Nine

PLOT

Guido Contini is a gifted Italian filmmaker in 1965 at the famous Cinecittà movie studios in Rome. At the age of fifty, Guido has developed writer's block and surrealistically summons all of the women in his life, alive and dead, to help him recapture inspiration, as dozens of female dancers and the film's leading ladies appear in his mind: Luisa, his wife; Claudia, his star actress; Carla, his mistress; Lilli, his costume designer and confidant; Stephanie, an American fashion journalist from Vogue; Saraghina, a prostitute from his childhood; and his beloved Mamma ("Overture Delle Donne").

Guido avoids giving any clear answers when questioned by reporters about his new movie, because he does not have an idea for one. He creates an elaborate fantasy, where he explains that he wishes to have the naiveté of youth, yet the wisdom of age ("Guido's Song"). Escaping to a hotel and spa on the Italian coast, he places a call to Carla, his mistress, who talks seductively to him over the phone while he is being seen by a doctor ("A Call from the Vatican"). She comes to be with him, expecting to share Guido's suite, but she is upset to learn she will instead be staying in a shabby pensione by the train station.

Dante, Guido's producer, finds out where Guido is and brings much of the film's crew to the coast to work at Guido's hotel. When Guido confesses to Lilli, his costume designer, that he has no script and is still searching for an idea, she urges him to use his film to entertain, inspired by the Folies Bergère, where she "learnt her art" ("Folies Bergères"). Then Guido remembers Saraghina, a prostitute who danced for him and his schoolmates on a beach, teaching them the joy of life's sensual and sexual pleasures ("Be Italian"). Nine-year-old Guido is caught by his school teachers/priests and punished by his principal while his ashamed mother reluctantly watches.

Back at the Spa, at dinner, Guido is happily surprised to see his wife Luisa arrive. He embraces her and wishes her a belated happy birthday. Luisa, deeply unhappy, sings of the life of compromise she has made, abandoning her acting career to be at Guido's side and support his art ("My Husband Makes Movies"). She then notices Carla entering the restaurant and storms out immediately, Guido following. Luisa ignores him and leaves and, when he returns to the restaurant and sees Carla, he is furious. Guido demands Carla go back to the pensione, which leaves her heartbroken.

After unsuccessfully attempting to pacify Luisa in their hotel room, Guido meets Stephanie in the hotel's bar. She describes her love for his movies, though, as a fashion reporter, she cares more about their style than their substance ("Cinema Italiano"). Stephanie takes Guido to her room but, watching her undress, he realizes how much he cares for and needs his wife and seems to come to his senses. Returning to Luisa, he promises that he has finished with cheating. As she embraces him, the phone rings and he is called away to help Carla, who has overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt. Guido stays with Carla and, distraught, has a vision of his mother singing him a lullaby when he was young ("Guarda La Luna"). He leaves when Carla's husband Luigi arrives in the morning, and when he gets back to the hotel he finds that Luisa is gone, as is the film crew, who has returned to Rome to get ready for filming.

In Rome, Guido phones Luisa from the studio and begs her to come to view screen tests that evening. When his leading lady, Claudia, arrives and senses there is no written script, she and Guido go for a drive. Guido confesses that there is indeed no script, but he needs her to inspire one. She asks him what he wants the film to be about and his description closely resembles his own ordeal: a man lost and in love with so many women. Claudia responds that the man he's describing seems to be someone who does not know how to love and that, while she loves him, she cannot keep playing the same part in his films ("Unusual Way").

While Guido is reviewing the screen tests, Luisa arrives. She is devastated to see a clip where Guido interacts with an actress in exactly the same way he had when he first met Luisa, as it reinforces her feeling that, although she has sacrificed so much for him, she means no more to Guido than does any other woman he finds attractive. After an argument and an angry, imaginary public striptease ("Take It All"), Luisa leaves Guido for good. He is finally able to acknowledge the truth and decide it is time to cancel the planned film shoot now that he has been abandoned by all those whom he has selfishly been exploiting ("I Can’t Make This Movie"). He admits to the crew that there never was a movie to make and has the set destroyed before he leaves Rome.

Two years later, Guido is in a café in Anguillara and sees an advertisement for a play starring Luisa. He asks Lilli about Luisa when they are on a walk, and Lilli tells him that she is not going to play the middle-man. She asks if he will ever make a movie again, and Guido answers that the only thing he could think to make would be a movie about a man trying to win back his wife. She says that sounds like a good idea, and then Guido is on a film set, making that very film. He quietly directs a scene with an actor and actress who could be playing a younger Guido and Luisa, living in a small apartment and deeply in love. The cast of Guido's entire life assembles on the scaffolding behind him, including (as in the film's opening) the living and the dead ("Finale"). Luisa arrives quietly and, without being seen, watches from the shadows. Nine-year-old Guido runs to sit on the mature Guido's lap as fantasy meets reality. They are slowly raised high on a crane, and the mature Guido calls, “Action!”

CAST

Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido Contini - based on Federico Fellini.

Giuseppe Spitaleri as young Guido Contini

Marion Cotillard as Luisa Acari Contini, based on Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife.

Penélope Cruz as Carla Albanese, based on Anna Giovannini, Fellini's mistress.[5]

Nicole Kidman as Claudia Jenssen, based on movie star Anita Ekberg.

Judi Dench as Liliane La Fleur, a costume designer.

Kate Hudson as Stephanie Necrophorus, a Vogue fashion journalist.

Sophia Loren as Mamma Contini, Guido's mother.

Fergie as Saraghina, a prostitute.

Ricky Tognazzi as Dante, Guido's producer.

Giuseppe Cederna as Fausto

Elio Germano as Pierpaolo

Valerio Mastandrea as De Rossi

Martina Stella as Donatella

Roberto Citran as Dr. Rondi

Andy Pessoa as Italian boy

Max Procaccini as The Business Man

John Terry as Marvin

Vincent Riotta as Luigi

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

an adaptation of the 1982 musical of the same name, which in turn is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical 1963 film 8½