Amarcord (1973) User Reviews

Fellini's loving memories

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 30 June 2018]

Fellini gives us a series of memories, fantasies, and dreams in the vignettes which make up his semi-autobiographical film 'Amarcord' ('I Remember'). The message which comes through is loving, and about the gaiety of life, embracing its madcap characters and moments - moments which will someday live in our memories, hazy though they grow, as little diamonds of light. I loved the scenes satirizing the Fascists and the Catholic Church, and they're all the more powerful in this context, where they are reduced in significance, and just another zany thing Italians dealt with (or deal with) in life. The film doesn't strike any major philosophical chords, briefly coming close as men peer up into the heavens, but the lines uttered as a poem by a construction worker are powerful ("My grandfather made bricks / My father made bricks / I make bricks, too / but where's my house?"). I may be in the minority here, but the film didn't strike me as particularly beautiful, though it was a pleasure to see Magali Noël (Rififi, La Dolce Vita, and many others). It held my interest, but lacked a big punch, even in its sentimentality, though I was always pulling for it, and loved the many references to Hollywood actors from the 1930's. Unfortunately, there is not enough depth here to consider it a great film, and Fellini too often indulged in caricatures and juvenile humor. Net, a mixed bag.

Rimini Remembered: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring

[Galina_movie_fan · 9/10 · 7 July 2005]

Federico Fellini's "Amardord" is a series of sketches about his youth in a seaside town Rimini in the 1930s. In this regard it reminds another favorite film of mine, "Fellini's Roma". After repeat viewing, I can understand why many viewers may not like Fellini, especially his so called "later films" -"Amarcord" may seem too crowded, too loud, too vulgar, too bawdy, and too self-indulgent. It is all true, it is. But so is life - loud but tender, vulgar but touching, self-indulgent but full of humor, love and compassion to the film's eccentric characters. It's been said a lot about memorable scenes and images in "Amarcord": yes, the famous peacock that spreads its plumage on the snow, a magnificent ocean liner that is been greeted by the townspeople, a local tobacconist - a woman of such size and proportions that it could be simply dangerous for the teenage boys to try and make their dreams about her come true. I love "Amarcord" - always have - perhaps, Fellini played all the right notes for me or more likely, Nino Rota wrote his best musical score for the film which could be the best score ever. My favorite image in the film Gradisca's (local beautician) walk accompanied by Rota's music. What is it in the way Italian women walk, the way their hips sway? Monica Belucci in "Malena", Sofia Lauren in "Marriage Italian Style"? And Magali Noël as object of every man's in Rimini desire-Gradisca ("Help Yourself").

Wonderful film - by the power of his magic, by the light of his memory, the great master saved the town where he was young and happy. We can visit it as often as we'd like and it won't go away and disappear - Fellini's Rimini is captured forever.

9.5/10.

The best kind of magic...

[Nate-30 · 9/10 · 3 December 1998]

This film was first recommended to me by a high school friend who typically enjoys a different kind of film than I. He counts Reservoir Dogs and Mean Streets among his favorites; I am partial to Notorious and Annie Hall. But for his sake, I watched Amarcord, and in the past years have found myself returning to it time and again. I haven't seen any other movies by Mr. Fellini, so I can judge this film only against itself. By such standards, it is a masterpiece. Never have I seen Italy portrayed as lovingly, nor the spectrum of childhood emotions - happiness, love, frustration - represented as frankly. The images are spellbinding - sunlight and fog and great dark seas. Yesterdays are perfect, it would seem, and love exists in what we can remember. So my friend got it right with this one. Amarcord is a kind of magic only the very best in cinema inspire within us. It's the magic that makes us remember.

Breathtaking images, Genuine laughter and Heartbreaking poignancy

[middleburg · 10/10 · 25 December 2004]

This film is a life journey. Filled with indelible images: The peacock in the middle of the snow, the awesome vision of the ocean liner--and the blind man crying out: "What's it like, what's it like?", the belly-laugh inducing introduction to each of the instructors at school, the beautiful people, the grotesques. Like life itself, the movie can be perplexing and enigmatic, sometimes magical, sometimes, in the face of the political climate and history, frightening as "simple people just trying to live get caught up in the times they were themselves creating". I don't think any film I've ever seen has so completely captured with such profound insight and simplicity the experience of losing a parent: The visit by the father and son in the hospital in which the mother realizes the awesome finality about to approach, and the son is blissfully unaware in his adolescent "immortality", and the total feeling of quiet and emptiness as the father sits at the dining room table, formerly filled with joyful, loud, noisy life--now emptier than could have ever been imagined before--this whole sequence comes as a powerful conclusion to a stunning film. With a final coda a la 8 1/2, Fellini embraces the audience, telling them not to worry--memories go on, life goes on, changed, altered forever perhaps, but it goes on, beautifully, enigmatically, magically.

