is a film about the movie director, Guido, who’s trying to cope with his memories, plans, dreams, filmmaking, collaborators, crew, virtually all of the external world. Fellini’s movie is strongly autobiographical. It’s also multilayered, as it shows the process of making the movie, possibly also this movie itself (which relates back to Fellini’s life with figures and actions showed).

One of the characteristic devices used throughout the movie is breaking the narration. Most of the dialogs end somewhere in the middle, situation don’t get fully wrapped up, they constantly dissolve into new problems and abstract situations. On the other hand, many scenes are very definite, but they are juxtaposed, in a way that depicts a very troubled thoughts.

The thing that is striking for me is the representation of the Guido’s mind, and how everybody around him constantly miss his point. This element is very, very strong. His collaborators often bother him with unimportant things or want to use him for some personal profit. Too many people are bothering him, disturbing in such an important task as figuring out what the movie (the one to be produced) should be about.

There is also a problem of being true when transmitting one’s message. Guido wants to finally make a true film, the one that would show how the things really are, what problems does he really deal with and how hard all that is. I guess the movie that the viewer see shows that perfectly, even though the film that Guido is trying to make is on the edge of being abandoned and discarded.

The moments, that refer to the director’s memories and dreams are sometimes unreal, which adds ambiguity and abstraction to the whole image. The characters are almost exaggerated, revealing people’s duplicity, lack of interest, misunderstanding of the situation or having expectations, that Guido is not able to fulfill. His dreams are partly sad, partly lusty, partly longing, revealing more and more of his actual state of mind.

The ending of the film is almost surprising, as the withdrawal from making the film turns into actually showing the opening scenes, featuring all of the characters, finally working and existing in harmony. That applies to the director’s own mind as well – as he’s finally ready to tell the whole true story, exactly the way he feels.