Acclaimed director "Guido" (Marcello Mastroianni) is looking for a peaceable life after his last successful movie, but at every turn he is being pursued by people who want to capitalise on the success. He just hasn't the inspiration though - and determined not to just churn out any old rubbish, retreats to a small town for some rest, recuperation and hopefully inspiration. He in also rather reaping what he sowed as his wife "Luisa" (Anouk Aimée) and her rival "Claudia" (Claudia Cardinale) are vying for his increasingly frayed attentions and that makes any chance of concentration almost impossible. What happens now? Actually that's not so important to the thrust of the plot. What's a little more engaging here is a sort of hybrid illustrating the foibles of those creatives desperate for and addicted to the whole process of making a film as well as all of them demonstrating just how difficult it can be to actually produce a feature film. The narrative is also quite confusing at times with chronologies blurring and timelines being adapted as if on a whim - and those whims aren't always immediately clear to us who watch on bemusedly. There's something natural about the characterisations too. The venal, the aspirational, the lovelorn, the lovestruck - and the director who is genuinely swimming through a series of doldrums from which he cannot readily escape. The intensity never really lets up - indeed every time you see Guido Alberti - his long-suffering producer "Pace" you almost want to weep for a "Guido" under the sort of relentless pressure usually reserved for the father of a family of two hundred dependents. Mastroianni juggles the balls required for this part skilfully and by the mid point of this 2¼ cinema curiosity I felt a degree of his physical and emotional exhaustion visited on me, too! Nino Rota could always be relied upon provide a solid score - and here he reflects the mood of the story and it's personalities with an eclectic series of themes that range from the adagio to an entertaining Italian version of a grand scale hokey cokey. There's maybe just a little too much dialogue for me here. It's all pretty break-neck paced anyway, and occasionally I did just want them all to shut up - but this is still a potpourri of ideas and personae that offers an amusing look at film making and film makers alike.