Four seasons in Fellini's life as he remembers theirimpact

[rogierr · 2 June 2001]

I never thought of this movie as carnivalesque, but you could argue about that. I like to think it is surrealistic in the way that your memory can distort history and all that you once dreamed of or was scared of. Those memories evolve into caricatures of persons, their behaviour and caricatures of situations. We not only see Federico's memories, but also the supposed memories of people once surrounding him.

Also this is said to be Fellini's most accessible film. Well, I was 15 when I saw it first, and it is still one of my favorites. About 10 Fellini-films later I read that this won the academy-award for best foreign picture, which I never expected, but think is quite rightly. The many surrealistic scenes stick to the mind for decades. Hilarious, tragic, oppressive (upcoming fascism: so most of it must take place just before ww2), nostalgic, poetic: there's something for everyone (and every age) to appeal to, while Fellini makes no compromises. If this was higher-paced, you wouldn't have time to appreciate the details, the photography and the music (Nino Rota). Don't look for a plot here.

The cinematography (Giuseppe Rotunno) has comparable feel with some films by Mike Nichols (Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Graduate (1967)). Rotunno worked with Mike Nichols on three films: Carnal Knowledge, Regarding Henry and Wolf. And with Fellini on 9 films (e.g. City of women (1980)). I don't know if this is relevant, but Fellini is said to have had a conversation with Mike Nichols during the production of Catch-22. Otherwise I can't think of many films that are comparable with this fabulous collage of events happening apparently in spring, summer, autumn, winter and ends in spring to conclude some cycle (generation ?) accompanied by beautiful distinctive music. Why o why can't we vote 11 :(

Elaborate Nostalgia Piece

[ilpositionokb · 10/10 · 22 April 2004]

Federico Fellini's "Amarcord" is perhaps the flamboyant directors most entertaining and autobiographical film. His personal recollections on growing up in 1930's pre-war Italy under control of Fascism and the Church, are recorded with lively, colorful images. Fellini stylishly evokes his unique vision of provincial Rimini(Where he was born)through an adolescent viewpoint. The youthful irreverence, casual vulgarity. and tawdry exuberance of the characters flow unrestrained throughout the narrative. Fellini vividly recreates a carnival-like atmosphere filled with incident and observation. He excelled at constructing private worlds; distinct and spirited in their sense of community and place. In "Amarcord" childhood perceptions and improbable encounters are summoned via symbols, dreams, and illusions. Similar to Pirandello, the nature of truth becomes suspect. Fellini does little to dispel this notion. He once stated that 'nothing stifles the imagination more than a good memory'. Fabrication with Fellini often times blends imperceptibly with reality. "Amarcord"(The title translates as "I Remember") is structured in a series of loosely connected tales. Detailed vignettes of public school shenanigans; curious instruction; and the hyper-critical approach of the church. Cinematographer Guiseppe Rotuno favors shooting with a short lense to exaggerate the perspective. He frequently films the sizable features of the actors in extreme close-up contributing to the film's overstated visuals. Fellini was notorious for his preference of using actors with strange and unusual faces. He favored grotesqueness over craft for the most part. (The majority of the cast were selected from amateur groups all over Northern Italy. "Amarcord" is filled with memorable and eccentric characters including a blind accordianist; a foul-mouthed midget nun; a buxom tobacco store owner with a penchant for young men; a lascivious and gaseous grandfather; Volpina the town nymph; Theo the sexually-repressed, mad uncle; and an ever present dim-witted street vendor. Erratic personalities who consistently insist on indulging their illusions. The film uses an on-screen narrator who comments directly into the camera about Rimini's storied past. The pedantic commentator's articulate and austere tone is comically undercut by some off-screen antics.(Ill-timed, loud raspberries; well-tossed snowballs; general heckling, etc.) In the course of the film, an array of odd processions confront the spectator from every conceivable angle. Several of Fellini's films share this infinite movement of characters. Much of the scenario is taken up by the presentation of these large groups of comic figures as they interact around town. "Amarcord", Fellini's last commercial success, is an elaborate nostalgia piece populated with exotic individuals. Endearing misfits who seem to fit perfectly in the director's unconventional universe. One may not know where Fellini is heading half the time, but that's part of his lasting appeal. And in "Amarcord, make no mistake, Fellini is ALL over the place. KB

More intelligible and informed comment

[zetes · 10/10 · 20 February 2001]

I wrote the previous review having just walked to my room after viewing Amarcord. I was ecstatic, and my comments were vague. Now that I have raved, I would now like to show a few of this film's merits.

