8 1/2 (1963): Spoiler Review

It gave me such existential angst to see the male psyche so innovatively and completely deconstructed and disintegrated a whole three decades before I was even born. From the torment of imposter syndrome and writer's block to the pure self-indulgence and rampant egotism that plague the mind of the twentieth century being that is the male protagonist, Fellini totally and utterly dissects the contemporary masculine soul in a way that I wouldn't have deemed possible before seeing this film.
Having already watched Fellini's most famous oeuvre La Dolce Vita, I have to accept that I didn't fully appreciate the mindset of the protagonist of that film until I saw 8 1/2, which wholly demonstrates the humanity of Marcello Mastroianni's main man(a pastiche of Fellini himself) and, by extension, man himself, in a way that I don't believe has been shown on film before or after.
For me, emancipation and rehabilitation are the most prominent themes in this film. Fellini fully exposes himself by chronicling the abuse that the protagonist Guido perpetrates against particularly the women in his life and it makes for a deeply human and authentic divulgence of the weakness of the human spirit and of the self-centeredness of the modern man and of the creative force.
But in the same vein, Fellini uncloaks the burdens of the modern artist, with the Don Corleone-like figure of the producer and the Lady Macbeth that is Luisa, Fellini incites both feelings of exasperation and frustration alike with the central character, who comes across as both ludicrously insolent and infuriatingly beleaguered.
On top of all of this, Fellini presents a film that is intensely beautifully portrayed, perhaps more so than any other film shot in black-and-white, and that is desperately compelling. "Mi scusi," I must go and extol this film in whatever forum is available to me.