to laugh. Exhibitionism is its own reward. 8V2 suggests some of Fellini's problems as a director, but they are not so fantastic nor so psychoanalytic as the ones he parades. A major one is the grubby, disheartening economic problem that probably affects Fellini in an intensified form precisely because of the commercial success of La Dolce Vita and the busi-

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ness hopes it raised. A movie director has two "worst" enemies: commercial failure and commercial success. After a failure, he has a difficult time raising money for his next film; after a success, his next must be bigger and "better." In recent years no major Hollywood director with a string of "big" successes has been able to finance a small, inexpensive production—and this is not for want of trying. From the point of view of studios and banks, an expenditure of half a million dollars is a much bigger risk than an investment of several million on a "name" property with big stars, a huge advertising campaign and almost guaranteed bookings. Commenting on the cost of 8V2 (and Visconti's The Leopard), Show reported that "in terms of lire spent, they have nearly been Italian Cleopatras. But what Hollywood bought dearly in Cleopatra was a big empty box. . . . What the Italians got in 8V2 was a work of immense visual beauty and impressive philosophy, a sort of spectacle of the spirit that was more than they had paid for. A masterpiece is always a bargain." Show's "philosophy" is the kind you look for, like Fellini's "ideas." 8V2 does indeed make a spectacle of the spirit: what else can you do with spirit when you're expected to turn out masterpieces? According to Fellini, we "need new criteria ofjudgment to appreciate this film." Yeah. "In my picture everything happens," says Guido, which is intended to mean that he is an artist-magician; but the man who trusts to alchemy is like the man who hopes to create a masterpiece in his sleep and find it miraculously there upon awakening. Fellini throws in his disorganized ideas, and lets the audiences sort out the meanings for themselves. 8'/2 is big, it's "beautiful": but what is it? Is it really a magical work of art? There is an optimum size for a house: if it becomes too big it becomes a mansion or a showplace and we no longer feel the vital connections of family life, or the way the rooms reflect personalities and habits and tastes. When a movie becomes a spectacle, we lose close involvement in the story; we may admire the action and the pageantry or, as in 8V2, the decor, the witty phantasmagoria, the superb "professionalism" ("That Fellini sure can make movies"), but it has become too big and impressive to relate to lives and feelings. Fellini's last home movie was Nights ofCabiria; 8V2 is a madhouse for a movie director who celebrates La Dolce Vita, i.e., a funhouse. "What marvelous casting," his admirers exclaim, responding not to the people in his films, but to his cleverness in finding them. That is all one can respond to, because the first appearance of his "characters" tells us all that is to be known about them. They are "set"—embalmed. No acting is necessary: he uses them for a kind of instant caricature. His "magic" is that his casting couch is the world. He uses "real" aristocrats and "real" celebrities as themselves, he turns businessmen into stars,

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and then he confesses that he's confused about life and art—the confusion which gives him films that special, "professional" chic. Like those professors of English who boast that they're not interested in what's going on in the world, they're interested only in literature, or critics who say they're not interested in content but in structure, or young poets who tell us they're not interested in anything except their own creativity, Guido announces, "I have nothing to say but I want to say it." The less self, the more need to express it? Or, as the wife said to her drunken husband, "If you had any brains, you'd take them out and play with them." And the "spa" is just the place to do it, as Marienbad demonstrated. Those who honed their wits interpreting what transpired Last Year at Marienbad now go to work on 8V2, separating out "memories" and fantasies from "reality." A professor who teaches film told me he had gone to see 8V2 several times to test our various theories of how the shifts between the three categories were accomplished, and still hadn't discovered the answer. When I suggested that he had set himself an insoluble problem, because 8V2 is all fantasy, he become very angry at what he called my perversity and cited as a clear example of "reality" the sequence of the screen tests for the mistress and wife (one of the most nightmarish episodes in the film) and as an example of "memory" the Saraghina dancing on the beach (which compares as a "memory" with, say, the monster washed up at the end of La Dolce Vita). This is the first (and, predictably, not the last) movie in which the director seems to be primarily interested in glorifying his self-imprisonment. And this failure to reach out imaginatively—which traditionally has been considered artistic suicide—is acclaimed as a milestone in film art by those who accept selfabsorption as "creativity." 8'/2 began as a "sequel" to La Dolce Vita—taking up the story of the "Umbrian angel." Now Fellini turns her into Claudia Cardinale, a rather full-bosomed angel with an ambiguous smile. Fluttering about diaphanously, she's not so different from Cyd Charisse or Rita Hayworth in gauze on the ramps of an MGM or Columbia production number. She becomes a showman's ideal of innocence— pulchritudinous purity, the angel-muse as "star" (of the movie and the movie within the movie)—a stalemate endlessly reflected, an infinite regression.

New York Herald Tribune Judith Crist

F

ederico Fellini's 8V2 ranks among the most brilliant cinema works of our time, an intellectual and artistic exercise of the first rank. Of its importance there can be little question: it is a masterwork of one of the great filmmakers, his obviously definitive statement of creative doctrine. But it is an "in" movie, a strangely cold and uninvolving one for the nondevout. Dazzled by the technique and the mind in control of it, we watch and listen with fascination, captives for the duration. And at the end we are instantly freed by the sudden realization that the heart has not been touched or the spirit moved. 8V2—so titled because, in addition to three "half" contributions to omnibus films, it is Fellini's seventh full-length movie—is highly autobiographical. It tells of a film director unable to proceed with his next project, taking a rest cure at an infernolike spa, badgered by all his associates and hangers-on, visited by his wife and mistress, pushed and pressured through the purgatories of memory and fantasy until, simultaneously, inspiration and resolution are achieved. For the devout, the cultists who are intimates of Fellini's personal and professional history, the film is obviously a total revelation of the master. For those of us who are but admirers of his work, it is as if we are eavesdropping on the psychoanalysis of a comparative stranger—and hearing nothing that makes us care very much about him. This is no denigration of Marcello Mastroianni's impersonation—nay, creation—of the director or of Fellini's great achievement in putting on film a man's troubled mind, in blending memory, fantasy and reality with a matchless artistry. Anselmi, the director, is caught in a traffic jam—but caught within his car, whose windows and doors refuse to open; suddenly he soars, free and clear, only to find that a rope is on his ankle and he is being pulled, kitelike, to earth; the lines of health-seekers at the spa parade like the damned—and how much of the illness is feigned? Memories crowd in—childhood on a farm, the wine festival and children's bath; a boyhood induction into sex by a haggish harlot, the degraFrom New York Herald Tribune, June 26, 1963; in Judith Crist, The Private Eye and the Cowboy and the Very Naked Girl (Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968): 14-16.

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dation of punishment, and a mother's rejection, a return to the harlot, who suddenly is beautiful, singly sweetly by the seashore. The foolish mistress arrives, to be secreted in a lesser hotel; the too-knowing wife arrives with her entourage to question and remain unanswered. In what is perhaps the wittiest and yet most human sequence, Anselmi, at a terrace table with his wife and sister-in-law, sees, to his annoyance, his mistress arrive at a nearby table; his wife is only too aware of the situation. He raises a newspaper in front of his face; suddenly his sister-in-law has vanished; his wife approaches his mistress and they talk as old friends and then dance charmingly together; Anselmi is suddenly lord of a harem, in impresario hat, with bullwhip and toga, coddled and cared for by all the women of his desires, past and present, with his wife the willing hausfrau and houseworker for them all. Throughout there is the dream girl—unmasked as a comparatively dull actress on the make; there is the Church, seen in childhood as an instrument for humiliation, encountered now as a Cardinal whose answers are enigmatic; there is the producer, urging action and compromise, and the writer, cynically nipping inspiration in the bud. And above all there are, as always with Fellini, the stunningly highlighted faces, the fleetingly glimpsed evils and virtues of the world as they pass in parades of human experience. And, as always, the sophistication of Fellini sparkles in the finale, as the director realizes the wealth of his experience, the human involvement of his years. All the people in his life descend from the huge film set (a skeletal gantry for the scheduled science-fiction film he was to have made) and Anselmi orders them all to join hands and dance, and he and his wife join the circle too, as a pathetic circus band, led by a boy, pipes out the beat. Easy to say that the artist can function only as a part of humanity and as an active participant; cynical to say that life is a circus and, like it or not, you join the dance. The final message, embodied in the dance and the little circus boy, makes one remember the Perugino-angel girl at the end of La Dolce Vita—was she the virtue Marcello could not longer recognize or was she, Lolita-like, another lure for the jaded man? That child and all the worldlings in that vast contemporary life embodied in La Dolce Vita linger long in memory; it is Fellini's technique and intellect that impress in his new work.

