OK. The cinematography is amazing. We get it. But is this a great narrative? A great drama that somehow shows us something important about fascism? No way.
At best this is a story about one chapter in the life of an eccentric mixed-up guy who worked for the fascists. And I don't think that's done in a satisfying way.
The story leaves too many questions. Too many important scenes are left out. How come we never see what Marcello does during the week. It feels like he is a perpetual aimless bourgeois who wanders around Rome by himself. Does he have a job of any kind? Splitting the story up over six or so years didn't work for me either. Wouldn't it be important to see his wife's reaction immediately after the assassination? Too much is left out to form a complete picture of these characters. It's like the narrative focuses on some of the least interesting parts of the story. Why?
And why does Anna (the professor's wife) kiss and otherwise get sexually involved with Marcello and his wife? Is this her way of trying to understand or reveal his true motives? I just don't buy it. Here she is with her and her husband's life at risk and she decides an appropriate strategy would be to flirt with the enemy behind her husband's back! This is a bizarre and maybe an interesting idea for a story in itself but in this context it just distracts us from the main themes. Also it makes her naive and unlikeable. Kind of like she's into turned on by self degradation or something.
FInally the closing scene didn't work for me either. He denounces fascism? Well he starts shouting in a laneway at a time when the city is in upheaval. So what. He casts his eyes on the queer homeless guy at the end of the movie? Is this supposed to show he has latent homosexual desires? The scene is just too ambiguous to get any meaning from and the tone is wildly at odds with the rest of the movie. Have we suddenly moved into a zone of overt symbolism? It feels clumsy.
I didn't discuss the sets or the colour or the cinematography here. It's great. Maybe some of the greatest in all cinema. But please don't say this is a well crafted story or some character study of fascism.
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