8½ -- The First Seven Minutes

What is this film about? Chaos striving for resolution? Fellini translates his inner struggle into a story line that audiences can experience themselves.

Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a film director stuck for inspiration in the middle of writing a screenplay, is having a midlife existential crisis. His doctors suggest that he withdraw to a health resort. His wife Louisa, his mistress Carla, his friends, his actors and his producer come to pay a visit. They all want him to finish writing the film. Insead, he takes refuge in endless daydreaming. Wandering between memories, dreams and reality, Fellini the artist plays out his own anxiety toward the act of creation.

Copyright 1962.  Embassy Pictures

Angelo Rizzoli Presenta

8½  DI FEDERICO FELLINI

The first shot features cars jammed together, waiting, not moving, not unlike the crammed vehicular sardines on the Staten Island Ferry. The camera appears to be stationed on the ledge inside the rear window of a car stuck in the middle, capturing the back of the driver's head in silhouette. The driver is wearing a brimmed hat. The traffic is stationary. Through the front windshield we see a man in the back seat of the car in front of him turning to look a him.

The second shot is from outside the car, slightly elevated. From this angle we can see that it's not a ferry but an underpass, with cars backed up as far as the eye can see.

The camera, inside the car again, pans about and we see the faces of other drivers and occupants while our central character begins to notice steam, or some kind of fumes, coming in through the vents. The driver, whose face we have not yet seen, begins to panic, attempting first to stop the fumes from coming in and then attempting to open the door, which is jammed or immovable for whatever reason. Faces in the other vehicles are staring now, wondering what will happen next as our central character gasps and grunts, becoming increasingly agitated.

The camera pans to a man's face in the next car, who stares without emotion. In another car a lascivious old man is stroking the bare shoulder of an attractive young woman who slithers responsively to his touch.

At this point our central character has managed to get a window open and in a contorted manner he wriggles out and begins floating, ascending above the traffic jam while more faces stare. Arms spread he is moving sunward into the clouds. 

The camera catches a glimpse of a strange vertical structure and then cuts to a man on horseback wearing a cape, galloping along a beach.

"Counsellor, I've got him," a man says. The man on the beach in a long-sleeved white turtleneck, holds a rope somewhat the way a boy holds a kite string. "Down, come down," he says, and we see the rope is tied around the ankle of the man who floated up toward the clouds.

The camera cuts to a priest, reading something, who says, "Definitely down." And the floating man begins falling rapidly earthward.

Cut to a dark bedroom, a hand reaching up as an anguished man groans.

Another man wearing a lab coat over a white shirt and tie bursts in, saying, "Excuse me for disturbing you so early. How are you feeling? I'm a great admirer of yours. I'm delighted to meet you. May I?"

We can now see the visitor is a doctor as his nurse joins them from the other room. "May I use your typewriter, sir?" the nurse asks, which she proceeds to do.

"Roll up your sleeve, please. Keep it relaxed," says the doctor. 

The camera angle switches to show the front of a newspaper which the patient appears to be reading. When asked how old he is, a voice answers, "43." The newspaper drops away and we see it is the doctor who was reading it. He is smiling, leaning forward with interest. "Well, what are you working on now? Another film without hope?"

This is the first clue about the identity of our central character.

"First time you're taking the cure?" the nurse asks.

"Yes."

We still have not seen the face of this man who was stuck in traffic, escaped, flew toward the sun, crashed to earth and is now being attended to by a doctor and nurse. It's apparent the first sequence was a bad dream. It's also apparent that this is no ordinary film.

After a knock at the door, an older man wearing glasses and a receding hairline enters, hesitating at first because of the presence of medical staff. He says "Good morning," then asks if it is OK to smoke. He's wearing a bathrobe, pajamas and slippers. Are we in a house or a hotel? 

The doctor asks our central character to cough, and he coughs. And then to breathe, and he takes a deep breath. The patient's face is still hidden, his robe pulled over his head while he lies face down on the bed.

As the doctor finishes he looks at a bed where several dozen photos of women's faces are laid out. Only now do we see that this patient, a filmmaker, is Marcello Mastroianni. The doctors give him instructions to take mineral water in three fifteen minute intervals before breakfast, the mud baths and some other instructions for the first week, then suspending that for two days before continuing.

Mastroianni walks slowly, somewhat dejectedly, into the bathroom and for the first time we see his face, looking haggard, dark bags under his eyes, more like he's been punched in the face than simply exhausted from lack of sleep. Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries begins as he ponders all these things. Newspapers lay strewn about on the floor.

