8 ½ (1963)

This is an imperfect-but-creditable Italian movie. A film director (Marcello Mastroianni) has started a new project but feels weighed down by the scope of the production. He is constantly running into former actors who are looking for work and pressing him to finish the project. He loves his wife (Anouk Aimée) but feels confused about their marriage and starts an affair with a mistress (Sandra Milo) who has a very different personality. To handle the stress he visits a spa and reminisces about his childhood and his fantasies.

The title refers to Director Federico Fellini who considered this his eighth and a half film, since his previous project involved working with another director. The film won Academy Awards for Foreign Language and Costume Design in black-and-white.