“The original title of Fellini's 8 ½ was 'Beautiful Confusion,' and Fellini called his film a comedy. Anyone who has seen 8 ½ can't help but laugh at the eclectic and satirical humor that permeates Fellini's work, but ultimately the feature doesn't feel comical” (Horak). While some critics (such as Horak) argue that Federico Fellini's 8 ½ (1963) evokes a partial tragedy, one could doubly argue that the film embodies a classic model of "bathos"; everything in the work, even the dramatic elements, registers as comic. Similarly to The Satyricon, Fellini's 8 ½ incorporates a myriad of visual contrasts (dichromatic design elements, arthouse editing style, and varied acting techniques) to comically externalize his own past relationships with women as well as as its revolutionary relationship with the practice of film. The founding dream sequence (shots 1 to 18) sets the tone of the entire film, “The Fellinian method is parodic and caricature, the exaggeration of the same thing, reflections in a distorting fairground mirror” (Rohdie 60) . Fellini fuses crisis and comedy (even fantasy and reality) to clearly show Guido's perpetual reverie: the entertainment industry. The dream state acts as a technique of foreshadowing in which the audience assumes Guido's fate, alluding to the original traditions of Greek seaside theater. The fantastical nature of the sequence harms the plausibility of the project. Guido's dramatized gestures and the opposing euphemisms of the passers-by juxtapose perfectly in the scene, creating irony and therefore humor. The overtly contrasting color of the sequence reflects a clear delineation between: the upheavals in Guido's life (pressure from critics, his boss...... middle of article ......nto: University of Toronto, 1995. Horak, Paul. "Actress draws inspiration from Fellini for production." The Chronicle [Duke University Press] September 17, 2009, Arts sec. Rohdie, Sam Fellini Lexicon London: British Film Institute, 2002. Print.Singer. , Irving. Mythmaking in Kubrick and Fellini. Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Cinema Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2008. Print.Stubbs, John C. Federico Fellini as Author: Seven Aspects of His Carbondale Films. : Southern Illinois University, 2006. Print.Van Order, M. Thomas. Listening to Fellini: Music and Meaning in Black and White Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2009. Print. . Wilinsky, Barbara. Art Veneer Covering a Dirty Sexual Picture: Art House Discourse in the 1950s." Indiana University Press 8.2 (1996): 143-58. Print.