We are now five minutes into the film. Who is this man? And what is going on here? Clue 1: He is a screenwriter/filmmaker whom we shall soon learn is Guido Anselmi. Clue 2: His films are pessimistic downers, lacking in hope. 

For the next two minutes the Wagner theme accompanies what might pass as an elaborate scene involving Guido as a passive observer walking through the mud baths compound. The camera pans a parade of staring, indifferent or leering faces, elderly people and others with disabilities. People who know him are demanding something from him... producers and investors want to know what the film will be about. Actresses want to know if they will get a lead role based on the screen tests.

"It's sad for a man to realize how miserably he has failed," someone says about Guido.

* * * 

Numerous film makers give a nod to Fellini in later works. Terry Gilliam's Brazil emulates the flying dream in which Sam Lowry soars above the clouds only to be yanked back to grim reality by bureaucratic forces, a deliberate nod to Guido’s kite-string fall from the sky. Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalypse Now was consciously selected by Scorscese in response to its use here by Fellini.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind likewise features a sequence that parallels the opening with a suffocating, surreal car interior from which the protaganist escapes into dream logic, then suddenly falls back-to-reality with a jolt tha is structurally very close to Guido’s traffic-jam nightmare.

This opening sequence planted seeds for scenes in All That Jazz, Bad Education, Babylon and other films as well. Woody Allen's Stardust Memories is a love-letter/parody of 8½, the opening itself almost a shot-for-shot homage: a depressed celebrity filmmaker (Allen) trapped in a stalled train car filled with grotesque, staring passengers. He escapes through a window, ending up on a sunny meadow with beautiful people before waking up. Allen has repeatedly called the 8½ traffic-jam dream the greatest opening in cinema.

* * * 

Are we watching a Fellini autobiography? At one point Guido says, "I thought I had everything clear in my mind. I wanted to make an honest film, no compromises."

TO BE CONTINUED

You Can't Erase the Past: The Words Has a Story to Tell

Hollywood seems to enjoy making films about writers and why shouldn't they? Every film begins with a screenplay and we, as writers, are perpetually told to write about what we know. 

Some of my fave writer flicks would include Midnight in Paris, The Ghostwriter, Adaptation, The Player,  The End of the Tour and Stranger Than Fiction. The Words is now on that list. It's about words, what they mean and what it means to claim them as your own when they are not. In other words, it's a story about plagiarism, though like all great stories it is much more than that. 

Bradley Cooper is a frustrated young writer who, like a half million of us, can't find a publisher for his novel. By some miracle, the love of his life finds a satchel when they are in Paris on their Honeymoon. It looks like "just the thing" for a writer. (I have received such things from my wife who is better at gifting than I.) Inside the satchel is an unpublished manuscript, that she was unaware of. When he reads it, he's blown away by the power of the prose. Because it has no "owner" he retypes and submits it, claiming these words as his own.

There are shades of Jack London's Martin Eden here, because once he is famous the publishing houses will publish anything that flows off his fingertips. But it's another story as well. How does one come clean after becoming famous via a lie? He approaches his agent to set the record straight, but then what?  

Dennis Quaid, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Irons are the lead characters who bring this story to life, but the writer who wrote the screenplay has to be acknowledged here. (Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal) There are so many great lines. Here's some dialogue from the film that I found thought-provoking as the story built to its layered crescendo.

* * *

"His child was dying and there was nothing he could do."

* * * 

"I thought you should know the story behind the story."

* * * 

"We all make our choices in life, the hard thing to do is live with them."

* * * 

"You can't just make things right. Things are just things."

* * * 

"For all those years, I thought about her every day. Broken, because of what I did to her. Then all of a sudden there she was. She seemed happy. Well, if I was to tell you that realization didn't cause me pain I'd be lying, but in some ways it helped me to turn the corner, to pick up again without looking back all the time."

* * * 

"I've done all I can the best that I can. That's all you can ask of a person."

* * *

"My tragedy is that I loved words more than I loved the woman who inspired me to write." 

* * *

"We all make choices in life. The hard thing is to live with them."  

* * *

"What do you really want?"

* * *

This is what it comes down to for any of us. What do you really want?

