In 8½ (1963), Marcello Mastroianni played Guido Anselmi, a film director who, blocked on his next picture, retreats into memories, fantasies and the women of his life. Directed by Federico Fellini, the film is a dazzling portrait of creative crisis, and Mastroianni, wearing his famous hat, is its weary, charming centre.
Guido is pursued by producers, a wife, a mistress and his own past, and Mastroianni plays him with a lightness that keeps the film from becoming self-pitying. 8½ won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it remains one of the most celebrated films about filmmaking itself, with Mastroianni as the man who cannot decide what to make, and therefore makes a masterpiece about not knowing.