8½ A.K.A. Otto e mezzo (1963)

A French Italian drama directed by Frederico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Caredinale and Anouk Aimée.
A director is trying to start making a film, but has trouble making decisions.
This is a very famous film, but I did not like it. The plot seemed extremely desultory and did not serve well to develop the characters. The only character who stood out to me was the director (in the movie). I'm alright with watching black and white films with subtitles sometimes, but the amount of reading in this was too much. There were about as many subtitles as Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017). This culminated at the climax, when everyone is asking the director what they should do as he shows up to begin filming. I've been in his place before and it is not fun. I had written a simple script for a scriptwriting class and the professor not only insisted the whole class go with, but he brought a superfluous camera operator who was not even in the class. That was when it turned out that our audio guys went through the whole shoot without recording anything. There was some creative camera placement and blocking in this, but not enough to merit the fame it holds. I rate it bad because the whole film was people yammering and chattering while I was speed reading subtitles. You probably should not watch it.

Amanti A.K.A. Le Temps des amants, A Place for Lovers (1968)

A French Italian romance directed by Vittorio De Sica, starring Faye Dunaway and Marcello Mastroianni.
A woman has travelled from America to Italy and a man she met at the airport joins her on vacation. They fall in love, but the woman's friend is trying to get her to return to America because she is sick. The friend eventually tells the man as well.
Inconclusive. This was on multiple lists of the worst films ever made and I can see why it was not good, but it is nowhere near the worst. Rotten Tomatoes has the worst score for it at 17%. The plot seemed to be built on nothing and went nowhere. The characters did and said lots of things without anything actually being said or done which would change them or the plot. People have criticized the acting, but it was better than Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). These people seemed like they at least pretended to care what happened, even though nothing did happen. 2 movies into "worst", I'm noticing a trend of dying women falling in love. It may just be random chance, but there may be more to it than that. I rate this poor because it was poorly written and pointless. You really should not watch it.
Why am I watching "the worst movies ever made"? Because I was trying to get good films and ended up with crap. I figure that if I try to get crap, at least I won't be surprised that it sucks. If something good comes "floats to the surface", all the better. I loved Alakazam the Great (1960) and that was listed as worst. I thought Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) was extremely entertaining and that was listed as worst as well. Maybe I find it more entertaining to talk trash about bad films than sing the praises of good ones. I know I'm more impressed by uniqueness than consensus agreement of quality.

La Grande Bouffe A.K.A. La Grande Abbuffata (1973)

A French Italian drama directed by Marco Ferreri, starring Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Piccoli.
Four friends who normally gather on weekends to cook together decide to eat themselves to death. They are accidentally joined by a female school teacher.
All I could think was Anthony Bourdain. The 2 hour duration went by quickly because of French guys cooking and fart jokes, even though the pacing was rather slow. The scenes were allowed to resolve themselves in their own time. The basic premise was augmented by the addition of extra characters and the Bugatti. The 4 main characters are pretty basic, but they are joined by whores and the school teacher who are also quite shallow. The dialogue initially entertained me, but as the end drew nearer, it became more serious and melancholic. The acting was done quite well. It's difficult to make eating come alive on screen. Basically, the only set was the house and the 4 main characters dressed like one would imagine French men in the '70s to dress. The whores added some color with their costumes and the school teacher's lingerie was revealing. Camera-work was a little bit shoddy on this. Under exposure ruled the roost and there wasn't much camera movement. The video was also quite grainy, giving it more of a horror feel. The French dialogue was mixed well with the single song soundtrack. What I really liked about the audio was the variety of fart sounds. The whole thing seemed kind of gloomy, but in a mocking way, which I liked. This won an award at Cannes the year it was released and was later replayed in the classics section of that festival. I rate it good, mostly for the first 3/4 of it than the last 1/4.