A Sampling of Italian and French Reviews Film 1964 Vittorio Spinazzola The presentation of the hero suffers from important imbalances; the work . . . tends to be dispersed, with splendid fragments next to scenes that have little justification. To give all this some unity, the director has to fall back on the big effect. From Film 1964 (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1964): 36.

Bianco e Nero Mario Verdone The film is like a brilliant improvisation. . . . The film became the most difficult feat the director ever tried to pull off. It is like a series of acrobatics that a tightrope walker tries to execute high above the crowd . . . always on the verge of falling and being smashed on the ground. But at just the right moment, the acrobat knows how to do the right somersault; with a push he straightens up, saves himself, and wins. From Bianco e Nero, no. 24 (April 1963).

Corriere delta Sera Giovanni Grazzini Fellini's genius shines in everything here, as it has rarely shone in the movies. There isn't a set, a character or a situation that doesn't have a precise meaning on the great stage that is 8V2. From Corriere delta Sera (Milan), 16 February 1963.

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Rinascita Mino Argentieri Amidst the noise of good intentions and open wounds, one has the suspicion that Fellini, in substance, is faking or is perhaps pleased with himself because he knows the tastes of an audience that, also poorly trained to do simple and austere soul-searching, prefers a show of histrionic spirituality. From Rinascita (Rome), 16 February 1963.

Avanti! Corrado Terzi 8V2 says nothing new, adds nothing to what Fellini tried to tell us in La do Ice vita. It is even less autobiographical than that film. From Avanti! (Milan), 16 February 1963.

Il Giorno Alberto Arbasino 8V2 not only leaps many years ahead of what cinema currently does. It addresses narrative at the most critical moment of friction between the conventional and the avant-garde, and it can give it a big push in the direction of the experimental, in other words, of the future, in terms of, among other things, problems of existence, of writing, of the relationship to reality. From II Giorno (Milan), 6 March 1963.

Cinéma 63 Marcel Martin There is a completely new tone in 8V2: an exuberance, a mastery, a "joie de vivre" that shines forth at every moment, despite the verbal interruptions and the superficial worries . . . From Cinéma 63 78 (July-August 1963).

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Luì François Truffaut His [Fellini's] film is complete, simple, beautiful, honest, like the one Guido wants to make in 8V2. From Lui (Paris), 1 July 1963.

Ciné Paul-Louis Thirard Fellini is a child who never attained adulthood, inclusion in a human community. His drama is that he hasn't even acquired enough maturity to save himself by truly wanting to be completely a child. He remains suspended, torn apart, and he cries over himself. And in the final analysis, he deserves his pity. From Ciné 78 (July 1963).

Premier Plan André Bouissy and Raymond Borde 8V2 has the importance, magnitude, and technical mastery of Citizen Kane. It has aged twenty years of the avant-garde in one fell swoop because it both integrates and surpasses all the discoveries of experimental cinema. . . . Unfortunately, the conclusion is weak. The last ten minutes should be cut. The true film ends when the workers are in front of the launching pad and say, "Perhaps we'll work together again on another film." From Premier Plan (Paris), 30 November 1963.

Commentaries

S

ome notion of the extent of criticism inspired by Fellini is conveyed by the existence of two book-length bibliographies devoted to him. 8V2 has received the lion's share of the attention. Prior to the publication of this volume, it has been the focus of at least four other books: the excellent close readings of A. E. Benderson and Ted Perry, the account of its making by Deena Boyer, and the collection of essays published in Etudes Cinématographiques.

The range of critical discourse focused on 8'/.2 has been varied, and its level high. The excellent essays by Timothy Hyman and Barbara K. Lewalski (see Selected Bibliography) were reprinted in Peter Bondanella, ed., Federico Fellini, Essays in Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). Included here are Christian Metz's essay on self-reflexivity, WilliamS. Pechter's "re-reading" of the film, and Nicole Zand's Christian interpretation (the last translated for the first time).

Mirror Construction in Fellini's 8Y2 Christian Metz

I

ike those paintings that show a second painting within, or those novels written about a novel, 8V2 with its "film within the film" belongs to the category of • w o r k s of art that are divided and doubled, thus reflecting on themselves. To define the structure peculiar to this type of work the term ' 'construction en abyme" (literally, "inescutcheon construction"), borrowed from the language of heraldic science,1 has been proposed, 2 and indeed it lends itself quite well to that structure permitting all the effects of a mirror. [At the risk of losing some of the accuracy of the original term, the translator has preferred to substitute the term "mirror construction," which is less unfamiliar, certainly less awkward-sounding, and therefore perhaps more suggestive than "inescutcheon construction." The image is that of a double mirror, reflecting itself.] In a very interesting study devoted to Fellini's film, Alain Virmaux 3 has shown that, although mirror construction in the cinematographic domain is not an invention of Fellini's, since it is found already in various earlier films—La Fête à Henriette, by Jeanson and Duvivier, René Clair's Le Silence est d'or, Bergman's The Devil's Wanton*—the author of 8V2 is nevertheless the first to construct his whole film, and to order all his elements, according to the repeating mirror image. In fact the precursors of 8V2 only partially deserve to be called "mirrorconstruction" works, because in them the "film within the film" was only a marginal or picturesque device (Le Silence est d'or), at times a simple "trick" of the From Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema by Christian Metz, trans. Michael Taylor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 228-34. Copyright © 1974 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission. 1. In heraldry the term "inescutcheon" refers to a smaller shield placed at the center of a larger shield, and reproducing it in every detail, but on a smaller scale.—TRANSLATOR 2. With regard to the cinema: Alain Virmaux, "Les Limites d'une conquête," Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1963): 31-39. For the term "construction en abyme," see p. 33. 3. Ibid. 4. One might add Roger Leenhardt's Le Rendez-vous de minuit, in which the "film within a film" already played a more central and complex role.