Miscellaneous Thoughts in Response to the Film John McEnroe, In the Realm of Perfection

"Anyone for tennis, wouldn't that be nice?"
--Eric Clapton, Martin Sharpe

I enjoyed playing tennis when I was high school age and occasionally afterwords. It was just a large scale version of ping pong, requiring a bit more athleticism. It was good for amping your heartrate, required a bit of eye/hand coordination, psychology and even a measure of mathematics. (You know, getting the angles right.)

Considered a major sport, it was routinely covered in Sports Illustrated and ABC's Wide World of Sports. As a result, I became familiar with the leading names from that world of tennis including Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, and more recently Serena and Venus Williams, and the astonishing Roger Lederer.

In the middle of all these players was a singular tennis star whose rude, impertinent behavior set him apart from the rank and file tennis pros who projected class and style, John McEnroe. Yesterday I watched a documentary filmed at the finals of the 1984 French Open between John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl at a time when McEnroe was the world's top-ranked player. The title of the film is John McEnroe, In the Realm of Perfection.

To be honest, nearly all these elite players could probably be labelled as being "in the realm of perfection," so once you remove the glossy title, what you have here a lot of footage of an exceptional elite tennis player.

I didn't watch tennis on television when McEnroe was rising through the ranks. In fact, I've rarely watched television for most of my life, and when I heard tell of the superior skills of an exception athlete I sometimes went out of my way to see what people were talking about. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are examples of this behavior on my part. McEnroe actually wasn't. He was someone I read about.

Years later, while reading Tatum Oneal's tell-all life story A Paper Life--she was, at 10, the youngest Oscar winner in Hollywood history for her role in Paper Moon with her father Ryan Oneal--I learned that she had been involved with John McEnroe for a spell. The only anecdote I recall is that on one occasion he had a stash of cocaine in his vault which she was not supposed to have access to. While in Europe for a major tennis championship she managed to break into the vault and his stash disappeared up her nose. Ah, how the other half lives.

SPOILER ALERT

Actually, there's not much to spoil. The film is primarily the distillation of an ungodly number of hours of footage filmed by a French cinematographer. It's not a drama or a story, per se, though it does proceed along a path. If you're into tennis, or have ever been into tennis, you might find this a worthwhile venture. I will state here that my opinion of John McEnroe rose a couple notches, despite his pestering of umpires and line judges.

Here's the opening on one of four user reviews from Imdb.com:
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection is the documentary we have waited a lifetime for: The titular tennis titan was photographed decades ago by cinematographer Gil de Kermadec but never so well displayed as in this perfect documentary by Julien Faraut using Kermadec's footage. Call it a "found footage" doc if you will.

My own notes while watching rambled along this line:
Athleticism and artistry, and extremely rude. Throws tantrums. Shows disrespect to judges. Feels that "everyone's against me." Does anyone love me? Will anyone love me? Art of camouflage. Extreme sensitivity. Fierce desire to win.

The footage was shot at the final match for the '84 French Open, McEnroe vs. Lendl. Lendl was a Czech-American tennis player who would eventually become #1 in the world for 270 weeks.

"This sport is kill or be killed. They don't bury you. They just forget you," McEnroe said.

The fact that this 2018 movie was released four decades after it was shot says something. McEnroe has not been forgotten. His listing on Wikipedia begins in this manner:

John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American tennis player. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, and for confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.

McEnroe attained the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finishing his career with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles; this remains the highest men's combined total of the Open Era. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon, and nine men's Grand Slam doubles titles. His singles match record of 82–3 in 1984 remains the best single season win rate of the Open Era.

That last statement is actually quite remarkable. Strange how we only remember his "bad behavior." Could it be because the only way a majority of people experience tennis is by means of the media? Were sports journalists on his case because he didn't play by their rules? Or maybe the rules had changed and stars were no longer pre-packaged as heroes, but sold more papers and magazines when being reamed.

I enjoyed the film, in part because I had previously enjoyed the film Borg vs. McEnroe which I'd watched and written about after being so completely engrossed by David Foster Wallace's magically marvelous essay on Roger Federer.

* * * *

Just for the chuckles, check out this rare television moment with Cream singing "Anyone For Tennis."

Related Links
David Foster Wallace's magically marvelous essay on Roger Federer
10 Federer Moments

A Tribute to Major Joseph P. Gomer and the Tuskegee Airmen

Duluth airport lobby. Major Joseph P. Gomer,
Tuskegee Airman 

This past week I finally watched The Tuskegee Airmen, the true account of a group of African American pilots who overcame racist opposition in every way to become one of the most successful fighter squads of World War II. It's another important film that uplifts you for the heroism recounted, and depresses you for the various ways racist attitudes continued to be an impediment to making our country what it ought to be.

