Mastroianni plays Fellini's alter ego, a film director facing a creative block. At one point, Mastroianni says, "I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same." This pretty much sums it up. Fellini has nothing to say but he rambles on for nearly two and half hours (although it seems as long as the title) not saying it. It's endless scenes of people blabbering about mostly uninteresting things. The dialog comes at such a rapid fire pace that those who don't understand Italian must exhaust all their energy reading the subtitles. Fellini is at his pretentious and self-indulgent worst, and of course the film is universally regarded as a masterpiece.