I totally neutered it for Wal-Mart and Blockbuster, I made a baby version of my film,

Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it's not an art. The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.

Who's ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me!

The laughs are as big as any film he's ever made. And yet, it kind of creeps you out -- the tension is real high.

[Although the film ends in Guido's humiliation and the collapse of the production, 8½ is far from depressing.] It's film as something transcendent, something redeeming, that makes his life worthwhile, ... It's a tremendously life-affirming film. And yet it's about not making a film. It's a wonderful paradox that you get a great film about someone failing to make a film.

Once I went to film school, I realized that film directing was actually much better than theater directing, because you kind of get to stay in control of it all the way through. You don't relinquish the piece to the actors like you have to in theater; you stay in control through the very end.