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script-writer's (La Fête à Henriette), at best a fragmentary construction (The Devil's Wanton) lending perspective to only part of the film's substance, the rest being presented directly and not through reflection. Moreover, Alain Virmaux,5 Raymond Bellour,6 Christian Jacotey,7 and Pierre Kast8 have all emphasized the fact that the content of the entire film, and its deepest thematic structure, are inseparable from its reflecting construction: the character of the director, Guido, Fellini's representative in the film resembles his creator like a twin, with his narcissistic complacency, his immense sincerity, his disorderly existence, his inability to make a choice, his persistent hope in some kind of "salvation" that will suddenly resolve all his problems, his erotic and religious obsessions, his open desire to "put everything" into the film (just as Fellini puts all of himself into his films and especially into 8V2, which is like a pause in his career, a general viewing of the past, an esthetic and effective summing up).9 As Pierre Kast observes, the criticisms one might address to the style of the film or to the style of Fellini's work in general (that it is confused, disparate, complacent, has no real conclusion) are already present in the film, whether they are expressed by Guido himself or by his scenario-writer, Daumier, his inseparable companion, a companion Guido curses but whom he needs as he needs his bad conscience; thus, again it is the mirror construction alone that has allowed Fellini to integrate into his film a whole series of ambiguous reflections on whatever his own film might be accused of. There is however a point that, I believe, has never been emphasized as much as it deserves to be: for, if 8V2 differs from other films that are doubled in on themselves, it is not only because this "doubling in" is more systematic or more central, but also and above all because it functions differently. For 8V2, one should be careful to realize, is a film that is doubly doubled—and, when one speaks of it as having a mirror construction, it is really a double mirror construction one should be talking about.10 It is not only a film about the cinema, it is a film about a film 5. Virmaux, "Les Limites." 6. Raymond Bellour, "La Splendeur de soi-même," Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1963): 2 7 - 3 0 . 7. Christian Jacotey, "Bilan critique," Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1963): 62-68. 8. Pierre Kast, "Les Petits Potamogetons," Cahiers de Cinéma, no. 145 '(July 1963): 4 9 - 5 2 . 9. As Alain Virmaux observes, the title 8V2 designates the film less in terms of its own characteristics than in terms of a sort of retrospective reference to all of Fellini's previous work. [Since it was, literally, his eighth-and-and-a-half film.—TRANSLATOR] 10. One might also say—it is essentially a question of vocabulary—that the expression "mirror construction" refers only to those works defined here as "doubly self-reflecting," and not to the majority

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that is presumably itself about the cinema; it is not only a film about a director, but a film about a director who is reflecting himself onto his film. It is one thing in a film to show us a second film whose subject has no relationship, or very little relationship, to the subject of the first film (Le Silence est d'or)\ it is entirely another matter to tell us in a film about that very film being made. It is one thing to present us with a character who is a director and who recalls only slightly, and only in some parts of the film, the maker of the real film (The Devil's Wanton); it is another matter for the director to make his hero into a director who is thinking of making a very similar film. And, if it is true that the autobiographical and "Fellinian" richness of 8'A is inseparable from its mirror construction, it is nevertheless only explained in its opulent, baroque entirety by the self-reflecting of that construction. Guido's problems, it has been said, are those of Fellini reflecting on his art: was it enough, then, for Guido to be a film-maker, like Fellini? The similarity would have remained very general. But Guido is a director reflecting on his art, and by a curious irony these two successive reflections end by canceling each other out to a certain extent, so that 8V2 is finally a film of perfect coincidence; extremely complex, its structure nonetheless attains a lucid simplicity, an immediate legibility. It is because Guido is thinking of his film, and reflecting on himself, that he merges—at least temporarily "—with Fellini; it is because the film that Guido wanted to make would have been a study of himself, a film-maker's summing up, that it becomes confused with the film that Fellini has made.12 of cases where a film appears within a film or a book within a book or a play within a play. A shield is not said to be "ineschutcheon" every time it contains some other shield, but only when the other shield is, except in size, identical to the first. [Metz is, of course, referring to the heraldic term "construction en abyme," which I have changed to "mirror construction." A double mirror reflects itself into infinity—and this captures something of the suggestiveness of "en abime," "abime" meaning "abyss" or "chasm"—each reflection being identical to, though one degree smaller, than what it reflects.—TRANSLATOR] If one agrees to this acceptation, one will have to say Le Silence est d'or contains nothing resembling mirror construction, and that in The Devil's Wanton or in Le Rendez-vous de minuit, mirror construction remains partial and fragmentary. 11. Taken as a whole, the relationships between Guido and Fellini are obviously more complex; among other things, Guido's character is not entirely identical to Fellini's. However, I am not concerned with psychology here, but simply with identity (in the sense that one speaks of identity cards). For the duration of the film, Guido fully represents the person of Fellini. 12. Must I point out that I am speaking here of the film Guido dreamed of making, not the film that outside pressures (his producer, etc.) might perhaps have imposed on him had he finally decided to start filming? For Fellini's film, although it tells us only very little about the exact state of his working plans, or the intentions of his producers, is on the other hand extremely precise about Guido's deepest wishes concerning his film.

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The ordinary interplay of reflection would never have yielded such a wealth of echoes and relationships between Fellini and his character had it not been reflected by the reflecting of that character himself; film-maker and reflecting filmmaker, Guido is doubly close to the man who brought him to life, doubly his creator's double. It is even in the concrete details of its handling that the device of "the film within a film" diverges here from its more common use. For we never see the film that Guido is to make; we do not even see extracts from it, and thus any distance between the film Guido dreamt of making and the film Fellini made is abolished: Fellini's film is composed of all that Guido would have liked to have put into his film—and that is precisely why Guido's film is never shown separately. The reader can judge for himself the extent of the difference between this structure and the structure in Le Rendez-vous de minuit, for example, where large extracts of the "film within the film" are explicitly shown at several specific points in the first film, which suffices to create a distance between the two films. In 8V2 we do not even see Guido shooting his film or working on it—and here it differs from The Devil's Wanton, for example; we see him, simply, in the period when the film is being prepared, living or dreaming, accumulating in the very stream of his own chaotic existence all the material that, without ever succeeding, he would like to place in his film and that Fellini is able to put into his film. It is, therefore, because the "film within the film" never appears separately within the first film that it can coincide with it so completely. All that we see of this film Guido is dreaming about are the screen tests of the actresses; but it is here that the tripling of the film most clearly manifests itself. Guido has an actress to play the role of his wife in the film; the latter is played, in 8V2, by Anouk Aimée; and she in turn can only be an incarnation—very much interpreted, it goes without saying—of the problems Fellini encounters in his own life.13 It is during the sequence of the screen tests that a character in 8'/2, watching the private screening and thinking of Guido, whispers, "Why, that's his own life," making a reflection that one can only reflect on by applying it to Fellini himself. 13. If one reflects that the actress in the screen test was herself played, in Fellini's film, by another actress—and that, at the other end of the chain, Fellini's wife (Giulietta Masina) is also an actress— one will become positively dizzy. More seriously, one can observe that, following 8V2, Fellini shot Juliet of the Spirits, which is, as we know, a sort of feminine version of the preceding film; the woman's role is played by Giulietta Masina. This confirms the tripling process that appears in the screen-test sequence in 8V2.

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It is therefore not enough to speak of a "film within the film": 8V2 is the film of 8V2 being made; the "film in the film" is, in this case, the film itself. And of all the literary or cinematographic antecedents that have been mentioned in connection with Fellini's work, by far the most convincing—as critics have often pointed out,14 but perhaps without ever entirely explaining why—is André Gide's Paludes, since it is about a novelist writing Paludes.15 This triple-action construction gives the ending of the film, which has been variously interpreted, its true meaning. The version Fellini finally retained 16 contains not one but three successive denouements. In a first resolution, Guido abandons his film because it would have been confused, disorderly, too close to his life to become a work; because it would have been reduced to a disparate series of echoes and resonances; because it would have carried no central message capable of unifying it; and finally, and above all, because it would not have changed his life. That is the meaning of Guido's symbolic suicide at the end of his stormy press conference, as well as of the last words of Daumier. In a second movement—the allegory of the fantastic rondo—the abandonment of the film returns Guido to his life, as he sees all those who have peopled it parading in front of him; he asks his wife to accept things as they are; he has given up, at the same time he has given up his film, that rather messianic hope of a "salvation" that would suddenly bring order to all the elements of his chaos and thus modify their profound meaning and lend them the perspective of the future. But it is at this moment that Guido—who is no longer a director but is again a man like other men—once more takes up his director's megaphone to direct the audience of his memories. Therefore the film will be made; it will have no central message, and it will not alter life, since it will be made out of the very confusion of life; but out 14. Pierre Kast (p. 52), Alain Virmaux (p. 33), Raymond Bellour (p. 28): previously mentioned articles. Also Max Milner, "8'A," Etudes (Sept. 1963). 15. One thinks of course of Les Caves du Vatican and Les Faux-monnayeurs. Alain Virmaux, Raymond Bellour, Pierre Kast, and Max Milner (articles already quoted) have all emphasized the Gidian aspects of Fellini's work. Alain Virmaux quotes this sentence from Gide's Journal (1899-1939): "J'aime assez qu'en une oeuvre d'art on retrouve ainsi transposé à l'échelle des personnages, le sujet même de cette oeuvre." ("I rather like the idea that in a work of art one finds, transposed in this way to the scale of the characters, the very subject of the work. ") I have underlined " le sujet même" (" the very subject"): Gide, one sees, was thinking less of ordinary "doubling in" than of the peculiar variety of "doubling in" I am discussing in these few pages. Similarly, one should remember that Gide was one of those who have used the term "construction en abyme. " 16. Fellini had first planned another resolution. See Camilla Cederna, 8V2 de Fellini: Histoire d'un film (Paris: Julliard, 1963).

