it's a peculiar coincidence that we should first have seen Fellini's 8½ when we were at Caltech, because the infamous "Ride of the Valkyries" aria from Wagner's Die Walküre is thematic both in this movie and in Caltech culture: some of the undergrad dorms have (or had) a repellent "tradition" of torturing students with "The Ride of the Valkyries", played at maximum volume, especially early in the morning during finals week.
now, I was there back in 1992-94 but from what I can tell from a few web searches, this "Ride" stuff at Caltech hasn't actually stopped. I've found mentions as far as 2019, anyway. and I did my time in one of the worst of the undergrad Caltech dorms—"Blacker Hovse". yes, with the 'v'...not a good sign, that. Blacker had their literally more Hellish version of this "tradition" in which a certain section of Blacker Hovse would barricade itself in and play "Ride of the Valkyries" top volume, and other students try to break in and stop the music. someone got hurt during this "tradition", during my brief Caltech time. https://www.gdbg.org/traditional_events.shtml#hellride
and for all that, I fear that Caltech's inane and traumatic "traditions" might be quite timid—compared to some.
er, anyway. 8½. great movie.
~Chara of Pnictogen