Ian Thomson

The dreamer

As 8 1/2 returns to our screens, Ian Thomson explores how a period of creative limbo spawned one of the greatest, dreamiest films ever made

Italy’s highest-paid heart-throb, Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a film director in ‘creative limbo’ . Getty Images | Shutterstock | iStock | Alamy 
issue 11 April 2015

Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was a box-office triumph in Italy in 1960. It made $1.5 million at the box office in three months — more than Gone With the Wind had. ‘It was the making of me,’ said Fellini. It was also the making of Marcello Mastroianni as the screen idol with a curiously impotent sex appeal.

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