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of that very confusion it will be made. Notice that this second phase of the film's resolution heralds not only the existence of 8'A itself, but also the principle of its creation: it will be a film woven from the life of its author and possessing the disorder of his life. Things, however, do not stop there: having organized his fantastic dance, Guido, holding his wife by her hand, himself now enters the circle. Is this merely the symbol of that complacent tenderness—Fellini's as well—that ties Guido to his own memories and to his own dreams, and of which he has accused himself (not without some complacency and some tenderness) in earlier sequences? Are we not at last witnessing the final casting off of this great vehicle of a film, which, like a rocket freed from its various supports, will be able to soar on its true flight? Having entered the circle, Guido has also come to order; this author who dreamed of making 8'A is now one of the characters of 8V2; he can give his hand to the maid, the producer, the cardinal, his mistress; he no longer needs his megaphone, for it is now Fellini's film that will commence. No longer is Guido at the center of the magic circle; now it is only the small child dressed in white, and blowing his pipe, the ultimate, and first, inspirer of the whole fantasy—Guido as a child has become the symbol of Fellini as a child, since, in any case, the place of the director, which is now empty, can only be occupied by a character external to the action of the film: by Fellini himself. And so Fellini's film begins. And though one is right to underline the paradoxical and startling thing about 8V2—that is a powerfully creative meditation on the inability to create—the fact remains that this theme takes us back, beyond any possible affectation on Fellini's part, to a situation more fundamental and less paradoxical than it is occasionally said to be. Out of all the confusion we have witnessed in the film, an admirably constructed film and one that is as little confused as possible will, it is true, be born; but is this not simply because the last stage of creation—that voluntary awakening that stops the undefined course of things in order to establish the work—can never be described in the created work, which owes its creation only to that ultimate step back, to that infinitesimal yet gigantic instant that is all that separates Guido from Fellini?

SVi Times Two William S. Pechter

"There weren't any problems in 8V2; it was a film to amuse." I remember then, that when he began shooting 8'/2, he took a little piece of brown paper tape and stuck it near the viewer of the camera. Written on it was REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A COMIC FILM. —EUGENE WALTER quoting Fellini, "Dinner with Fellini," The Transatlantic Review, Autumn 1964

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l he first time I saw 8V21 liked it, but I didn't think it consistently good. What was good was very, very good, but it didn't seem to me of a piece as Eclipse or Last Year at Marienbad, whether one loves or loathes them, are decidedly all of a piece; rather it seemed very much a film of parts. Things appeared to go now this way and then that, while other things were left hanging, and, occasionally, there were moments when my interest simply flagged. What seemed to be chiefly lacking in this film so concerned with states of mind was just that—mind; the kind of central and omnipresent intelligence which one encounters in a film by Antonioni. I found myself thinking of Antonioni more than once in the course of first seeing 8V2, not because Fellini's new film really resembles those of Antonioni—except in that there was Mastroianni once again portraying the alienated artist as he had done in La Notte (although a different kind of artist, and portrayed differently)—but mainly because of the extreme differences in temperament of the two film-makers. 8V2 is about a crisis in the life of a film-maker, both as a man and artist, at the point at which he seems to have exhausted his resources both for living and for art, and there were moments, seeing it for the first time, when I wondered if the director of the film, faced with his several crises, had not simply abdicated his controlling role, not only to his several collaborators but to the machinery of cinema itself—throwing things together merely because they looked visually effective—much as the director in the film, who both is and is not Fellini, might in his From Twenty-four Times a Second, Films and Film-makers Harper & Row Publishers, 1971): 7 7 - 8 4 .

(New York, Evanston, and London:

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desperation do. But, although, along the way, the kind of sentimental salvation which is served up in La Dolce Vita is very pointedly rejected, the conclusion of 8'A struck me as weak in a way characteristically Fellini's. I shall not seek salvations and Big Answers, says Fellini's director; rather, turning toward the characters of both his life and art, I shall accept you; and so, as the film within the film finally gets under way, Guido, the director in the film, joins his characters in a sprawling, all-inclusive dance, and 8V2 closes. To plunge thus into the stuff of his experience may indeed be a resolution of the crisis for the artist, and, in one of the film's most unambiguously autobiographical strokes, it reveals for us directly Fellini and his imagined director as one at the point which they were able to begin to create a work like 8'/2. And there can be no mistaking, even on first encounter, that 8V2 constitutes an emphatic triumph wrested from the wreckage of Fellini's two' previous films. But what of the man? What does it mean to turn finally to the people whom you have used and failed and lied to, and tell them you accept them? Anyway, can you not accept them? The conclusion of 8V2 creates the impression that a man has finally chosen no longer to evade but to confront an urgent personal crisis. But does he any longer even have that choice? So much for 8V2, I thought, and yet the several incoherent (I thought) bits and pieces of it managed to remain in my mind with surprising intensity, and with a persistence which finally drew me back to see the film again. What happened upon my return is something which has happened very rarely in my experience of movie-going, for I am now not at all convinced that 8V2 is not a masterpiece. Where were those things going in different directions, those threads left hanging, those moments of flagging interest? I could not find them. It is not primarily the content of 8V2 which is illuminated on seeing the film a second time for, in fact, this possesses, from the first, an exceptional, pellucid clarity; the revelation of my twice seeing 8V2 was rather of its form, of structure and unity. The pieces fit together beautifully, and they cohere; the fabric is whole. I gather that 8V2 has been linked by the reviewers to the "difficult" or "experimental" cinema of such as Resnais, but the comparison is a palpably false one. What strikes one as most unusual (but not difficult) in first seeing the film is the way in which what constitutes in it a representation of "reality" is merged with memories, hallucinations, dreams, and fantasies; all these things mixed up in turn with the film within a film, not for the purposes of paradox and enigma, but to the end of a direct ex1. Or is it one and one-half. I mean La Dolce Vita, and Fellini's contribution to the omnibus film Boccaccio '70, a short work which is undoubtedly his nadir.

