The alternate ending for Italian director Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2,” believed lost for decades has turned up and will be put on exhibit.
Marcello Mastroianni starred in this autobiographical flick, which debuted 40 years ago on Feb. 14, about a harried film director who retreats into his memories to find peace.
The film, as it played in theaters, has the film director character Guido Anselmi deciding to go back to his wife while the characters of his past go by in a ring-around-the-rosy whirl. Considered one of Fellini’s greatest works, the Oscar-winning movie regularly ranks in polls that ask critics and directors to pick the 10 greatest films of all time.
The ending used was actually a shot as a trailer, but Fellini liked it so much he used it instead of the scene he had already shot where the women of Anselmi’s life are seated in the dining car of a train. The discarded footage was lost, but the Cinemarzaro Association found stills after buying the collection of journalist Gideon Bachmann who had followed the shooting of the film.
The association is planning an exhibit of 2,600 photos from the collection, many of which document the rapport between Mastroianni and Fellini, in July 2003 in Pordenone. A documentary about the lost ending is also in the works for the Cannes film festival.
Claudia Cardinale, who played a sort of dreamlike muse in the film, said she doesn’t remember much about the abandoned ending. "The film changed my life forever, Italian cinema was the best the world had," she told newspapers. "I only remember a bit about the train scene, mainly I have a sensation of love and two colors — the blinding white of the costumes and the black-grey of the smoke of the train."
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8 1/2
The DVD, includes an interview with Gideon Bachmann…
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