I had previously thought that Fellini as a filmmaker had died after 8 1/2. His films following that seemed utterly pretentious, as if the director had lost his touch and was trying desperately to figure out what people had liked so much about his films (the exemplary masterpieces being La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, and 8 1/2). I thought that he had decided that it was off-the-wall flamboyancy and densely-layered symbolism that made his films great, and that he was mistaken. I still think this is true for his immediately post-8 1/2 films (Giulietta of the Spirits, Satyricon, and Roma, to be exact). Then, I have now discovered, he made a new discovery.

To be truthful, Amarcord is not much like his pre-Juliette of the Spirits films, his Golden Age. It is, in fact, a lot like the three films of his that I truly dislike, again, Juliette of the Spirits, Satyricon, and Roma. Amarcord, like those films, is quite flamboyant - the colors are orgasmic, as they were in those three bad films, the sex is exaggerated (sort of as if these films all took place in that fantasy world where Guido from 8 1/2 had his harem), and the characters are sort of typical or stereotypical.

So what is different about Amarcord? Well, I think the difference is sincerity. In fact, I would say that Fellini's major trait as a director is not flamboyancy, but sentimentalism. UH-OH! That dreaded word! To call a film "sentimental" is an insult. I do not understand this. In all his best films, Federico Fellini absolutely loves his characters. Often, you will notice that a director loathes the characters of his film, either loathes or just feels cynical and indifferent. This is the trait of such much-ballyhooed films as Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, The Matrix, Lola Rennt, etc. Fellini's characters are his children. A couple of filmmakers have restarted this trend, Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights and Magnolia fame is the best example. While I think that he is still a maturing filmmaker, he is already a great one. And even towards his most despicible characters he shows love.

Anyway, back to Amarcord, the structure of this film is exquisite. It has no real plot line, which is great. Plot is unnecessary. I would much rather experience a world than a contrived story. Fellini has realized this forever. Even his first film, Variety Lights (it was co-directed, actually) has a lack of plot. The wonderful characters just exist, and you exist along with them. Amarcord's script is revolutionary. How to describe it... Actually, I think of Roma as Fellini's failed attempt to make Amarcord. It is a tourists' guide of sorts to Rome. There, Fellini tried to make a love poem to Rome while also mixing in a decay-of-Europe theme, and it never worked. It felt awfully forced. Amarcord also has one very serious subject: the rise of Fascism in Italy. Many critics have complained about Fellini not criticizing the Fascist Party in this film, but rather treating it kindly, for the most part. In fact, all of the characters whom you fall in love with in the film, except for one man (who we identify, though incorrectly, as Fellini's own father), love and support Mussolini. Some people are absolutely outraged at this prospect, believing that Fellini is doing a great disservice to his country. This is nuts! I think we're lucky he had any of his characters criticize the Fascist party, because, truth be told, the people of the Italian countryside loved the Fascist Party until after the onset of WWII (see Vittorio de Sica's rather pretentious _Two Women_ to see this; he actually creates a very unbelievable character to oppose the Fascists in that film). The same goes for the Nazis in Germany. The fascist parties of Europe helped them out of the Great Depression (and consequently threw them into a horrible war), so it is no wonder they were beloved by their countrymen. To say different is simply revisionist history.

I don't have much more I want to say, although there is plenty left to discuss. This film is a masterpiece. And though it may be sacrilige, this is my favorite Fellini film. 10/10

Sweet & Bitter

[Krustallos · 8/10 · 30 September 2004]

Although on one level this is indeed a warm reminiscence of youth, it would be a mistake to think that's all it is. In fact there is sharp satire at the heart of the film, indicated by the punning title - "Amarcord" is the local dialect for "I remember" (used in preference to the Italian "Mi ricordo") while "Amaro" is Italian for "bitter".

There is considerable brutality among the laughs - a man is maltreated by the Fascists, a small boy tries to kill his infant brother with a rock in an aside the casual viewer might miss.

Rimini stands in for the whole of Italy as Fellini tries to get to grips with what factors in the national psyche (Catholicism, the education system, past imperial glory, sexual frustration) led Italy to invent and wholeheartedly embrace fascism.