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pression of the way in which the "fiction" and the "reality," art and life, interpenetrate, and draw for their sustenance upon one another. But, unlike Last Year at Marienbad, it is not that one is unable to distinguish the one level from the other; only that the precise point at which one leads into another is often not quite to be grasped. Yet, rather than confusing or stalemating our response, this blurring of boundaries has the effect of heightening our awareness of both the rational content of dream and fantasy and the fantastic element in what we call reality. It is sensitizing. The fabric is whole, and how surely all the threads are spun out to the end. Had I really not noticed the first time that the hilarious harem sequence is set in the same place in which is enacted earlier an extraordinary moving scene recollected from the director's childhood, lending to the later sequence, an almost selfcontained bit of first-rate comedy, a special undertone of poignancy which one senses even if not conscious of its source? The theme of the director's fixation on his childhood permeates the film, embodied in such recurrent figures as his mother, his dead father, and the grotesquely voluptuous whore from whom he took his sexual education in defiance of his authorized educators, the ubiquitous priests. At the moment when his elaborately expensive, latest film project is collapsing about him, Guido is remembering the magic words told to him as a child by a little girl named Claudia, which, spoken when the moon is right, will bring a treasure. It is a treasure, an answer and salvation, which he has not stopped seeking, the object of his work and life, and it forms a theme which works intimately and pervasively with that of his pursuit of another girl named Claudia, the girl in white. "Of all the symbols in which your work abounds, this girl in white is by far the worst." But this, which Guido is told by the obnoxious writer-intellectual who is to be his collaborator on the film in preparation, Guido knows, and still the girl in white returns to him in all her Purity and Innocence, now offering him salvation in a glass of mineral water, now putting the disarray of his hotel room into order. No more escapist ideas of purity and innocence, he vows, and still he is unable to relinquish them. Perhaps he can work her into his film as the daughter of a curate who has grown up in seclusion, surrounded by objects of art and culture, protected from the contamination of this world. The girl leafs through his script and laughs at the transparency of these self-deceptions. And still she, in her turn, is reluctant to break with him: "I bring you cleanliness," she entices. "I bring you order." Yet out of the seeming chaos of images with which the director is assailed by both his mind and eye, those images which constitute the stuff of 8V2,

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he does find himself capable at last of breaking with his work's worst symbol and his life's dream of innocence. As he sits watching the hopeless screen tests for his floundering film, an autobiographical work including impersonations of the various characters of 8V2 but everywhere compromised by lies, Claudia arrives to play her role. She retains her old attraction for him, but, although he sees her in another vision of proffered salvation, her promise of comfort is no longer powerful enough to cope with the recalcitrance of his material nor avert the urgency of its demands on him. She has become a weak image in a film crowded with forceful ones. "No woman can be a man's salvation," he tells her. "No. There's no part for you in this picture." His rejection of Claudia is followed by a comic fantasy of suicide; he kills in her something of himself, but it is the worst part, and, in rejecting her, he becomes free to accept something better. Having destroyed the old director, he destroys the film that director was planning to make, a film emblematized by a gigantic, extravagantly expensive, artificial rocket platform constructed for its set, a construction as bloated as the image of Anita Ekberg in Fellini's section of Boccaccio '70 for a film as bloated as La Dolce Vita. "Aren't you tired of films where nothing happens? Well, in this film everything happens. I put in everything," the director says at one point of his unmade film, later confessing, "I've nothing to say. But I want to say it, anyway." But, just as Fellini is never wholly to be identified with the director he has created, so do neither of these descriptions really fit the film that is 8V2, no matter how much, at moments, that film may seem to resemble the one or the other. In the end, Fellini and his director do have something to say, neither everything nor nothing, nor is that something the weak statement I had at first imagined—for, inevitably, one's understanding of the film's meaning is altered by an apprehension of its form. "I have no answers. All I can do is question and search. . . . I accept you," Guido addresses his characters; which is to say, by force of all that has gone before, No longer will I impose my meanings on you and imprison you within my constructions upon reality; I accept you for what intrinsically you are. And, having said this, he has his last vision of Claudia, now waving good-bye as she moves away toward the seashore, and then he is suddenly free to see that all his characters wear white, that what he had been seeking as an ultimate and absolute is to be found everywhere about him, in forms as various and imperfect as the forms of other people. "I'm not sure that's right, but we'll see," Guido's wife says to him in her voice of cool intelligence. And Guido, directing the dance of his characters through a megaphone, takes her hand and joins them, to the musical accompaniment of three cir-

Commentaries/William S. Pechter 271 cus clowns and a little boy in school uniform beating a drum. One by one, the lights go out until only the boy, who is Guido himself as a child, remains. And slowly that last light, and the music, also die away. The meaning of this, as of all that has preceded it, is not, perhaps, extraordinarily complex, or profound, nor is it even new; what is extraordinary about 8V2 is the richness with which it has all been imagined. From first to last, the film proliferates with incident and detail, and the wonder is how thoroughly this profuse invention has been integrated to the whole. How firmly all the pieces fit together: Guido's ambivalent attraction to and repulsion by the sexuality of the women who surround him (they are always displaying themselves to him in vulgar ways, but he is always watching); and, with this, his sexual attraction toward his mother, who kisses him passionately on the lips in a dream and, as her younger self, also appears in Guido's harem fantasy, a fantasy of sexual conquest without sexual consummation. Entwined through all is Guido's girl in white, his invented symbol of purity, who, although only the property of his imagination, nevertheless refuses to remain unsexual; and, bound up with these sexual conflicts, Guido's deep involvement with the Catholic background he has rejected (still seeking the Church's paternal sanction and yet finding no answers in the words it has for him). Echoing that to his faulted parent, the Church, is his failed relationship with his own dead father; and, with it, the failing relationships of Guido to all those who revolve about him, the close and hangers-on, pressing their claims on his time, his talent, his emotions: the parts interweave much as 8V2 itself interweaves with all of Fellini's previous films. Who is Claudia if not the billboard goddess of Boccaccio '70 and the beckoning angel of La Dolce Vita, waving good-bye to Mastroianni from another seashore, in their turn badly imagined versions of the blind girl in II Bidone, the waif of La Strada, and the prostitute Cabiria. Indeed, Guido's father is enacted by the same man who was the visiting father in La Dolce Vita, in one of that film's best and most moving scenes. And the circus clowns (La Strada? The White Sheik?), and the seedy night club telepathist (The White Sheik? I Vitelloni?) who familiarly remarks to Guido, "It's been a long time. You've become rich and famous." 2 It's all so beautifully unstressed, but it's there; and, whether or not one can specifically identify it, it all works. 2. So aptly named, 8V2 is not only Fellini's eighth and one-half film but also a kind of summing up and distillation of his films before to the extent that I am no longer able with certainty to place details between several films I saw only months ago, so impressively have I now been brought to see all Fellini's work as one.

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And all so richy imagined, and with so sharp an eye for a funny face and comic moment. For I should wish to make it clear that the masterpiece I believe I saw, in seeing 8V2 for the second time, was decidedly a comic masterpiece; and not a comedy of satire despite some finely satirical moments. Satire depends upon distance, upon detachment, and the conclusion of 8V2—with the director announcing, in effect, "I, too, am a fool," and joining in dance with all the others—constitutes an all but explicit rejection of satire; anyway, one would have hoped that La Dolce Vita and Boccaccio '70 had cured anyone of the notion that Fellini is a social satirist; they certainly seem to have cured Fellini. 8V2 is a comedy of the fool, but it is a comedy continually underlined by pathos, a pathos diffused throughout the film but most assertively present in the childhood memories and the very end, sequences deeply affecting in ways not easily accounted for. It is the sad comedy of The White Sheik, Fellini's first solo film (and, in a sense, also a work about film-making, art, and life); a work which had seemed to me only mildly amusing the first time I saw it but which I found to be an extremely funny, touching, and beautiful film when I saw it again several months ago. Perhaps it is that this is the way, at his best, Fellini works: slowly, gently taking hold on you. Unlike Antonioni, whose work, unmistakably that of a classic prose intelligence, unfolds with a quality like irrefutable proof, the best of Fellini is obliquely metaphorical; elusive and haunting. Despite the enormous deviations of La Dolce Vita and Boccaccio '70, the genius of Fellini is of a kind that I would wish to call, for all the world's abuse, poetic. And when I think back to such things as the grandmother crooning to the sleeping children in 8V2, as to much else in the film, or recall the deserted seashore scenes and final departure in I Vitelloni, or see again that first glimpse of the White Sheik singing to himself and swinging from the treetops high up on the clouds—an image which I think almost definitive of poetry in film—I am convinced that this word is the right one. And still, although I can hardly hope to exhaust all there is to be found in 8V2 in this relatively brief discussion of it, there is so much else that I have scarcely touched upon. For, among all else, 8V2 constitutes, from first moment—a nightmare image of suffocation followed by a hallucination of the director flying over Rome (like Christ in La Dolce Vita) and abruptly pulled down to "take the cure"— to last, an act of self-criticism and symbolic autobiography so personal as to be almost unparalleled in the history of the film: although, paradoxically, while La Dolce Vita, Fellini's "fresco" of modern Roman life, told us more of Fellini's mind than of his society, 8V2, personal as it is, creates for us a large and densely

