A good comparison would be Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal, another film within a film that is self-referential to the director's cinemaverse, yet uses its internal mythos to good effect. Of course, Soderbergh made his underrated film in the midst of his career, not at the end, so it has none of the stench Intervista does. Another film that this one could have been more like was Incident At Loch Ness, wherein German director Werner Herzog acted as himself in a film about the making of a fake documentary, and played off of his own persona as a bullshitter and control freak to great comic effect.

Fellini, despite what the film and its defenders say, was bent on hagiography, not self-deprecation, and it sadly shows. Perhaps the closest film to this, however, not just overall, but in the Fellini canon, is not 8½ nor Amarcord, but his 1969 TV mockumentary called Fellini: A Director's Notebook, which is part of The Criterion Collection's two disk 8½ release. In that film Fellini also spoofs his role as a director, and while not a good film in itself, it's better and more intriguing than this garbage, if only for its lack of pomposity and that it is half the length this one is.

But if the film is bad, the acting horrible (especially Fellini as The Maestro), well, the criticism of this film is the worst. So many bad critics swallowed deep on this one that it's disgusting to read. Not a word discusses the actual execution of the film; it's all about the celebratory intent of the film for the fallen master. Terms like 'a film collage' or a 'celebration of film', or extended psychoanalytical treatises on meaning and symbolism, should tell any discerning cineaste that schlock is about to follow.

Intervista is lifeless and dull, even to Felliniastes, and when we see the typical grotesques he employs they lack any resonance because for a grotesque to work it has to contrast with a real set of developed characters. When the whole film is grotesques there is no point to the grotesque. These are the sorts of self-indulgent and narcissistic foreign films that turn most Americans off. Yes, in a sense, Intervista is still a tad better than most Hollywood schlock, but does that really give comfort to film lovers? Leftovers that have nothing to say may still make a decent meatloaf or stew when eaten, but when viewed it just looks like vomit. Pass the napkin.