This has long been one of my three favorite films, along with Tarkovsky's ANDREI RUBLEV and Bergman's PERSONA. 8 1/2 is a milestone in cinema history and perhaps the quintessential modernist feature (to rip off Gerald Mast's A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MOVIES). In an objective list, it would inevitably come in third behind CITIZEN KANE and THE RULES OF THE GAME.