Six Movies That Are (Not So) Secretly About Their Directors
Jon Favreau's 'Chef' is the latest in a long line of motion picture selfies.
8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
“Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence!”
Fellini’s epic 1963 film is basically the template for this sort of thing. In the film, a famous Italian director (Marcello Mastroianni) finds himself suffering from a creative block, and delves into a surreal mix of fantasy sequences and dreams. The film itself is utterly brilliant, and there’s a reason it’s held up as a classic over fifty years on, and a reason that the 2009 musical remake Nine (starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Kate Hudson) won’t be.