The Role of Women in Fellini’s 8½ 

            Women are a major aspect of Federico Fellini’s film 8½.  The movie focuses around the central character, Guido.  Essentially, Guido embodies the director of 8½, so Marcello Mastroianni is the alter ego of Fellini.  That being said, this film shows the suppressed relationships in Fellini’s life between himself and the women around him.  

            To start with, Guido’s mother is constantly in his thoughts.  This is not uncommon for men to think about their mothers.  Guido definitely has an oedipal complex.  In one of the opening scenes of the film, Guido has a dream sequence. The set up for the sequence though is also worth noting.  After Guido and his mistress Sandra have sex, he falls asleep.  His mom appears by their bedside as the film fades into a dream. In the dream, Guido kisses his mother, who then turns into his wife Louisa.  Clearly, Guido has some kind of sexual thoughts about his mom.  There is also the scene right after he gets in trouble for dancing with Saraghina.  That scene is important because it symbolizes a sexual guilt he has.  After he gets caught watching and dancing with the voluptuous lady, he is forced to feel bad for what he has done.  Then, when he is punished at Catholic school, his mother is there, looking very disappointed in him.    

            Speaking of Saraghina, she also represents Guido’s youth, and libido.  When he was younger, he desired this large, yet extremely sexual creature, even though she was seen as “satan,” to the clergymen of his church.  Another woman that symbolizes Guido’s lust for women is his mistress, Sandra.  When we first are introduced to Sandra, she is arriving at the train station to meet Guido. When she gets off the train, Guido turns toward the camera and mumbles something under his breath.  From this, we can tell that he is kind of embarrassed to have this woman around.  She has no noticeable intellect, and he does not even enjoy the conversations that they have together.  Sandra has a husband of her own, and this relationship with Guido is purely a sexual one. She also seems very naïve.  When they are in bed together, she is reading some kind of comic book.  

            Guido is married as well, to Luisa.  Luisa represents Federico Fellini’s real wife, Giulietta Masina.  She is always dressed in plain clothes, sports a short hairstyle and wears unattractive glasses.  Guido does love this woman, but is just really bad at showing it.  He does not have the same sexual desires for Luisa as he does for Sandra.  When Guido is showing Luisa the screen tests for his film, she is obviously the inspiration for one of the characters, and Luisa is not happy with what she sees on the screen.  Apparently, this came from a real experience that Fellini had with his wife when he showed her shots of Luisa’s character for 8½. 

            One woman that seems like his ideal woman is Claudia.  He has a vision of her when he is getting the mineral water from the spa.  She is gorgeous and giving him this water, so she is reviving him.  In this vision, Claudia also does not speak to him, which is definitely the downfall with Sandra.  Eventually in the movie though, he does meet this woman, and she hardly lives up to his expectations of her.  

            There is also a scene in the production offices, where two girls are in a bed.  Their uncle has brought them in hopes that Guido will cast them in his upcoming film. When they are talking to Guido, they tell him that he cannot make a love story and he agrees with them.  He seems to be too exhausted to love anyone anymore, as well as too tired to think of a good idea for a movie.  These women are basically verbalizing his inner fear that he will not be able to make a film.  

            In one of the most famous scenes in the film, Guido is fantasizing about being in a harem, surrounded with all of the women in his life.  There is Saraghina, Mezzabotta’s wife Gloria, an African woman, Sandra, Luisa, and a range of other women, ranging young and old.  At the beginning of the sequence, all of the women idolize him, and just want to make him happy.  These emotions do not last though, and the women quickly all turn against him. There is apparently a rule that when you get too old, you have to leave the harem and are forced upstairs. Pretty much, Guido no longer has any interest in you.  This sparks up an argument and the women get mad at Guido.  He tries to keep them all under control by cracking a whip he has somehow attained.  The whip he is striking the women with is being used as a phallic symbol.  He is using his manliness to try to control these women.  

            Guido is obsessed with women in 8½, and he unconsciously is thinking about them all of the time.   The different women represent his sexual needs, his youth and naïveté, his lack of libido in his later years, and some symbolize his failing film career.