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populated external world. I am reminded only of The Blood of a Poet (and its companion piece, The Testament of Orpheus), another metaphorical selfexegesis, but whereas Cocteau's film is related by means of an heraldic symbolism of highly stylized artificiality, the method of 8V2 is, rather, that of the interior monologue; and 8V2 is, among other things, the most successfully sustained employment of interior monologue in film of which I know. The achievement of the method, in 8V2, is that of a wholly natural representation of what goes on inside a (wildly humorous and imaginative) mind, much as was the stated intention of the makers of Last Year at Marienbad; the mind of a person who also happens to be one of the most convincing artists, nonintellectual species, I have seen depicted in a work of art. But what Fellini has given us with apparent effortlessness, all the labor of Resnais and Robbe-Grillet did not even begin to achieve. Among those usually considered to be the world's most important film-makers, Fellini must be, with Kurosawa, the most erratic. Roughly half of his films seem to me serious failures, and yet seeing a film such as 8V2 makes one realize to what extent Fellini's failures and successes are shaped of common materials: of such things as the evocation of seedy, escapist, and illusion-mongering theatricals, and of the continual reappearance of the sea as representation of both perpetual promise and blank impassivity. I think is is interesting, and revealing of the nature of Fellini's art, that, even in La Dolce Vita, in which the sea is associated with very weak ideas of beckoning innocence and salvation, the imagery which conveys them has a force that seems to exist independently of the conceptual weakness. To reduce this to a simple but not, I think, misleading formulation: Fellini is an artist whose intellect is often inferior to his imagination, but whose imagination is capable of a genuinely poetic richness and resonance. 8V2 doesn't run deep, but it runs torrentially, and, along the way, it makes an impressive case for the virtues of a luxuriantly imagined, superficial art.

The GuiHy Conscience of a Christian Consciousness Nicole Zand

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magine the setting of the spa—a marvel—and the ritual of the springs, and all that mud in the basement, all those men who, in the mud, become real mummies. I can easily see my hero in there. And also a very old bishop—oh, I see that one clearly. I see him all grey, slimy, blistered, and all chapped . . ." 1 From the beginning of 1961, even well before he had found its plot and subject, Fellini already knew, and was discovering, the major theme of what would become 8V2. If you reread the letters he wrote during the preparation of the film, as well as the working notes, then the statements made to the press, and above all the script itself in its successive versions, you do not have to manipulate reality or distort the texts to see how Fellini, who at one point had thought of entitling the film The Big Confusion, might have given it the unquestionably deeper, truer title of The Cardinal. It is meaningful that, from the outset, he conceived his project grounded (all the more firmly since it was not a question of deliberate choice or conscious desire) on this confrontation between Guido and the prelate, between symmetrical and contradictory figures controled by the same fundamental given—Catholicity. Fellini underscored this himself in 1961, in a letter that already expressed his very precise intentions about the different characters, about their link to the "hero" and about their "meaning." He wrote that the function of the bishop was to recall to Guido "a whole series of memories" and to "awaken guilt complexes." 2 It is through the prelate, a caricatural and mysterious symbol of Catholic hierarchy, that the obsessional themes of the film emerge and are organized in relationship to each other. He is, through his silence, even through his frightening "indifference," the one—and perhaps even "the thing"—from which this incoherent world draws a meaning, or at least a sort of ordering. The ambiguity of the character expresses the ambiguity of the work. The Cardinal certainly represents everything that Guido-Fellini feels imprisoned by every From Etudes cinématographiques, nos. 2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1963): 47-56. 1. Camilla Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Federico Fellini, 8V2 (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965): 11. 2. Ibid., 20-21.

Commentaries/Nicole Zand 275 day: the social order based on Catholic dogma, rigorous legislation in the sphere of manners, intellectual and "moral" conformity, constraints, and this life so distant from life that it appears to have nothing alive in it any more. But if we limit ourselves to this aspect of the character, we impede an understanding of the film in its contradictory totality. The Cardinal is the Church; therefore he is intolerance, the incessant call to "guilt," the return to the rule (in the steam bath, citing a homily of Origen, he says to Guido that no one can be saved who is outside the Church). But, precisely because he is the Church, he appears also, as if in spite of himself, to be the director's most secret recourse. Fellini expressed himself in the most explicit way possible on this point: first in the film, and most particularly in the scene in which Guido asks for a meeting with the Cardinal and explains to the priest his fundamental concern—to present in his film a man who has doubts about the Church, who "has problems," and specifically, "a man who is Catholic, as we all are." Then, even more clearly, in a interview given in April 1963 to M. Manceaux, he declared: "We should all try to rid ourselves of Catholicism. But if the object of revolt didn't exist, why would we rebel? I don't understand why people can't pray. Prayer is an encounter with the most secret and truest part of oneself." 3 All of 8V2, perhaps all of Fellini, is somehow summarized in this sentence. To reject Catholicism, but, in rejecting it, to find it again. Doubtlessly, it would be easy to be ironic about this apparently puerile dialectic, which puts into question the exterior manifestations of religiosity only to affirm more strongly their fundamental workings. That is what Fellini's debate with himself is all about. It is a more rigorous debate, even in its childishness, because the filmmaker is conscious of both the significance and the insignificance of the stakes. He knows, right from the start, that the dice are loaded, and that, in spite of it, in this game in which he has been careful to announce the rules, he may lose everything at any moment. This is the Fellinian "humor" that allows him to call 8V2 a comic film, "bitter and comic at the same time." 4 And this is also its ambiguity—almost its "cheating"—since, if we look closely, humor is only an intellectualized form of remorse, if not of repentance. The "truth" of the film, despite Fellini in some way, is what we could call its "intrinsic Catholicity." 8V2, a "magic kaleidoscope" 5 as Fellini himself defines 3. L'Express, 25 April 1963. 4. Le Nouveau Candide, 30 June 1963. 5. Cederna, "La bella confusione," in Fellini, 8'A, 24.

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it, is really only an oneiric reflection on the impossibility of simultaneously being Catholic and of ceasing to be Catholic. This is a facile theme that Catholic apologists have harped on ad nauseum: that countertestimony is also testimony, that blasphemy is implicit adoration, that refusal is acceptance, that revolt is a higher form than ignorant and routine consent to true Christian demands. All this is both irritating and meaningful—in any case, it is the very world of Fellini. His consciousness of the limits of his critique is, deep down, what emerges as most truly dramatic in 8V2. It appears that he has in fact decided to put everything again into question, in a great jumble: taboos, interdictions, fantasies. For the common Catholic conscience, "Christian morality" is reduced to these issues. But even with this strategy, the poverty of the revolt is shaped by the laughable poverty of what it intends to dispute. In all his dreams, Guido appears obsessed by a single interdiction: the one that weighs upon "illicit" sexual relations. He thus demonstrates both the constraining, mutilating character of "Christian morality," and his inability to detach himself from it. His revolt goes no farther than a dream of sexual freedom and, by the fact that it is consciously placed on the level of a dream, Fellini marks both its obsessional depth and its radical ineffectualness. In this respect, his search is diametrically opposed to Antonioni's. The auteur of La notte and L'eclisse attempts, although he cannot possibly succeed, to define concretely a new problematic of relationships between men and women—at the level of consciousness and of conscious choices. Fellini, on the other hand, unveils a deep psychology that shows to what extent human desires are opposed to the demands of Christianity; but as soon as he reveals these desires, he expels them from the realm of possibility, relegating them to the status of mere dreams, obsessions, painful memories of a childhood from which Guido never succeeds in separating himself. This is what lends 8V2 its significance, for it shows how, in a society in which the traditional structures, at every level, remain strictly conditioned by what Fellini himself called "medieval Catholicism," 6 it is difficult to break the circle of interdictions and constraints, not so much those of a social or exterior order, but the ones we all carry within us. On this level, revolt is actually a form of acceptance. Fellini knows it—and he says it in the film itself. In the parodic critique he continuously makes of his own script and of his own character through the intermediary of the strange French writer (who is both ridiculous in his selfsatisfaction and uselessly lucid), he denounces this very ambiguity: "You set out 6. Le Nouveau Candide, 30 June 1963.