The trigger for watching this film is a statue in the lobby of our Duluth International Airport. I don't know how many dozens of times I walked past this statue of airmen Joseph P. Gomer before actually reading the story etched on the base.

How this came about was that in 2014 I interviewed sculptor Timothy Cleary who teaches here in the Twin Ports at the University of Wisconsin--Superior. He was in the process of creating a sculpture to honor another pilot, Cdr. David Wheat, who had been shot down over North Viet Nam and taken captive, a man who spent seven years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.

When the David Wheat sculpture was installed, I became curious how a sculpture of this Tuskegee Airmen came to be here. As it turns out, Major Joseph Gomer was born in Iowa Falls, Iowa and eventually lived in Duluth, where he passed in 2013.

According to an October 2013 Bob Berg story at LakeSuperior.com,
After the war, Joe stayed in the Air Force, in aircraft maintenance and missile work, becoming a nuclear weapons technician. He retired as a major in 1964, then worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Minnesota, retiring in 1985.

At Duluth International Airport is a life-size bronze statue of Joe Gomer as a young pilot in his flight suit. The pedestal contains a quote from Joe: “We’re all Americans. That’s why we chose to fight. I’m as American as anybody. My black ancestors were brought over against their will to help build America. My German ancestors came over to build a new life. And my Cherokee ancestors were here to greet all the boats.”

THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (film)

The film does an excellent job of displaying the various ploys racist whites attempted in order to thwart these pilots' desire to serve their country. Upon their arrival at the training base in Tuskegee a white officer whose job is to train them gives them a written test because he doesn't believe they could have scored the high scores purportedly reported. He, and many others did not believe blacks were smart enough to fly airplanes.

In my own life I have heard a variation of this idiotic assertion a few times by people who did not believe blacks were smart enough to be an NFL quarterback. I would like to have these people debate Thurgood Marshall, Tony Dungee or Thomas Sowell on that point. We'd quickly see who had the low I.Q.

Another way in which the airmen's efforts to serve took place in Washington. "Sure, they can learn how to fly, but our white bombers need white escorts." The Tuskegee Airmen did get deployed, but they were left in North Africa and not slated to help protest the bombers.

Once that barrier was overcome the Tuskegee Airmen proved to be so successful that there was not a single bomber shot down in Italy while under their protection.

When the final assault on Berlin was being orchestrated, the Tuskegee "Red Tails" (they painted their planes' tails red so they could clearly identify comrades) the top command did not want to deploy them, again for race reasons. What happened, however, was that the bomber pilots requested the Red Tails because with the white fighters protecting them they lost about a third of their teams. When the Red Tails were their guardians NOT ONE was shot down by enemy fighter.

Here are a couple comments from reviewers at imdb.com

reviewer 1
This is a movie that should be viewed by all Americans interested in seeing a slice of Americana which has for so long been ignored. Most will identify with the raw emotion evoked by the plight of these brave and talented men. Black Americans will be moved to tears as we are reminded of what those trailblazers overcame so that future Black soldiers, airmen and every day citizens could take their rightful place in American society, proud of their past and heritage. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Tuskegee Airmen. This movie makes it clear why.

from another review
I've met a couple of the original Tuskeegee pilots, and I've heard their stories. The discrimination and bigotry shown in the film was NOTHING compared to the realities that they faced day after day. Even after the war, as decorated fighter pilots, the bigotry they faced on their return to the US was unbelievable.

* * * *
The film is in our local library, but if it is not in yours you can probably find it on Netflix.
* * * *

ABOUT JOSEPH GOMER

Retired United States Air Force Major Joseph Philip Gomer served as a fighter pilot with World War II's famed Tuskegee Airmen. Gomer was born on June 20, 1920 in Iowa Falls, Iowa. From the time he was a small boy, he dreamed of flying airplanes.

Gomer received his wings in May of 1943. He was assigned as a Second Lieutenant to the segregated 332 Fighter Group and sent to Ramitrella, Italy, to join the 301st Fighter Squadron.

