8 1/2

To draw an analogy from the world of technical writing, this is the "missing manual" for Fellini's self-reflexive masterpiece of cinema, 8 1/2. As far as I'm concerned, this book should come packaged along with every DVD (or Blu-Ray) of the film. Before I got my hands on this book, I'd seen the film countless times, thought I knew every frame and line of dialogue, and all of the film's secrets. How wrong I was. The book is worth getting for the annotated continuity script alone. The shooting script, essays, etc. are all icing on the cake. Seriously, if you have the film 8 1/2 on a shelf somewhere, you need this book sitting right next to it. P.S. I feel the need to point out the light irony in the fact that this entry in the Rutgers Films In Print series is not, itself, currently in print.