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to criticize the Christian consciousness and, in fact, you are its accomplice," 7 all the more complicitous for he is an accomplice in spite of himself. In a certain kind of traditional and closed society, it is impossible to avoid being an accomplice. "There is no such thing as a lay Italian," 8 Fellini has confessed. It is already a liberation to become fully conscious of one's captivity, but that too, in some way, means consenting to it. In this context, the most obvious theme of the script—the obsession with Woman and women, or, to locate it more precisely, the "harem" theme—is finally not fundamental. It is only the point at which is most fully brought to life what, for Fellini, is really essential: the obsession with sin. Without a doubt (and here again, the limits defined above are pertinent), it is on the level of sexual interdiction that Guido, from childhood, experienced the notion of "sin." In this regard, Catholicism is shown to be both terrifying and laughable; the forty-yearold filmmaker has remained, in the true core of his being, the adolescent who discovered Saraghina on a Rimini beach. He is not an adult. He is not an adult in his relationship with his wife, his mistress, or for that matter, with anyone at all. He fantasizes that "something is going to happen" that will resolve the contradictions of his life, without his having to intervene, to take responsibility. It is in this respect, it would appear, that the final sequence has provoked many misunderstandings. People have considered it either a Proustian "recognition" of Guido's life as simply a "lived totality," or as Fellini's "concession" to the moral pressure exerted by his entourage, his wife, his group—a sort of miserable capitulation. This interpretation curiously neglects a rather important element—the total identity of the two versions of the final sequence in terms of fundamental meaning. In the first version that Fellini discarded and in the one that was finally used, we find the same underlying theme: universal reconciliation. In the dining car, all the characters appear around Guido and Luisa, "all together on the same journey toward the same goal, no one refutable, no one rejectable, all of them calmly smiling at Guido like good companions." 9 This text is so explicit that it would be absurd to try to contrast the two versions of this final scene. Put simply, in the definitive version, Fellini again accentuated the "redeeming," "purifying" nature of his dream by presenting, not only the characters in the film dressed in white, but also Guido as a child, the schoolboy full of anguish about his first sex7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Federico Fellini, H'/i (Bologna: Cappelli Editore, 1965): 208-18.

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ual desires and the resulting punishments, the little boy at last absolved, now a flute-player in his white uniform, both clownlike and Mozartian. In addition, on this point Fellini was so clear that any disagreement should be precluded: "I have been criticized for a naive, simplistic ending because being naive and natural is precisely what is most difficult to do. They say: 'With his whole circus, his magic tricks, his people dressed in white, Fellini is treating himself with indulgence.' And there is truth to this. Even the greatest severity toward oneself is still selfindulgence. I don't cheat about that either. I made the whole film for that ending. It doesn't matter if I'm pleasing myself. If you don't like the end, you don't like it at all." 10 This "naivete" is certainly self-indulgent. But it is the "truth" about GuidoFellini. It is his dream, obstinately pursued since his adolescence, from the dormitory of the boarding school to the haunted rooms of the Grand Hotel La Poste—the dream of a world where the opposition of desire and the law would be suddenly abolished, where everything would be reconciled in a kind of soft unanimism. This is where the laughable aspect of Guido's "revolt" is fully revealed. He wants nothing more than is already shown in the "harem" dream: a closed world where he feels protected, where his wife, his designated mistress, and all the other women for whom he might have an occasional desire live together "in harmony," happy to be together so as to best assure his happiness, to help him feel indulged. It is a world where, miraculously, each person would find his or her meaning in a circle that is both childish and liberating, holding hands, each one standing, in turn, in the place of each of the others, all alike and each one irreplaceable, "no one refutable," Saraghina, Luisa, Carla, Claudia, the separated parents, the medium and the producer, and the Cardinal. In other words, it is a world without "sin," an image of Paradise Lost transposed to our time. One might say here that Fellini "cheats." But the word has no meaning when applied to him. Actually, this childish dream pursued to adulthood, a dream he had the courage and foolhardiness to dream aloud, is meaningful precisely because of the guilty conscience I referred to at the beginning. Fellini "flies away." He proposes no solution to Guido's problem; he doesn't even describe a way out of the problem. He abolishes the problems and, even more ingenuously, the problematic itself. This obsession with "stealing away" is, in fact, constant through the film; Guido the director is as incapable as Guido the man to make up his mind, to "take a position." In this regard, the sequence of the infernal press con10. UExpress, 25 April 1963.

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ference at the base of the rocket is revealing. In it, Guido's dream comes true when he literally "goes under the table," disappears, is killed so as to not have to "choose." In the final reconciliation, there is no more choice since there is no more sin. Fellini, who has the Cardinal quote Origen, found in this quotation, and, paradoxically, in a very particular interpretation, one of the fundamental themes of Origen's thought: that liberty is a function of the existence of Evil, of the possibility that anyone, at any moment, can decide for "evil," can choose "sin," but also that everything, at any moment, can regain its grandeur, its original purity." We see the importance of the theme and to what extent it demonstrates Fellini's inability to extricate himself, even slightly (despite appearances), from the Christian view of the world. He defines all the problems in terms of "sin," and his dream, which is summed up by eliminating "sin" so as to find a new way of living, confirms the fact that he is still obsessed by the theme of La strada—the communion of saints.12 It is at this point that Fellini encounters a contradiction that he has not yet been able to resolve: between his inclination for the here and now and his obsession with "universal reconciliation." His dream is to reach the point where contradictions are abolished, where opposites come together—but the very principle of the world is contradiction. What Guido actually demands is precisely "the other world," the world where everything is allowed because "sin" does not exist. But he is impeded by what the Cardinal evokes in a whisper, in the mud bath: "Outside the Church, no one will be saved." For the Church, "universal reconciliation" is only conceivable—and the word is meaningful—in the "beyond. " That is certainly not indicative of the "cheating" or the "lying" of Fellini, but of his limits and, perhaps, of his failure: the final circle can only be a circle of the deceived, or of phantoms. In the world of human beings, Guido cannot know, will never know this double serenity of being both loved and pardoned by his wife and by his mistresses, blessed by his old mother and understood by the Cardinal. 11. Origen wrote in his Treatise of Principles (HI, 8, 3): "What has been lost evidently existed before being lost, in some form other than perdition. It is possible to affirm its existence, when it is no longer lost." The "restoration of soul" is certainly the fundamental theme of Origen's philosophy, in a perspective that is more cosmic than psychological. According to him, it is the entire universe that will be given back to itself. 12. Fellini told André Bazin: "One might say that La strada is a phenomenology of the soul and perhaps even of the communion of saints, or at least of the interdependence of grace." Esprit (May 1955).