The 332 Fighter Group served as escorts for the 15th Air Force, running bombing missions in Germany. Engaging German fighters and attacking enemy positions, they fulfilled their mission to perfection-never losing a bomber to the enemy. The white bomber pilots called their guardians the "Red Tailed Angels" after the distinctive markings on their planes. Many of these white bomber pilots did not know that their guardians were black.

In Italy, the Red Tails flew over 1,500 sorties, downing 111 enemy aircraft and sinking one German destroyer as 66 black pilots were killed in action. Joseph Gomer shared a tent with three other airmen, but within eight months all of them were killed, leaving him the sole survivor. He crash-landed a P-39, lost his canopy, and was bullet ridden in a P-47, but fought with skill and valor in over 68 sorties with the enemy. Fighting racism as well as the Germans, Gomer remained with the Air Force after the war and was still in service on July 26, 1948, when President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 integrating the United States Armed Forces.

* * * *

Another Sad Anecdote
This was also shared on imdb.com.
One old fighter pilot told me of how he had just come ashore from the troopship in full uniform, and was almost immediately arrested by the military police in New York City on a charge of impersonating an officer and wearing unauthorized decorations; the MP just KNEW that there was no such thing as a Black fighter pilot. 

* * * *
Films like this are important. They bring to light the myriad ways racism has divided us from our brothers and sisters and thwarted African American advances. It's a story that reveals things that should not be left concealed.

Related Links
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
Green Book

Thurgood Marshall Story Is Powerful Reminder of Many Important Truths

This week I saw the film Marshall for the first time. The film, based on a true story, retells an early case legal case by Thurgood Marshall, the young attorney who would later become the first black man to serve on the Supreme Court. It's an impressive film, made all the more so by the acting of Chadwick Boseman, the star of Black Panther and an actor I definitely want to see again.

This summary by a reviewer on imdb.com expresses my take on the film as well.:
This enjoyable and inspiring movie is a worthy contribution to the courtroom movie genre. It memorializes the great Thurgood Marshall (who later won Brown v. Bd. of Education and sat on the Supreme Court). The film brings to life a forgotten rape case in Connecticut that Marshall tried early in his career when he was the solo staff lawyer at the NAACP. The story focuses on the plight of a black man accused of raping a white woman and it highlights issues of racism in the courtroom and on the streets. The movie recalls the classic films "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which also involved a black on white rape case) and "Anatomy of a Murder" (which also involved sexual issues and in which--like many real trials--we're never sure just what actually happened and who is telling the truth). The writing is sharp and witty and the acting and direction are great. Particularly strong is the emerging partnership and friendship of Marshall and the local lawyer, Sam Friedman, who had never tried a criminal case and thought he would just sit next to Marshall during the trial and do nothing. But the judge forces Friedman to conduct the trial with Marshall serving as his adviser--and he rises to the occasion.

Here's an excerpt from another imd.com review:
The actors in this intelligent film are all first rate and believable in their roles. Film is strong in mystery and suspense. The film is part of history but very entertaining from start to finish. It's an uplifting and positive film for everyone to enjoy. There are great believable interpersonal relationships. The film is high quality production including the music score. There is no detail that was spared. Plenty of great symbolism in the film for example the images in wall frame pictures in court room. I do expect actor and/or actress and other film awards in the future. Marshall 2017 is a must see film.

I only later realized that I had seen Boseman before on the screen. He played the role of Jackie Robinson in the film 42. I predict him to be the next Denzel Washington, a serious actor who will leave a legacy. He's well on his way.

One feature of the film, which takes place around 1940, is the reminder that blacks were not the only people discriminated against. Jews were not permitted into certain establishments, country clubs, etc. You may recall Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown asking if the nursing home accepted Jews.

Near the end of the film, the prosecuting attorney tries to work a plea bargain with Sam, the attorney forced by circumstances to defend this black man charged with rape and attempted murder of a white woman. Friedman's response is one of many great lines in the film.

Loren Willis: "I thought Jews were supposed to be smart. You sound just like the Negro."
Sam Friedman: "That's the greatest compliment you could have given me."

In the closing arguments, as Sam trickled drops of ink into a glass of water, I thought of Perry Mason's manner of making vivid a point he wished to get across to the jury. And though we never saw the discussion that took place when the jury deliberated, I imagined the Henry Fonda film 12 Angry Men, and how what appears an open and shut case can become altogether other when honest dialogue occurs.

The DVD is available on Netflix. It comes with my highest recommendation.

Related Links
Marshall @ imdb.com
Emmett Till