Are there any examples of people out there who loved 8 1/2 but didn't like this parody? I'm sure there are people who enjoyed Stardust Memories without having seen 8 1/2, but they would have missed most of the references. It just seems to me by looking at some of the threads that the people who didn't like this movie either hadn't seen 8 1/2 or didn't like 8 1/2.
For the record, I am a big fan of both.
My late best friend used to say repeatedly that he didn't "get" HIGH ANXIETY because he hadn't seen all the Alfred Hitchcock films it paid tribute to. Neither had I, but I enjoyed it from the first.
In the case of STARDUST MEMORIES, which I first saw in a theatre, and maybe 4 or 5 times since, I've always enjoyed it, although it is such a STRANGE film, the structure is so bizarre, the sense of storytelling so off-kilter and disconcerting, it keeps you off-balance all the time... I find it relentlessly fascinating, even if it's more like a endurance test than a normal film with a story. Anyway, I've never seen 8-1/2. I probably figured in the back of my head that he was "doing" some bizarre European film homage somewhere in there. It never occured to me the entire film was a tribute to another particular film.
Also, I think if Woody Allen has always and continues to deny that this film is largely autobiographical, that must be the biggest joke related to the film. (Like, who does he think he's kidding?)
I haven't seen 8 1/2 but I LOVE Stardust Memories.
shareI love both.
I also noticed that fans of 8 1/2 tend to like Stardust Memories better than people who didn't like Fellini's film. It's kind of logical as Stardust Memories has a lot of key elements in common with it.
Stardust Memories is a beautiful tribute with its own vision, but I think you have to appreciate the refered object (8 1/2) to fully be enchanted by Woody's film as well.
I actually hated 8 1/2 but sort of enjoyed Stardust Memories.
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