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8V2 is a exhausting effort to find some way to be both a man of our time—husband/lover, coward/liar, honest/conceited—and a Christian who has no reason for shame. Incompatible demands. Fellini rediscovers what Bernanos stated thirty years before in La Grande Peur des bien-pensants (The Great Fear of Right-Thinkers)—that despite all effort, it is not possible to be both totally of this world and totally Christian, in a world where to be totally of the world is precisely to be what Guido cannot stop being—a man "of the flesh," to use the language of Christian authors. This is finally the internal contradiction of 8V2. Fellini dreams of a reconciliation starting in this world, a "communion of saints" starting on this earth, a church "of the flesh," and he finds, as he does in the elevator of the Grand Hotel La Poste, only that "pale and enigmatic figure who continues to pay no attention to him," and who will never pay attention to him, even in their dialogue, even in the unreal interview beyond the steam bath—the old cardinal with his "eyes lost in the void." In this respect, the most revealing fact of both the obsession and the guilty conscience of Fellini, of his inability to respect and embrace not so much Christian faith as the Church, is the suppression from the definitive version of 8V2 of a scene in which the Cardinal appeared, no longer confined within his hieratic and absurd absence, but appearing to give himself up freely to other human beings. It would be useful to cite some lines from the original script: "The Cardinal is seated at a little table, out in the sun. His golden cross glistens on his chest; his red skullcap is on his head. He concentrates on his writing. Two children move slowly toward him, attracted by an extraordinary Christmas angel who might, at any moment, frighten them if he suddenly moved. The Cardinal opens his eyes and sees the children stop, fearful but curious, right next to him. . . . The children come nearer, lean on the arm of the chair, on the Cardinal's knees, sway and immediately turn their attention to something else. . . . [Guido watches the scene.] Seen up close, his eyes have an almost cruel stare; one might think that, through unexpected openings of which he was almost cynically taking advantage, he was trying to interpret and discover a fabulous character he had been carrying in his heart since his early childhood."13 This last sentence is clearly a key, inasmuch as it shows how, with Fellini, everything is determined "since his early childhood" by an anguish that is as insurmountable as it is conscious, and conscious that its object is pure mythology. What Fellini attempted (if we can use this verb for a work so deliberately "dis13. Fellini, 8%, 1 6 5 - 6 6 .

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ordered") was probably, at first, a démystification, one that he had hoped would be radical in the literal sense of the word, one, that is, that would get to the root in order to bring to light, reveal, most of all to Fellini himself, the face and the name of his fear. Already in 1960, speaking about La dolce vita, he said: "Man is in a double contradiction: he doesn't have enough confidence in himself and he is not afraid enough of himself." 1 4 8V2 shows how this ambiguity remains, how it has even deepened, and how, in spite of the jovial yet sad consciousness Fellini has of it, he is powerless to surmount it. In the first version of the final scene, Guido's last words were: "Everything is fine. . . fine. . . . " This is the confession of a guilty conscience. But to confess it is already to put it in question again. But to confess that you are confessing is to find shelter in it, to resign yourself to it. Thus, step by step, Guido escapes from himself, so that he will end up being—finally freed from himself—nothing but a child without sin, without knowledge of sin. 8V2 is an effort to find "salvation" by turning back. 14. Les Lettres françaises, 27 April 1960, 21.

Filmography and Bibliography

Fellini Filmography,

1950-1985

1950 Variety Lights (Luci del varietà) directed with Alberto Lattuada Screenplay by Fellini, Lattuada, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, based on a story by Fellini. 1952 The White Sheik (Lo sceicco bianco) Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, based on a story by Michelangelo Antonioni, Fellini, and Pinelli. 1953 / vitelloni (The Young and the Passionate) Screenplay by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, based on a story by Fellini. 1953 "A Marriage Agency" ("Un'agenzia matrimoniale"), an episode in Love in the City (Amore in città)

Screenplay and story by Fellini and Tullio Pinelli. 1954 La strada Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, based on a story by Fellini. 1955 II bidone (The Swindle) Screenplay and story by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli. 1957 Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) Screenplay and story by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, with additional dialogue by Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1960 La dolce vita Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini, Pinelli, and Flaiano.

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Filmography, 1950-1985

1962 "Le Tentazioni del dottor Antonio" ("The Temptations of Doctor Antonio"), an episode in Boccaccio '70 Screenplay and story by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi and Goffredo Parise. 1963 8>/i Screenplay by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini and Flaiano. 1965 Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits) Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini and Pinelli. 1968 "Toby Dammit," an episode in Histoires extraordinaires [France], Tre passi nel delirio [Italy], (Spirits of the Dead) Screenplay by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi, based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe, "Never Bet the Devil Your Head." 1969 Block-notes di un regista (Fellini: A Director's Notebook) Screenplay by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi. 1969 Fellini Satyricon Screenplay by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi, freely adapted from Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon.

1970 I clowns (The Clowns) Screenplay and story by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi. 1972 Roma (Fellini Roma) Screenplay and story by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi. 1974 Amarcord Screenplay and story by Fellini and Tonino Guerra. 1976 II Casanova (Casanova) Screenplay by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi, based on Giacomo Casanova, Storie della mia vita (Story of My Life). 1978 Prova d'orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal) Screenplay by Fellini, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini. 1980 Città delle donne (City of Women) Screenplay by Fellini and Bernardino Zapponi, in collaboration with Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini and Zapponi. 1983 E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On) Screenplay and story by Fellini and Tonino Guerra. 1985 Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred) Screenplay and story by Fellini and Tonino Guerra.

Selected Bibliography

BendersOn, Albert Edward. Critical Approaches to Federico Fellini's "8V2." New York: Arno Press, 1974. Bondanella, Peter, ed. Federico Fellini, Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Boyer, Deena. The Two Hundred Days of8'A. New York: Macmillan, 1964. Collet, Jean. "Le Plus Long Chemin." Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 2 8 - 2 9 (Winter 1963): 5 7 - 6 1 . Costello, Donald P. Fellini's Road. Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983. Fellini, Federico. "Confessione in pubblico: colloquio con Federico Fellini." Bianco e Nero 24, no. 4 (Aprii 1963): 1 - 2 1 . . 8V2. Paris: L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma, 1966.

. 8V2. Edited by Camilla Cederna. Bologna: Cappelli editore, 1965. . Intervista sul cinema. Edited by Giovanni Grazzini. Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1983. Hyman, Timothy. "8'/2 as an Anatomy of Melancholy." Sight and Sound 43, no. 3 (1974): 172-175. Essays in Criticism, ed. Peter Bondanella, pp. 121-129. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Lewalski, Barbara K. "Federico Fellini's Purgatorio." TheMassachusetts Review 5, no. 3 (1964): 567-573. Metz, Christian. "Mirror Construction in Fellini's 8V2." In Film Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

288

Selected Bibliography

Murray, Edward. Fellini the Artist. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1976. Pechter, William S. Twenty-four Times a Second: Films and Filmmakers. New York, Evanston and London: Harper and Row Publishers, 1971. Perry, Ted. Filmguide to 8V2. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1975. Price, Barbara, and Theodore Price. Federico Fellini, An Annotated International Bibliography. Metuchen, N.J. and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978. Rondi, Brunello. Il cinema di Fellini. Rome: Edizioni di Bianco e Nero,. 1965. Rosenthal, Stuart. The Cinema of Federico Fellini. London: Tantivy

Press; New York: A. S. Barnes, 1976. Solmi, Angelo. Storia di Federico Fellini. Milano: Rizzoli, 1962. Fellini. Translated by Elizabeth Greenwood. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1968. Stubbs, John C., with Contance D. Markey and Marc Lenzini. Federico Fellini, a Guide to References and Resources. Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1978. Virmaux, Alain. "Les Limites d'une conquête." Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 28-29 (Winter 1963): 31-39. Zand, Nicole. "Mauvaise conscience d'une conscience chrétienne." Etudes Cinématographiques, nos. 28-29 (Winter 1963), 47-56.