These are some of Fellini's own comments on the film:-

"The province of Amarcord is one in which we are all recognizable, the director first of all, in the ignorance which confounded us. A great ignorance and a great confusion. Not that I wish to minimize the economic and social causes of fascism. I only wish to say that today what is still most interesting is the psychological, emotional manner of being a fascist. What is this manner? It is a sort of blockage, an arrested development during the phase of adolescence… That is, this remaining children for eternity, this leaving responsibilities for others, this living with the comforting sensation that there is someone who thinks for you (and at one time it's mother, then it's father, then it's the mayor, another time Il Duce, another time the Madonna, another time the Bishop, in short other people): and in the meanwhile you have this limited, time-wasting freedom which permits you only to cultivate absurd dreams – the dream of the American cinema, or the Oriental dream concerning women; in conclusion, the same old, monstrous, out-of-date myths that even today seem to me to form the most important conditioning of the average Italian."

One can only speculate on what Fellini would have made of Berlusconi.

Apparently the film as we see it was originally planned as part of a larger-scale project in which a man in the present day retreats into a nostalgic reminiscence of his adolescence. For whatever reason that framing device was abandoned and what we have is just the reminiscence.

Fellini described "Amarcord" as "a minor planet... not a masterpiece" but for all that it enjoyed considerable success and remains wonderful to behold. On the downside it could be considered the seed of the later plague of execrable 'adolescence' movies such as "Porky's" and "Road Trip".

Still, you can't blame Fellini for that.

It's much like a catalogue of bitter-sweet memories

[raymond-15 · 7/10 · 15 December 2003]

In the corners of the mind there are memories....bitter, sweet, scary, embarrassing, wonderful....and they topple out unexpectedly and for little reason at any moment.

Such is Fellini's treatment of this film. With no real story line, we are offered a series of events....a collection drawn from his own experiences and I would suspect from his vivid imagination.

While all the characters are interesting in their earthy approach to life and its problems, some of the episodes related are scarcely worth mentioning while others are quite outstanding in their appeal. I like particularly the Greek lesson in which a little girl is taught correct pronunciation, the excitement of a celebratory bonfire with little boys playfully exploding crackers among unsuspecting villagers, a priest rather too interested in details during the confessional, Uncle Teo's eccentric behaviour and the rifle fire bringing down the bells from the belfry.

There are magic moments too. The builder afloat with friends on a calm sea looks up at the night sky filled with stars. Turning philosopher he muses at the miracle. "What keeps all that stuff up there?" he asks. and thoughtfully adds "There are no foundations!"

Another beautiful moment is the announcement of Spring after the long cold icy Winter when Nature sets free all the fluffy seeds drifting about in the wind.

In retrospect there is something in this film for everybody. I am surprised how many of the little episodes bring to mind incidents in my own life which I have long forgotten.

Good but light.

[RLoeb · 8/10 · 12 October 2003]

While this film certainly has some poignant points about life, it is mostly the work of a great artist who has reached an age where he can view his childhood memories from a detached, nostalgic point of view. Visual splendour and humor abound, and it is a thoroughly delightful watch but I still like Fellini more, when he is more personally invested in the problems of his characters, as in Dolce Vita or 8 1/2.

Sentimental journey

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 22 March 2014]

Federico Fellini's 'Amarcord' is a chaotic, grotesque yet sentimental portrayal of an Italian childhood maybe not so different from the director's own. It entertains some Italian clichés (in a way that only an Italian could get away with), makes some serious points about the awfulness of fascism, and plays with the contrast between the eternal notion of "la dolce vita" with the reality of life in a poor, rural town in the years between the wars. It's fun but light; a lot of the humour is really very broad. I enjoyed it, but as my introduction to such a renowned cinematiste as Fellini, it didn't quite explain his illustrious reputation.

Perhaps my favorite Fellini film

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 30 July 2005]

I must point out right away that I am not a huge fan of the films of Fellini and I much prefer his earlier films before he became the surrealistic director. So, you probably will assume I am an idiot--that may be the case--the jury is still out on that one! However, I am not alone on IMDb, as a few others also have stated that they felt may of his films were overrated as well.

So why did I like this film? Well, instead of the disconnnectedness and choppiness of 8 1/2 and the utterly depressing nature of La Strada (which I still liked) and Nights of Cabiria, this film was more enjoyable. I don't require films to be fun to be worthwhile, but I think all too often, depressing and unappealing films are elevated to greatness by critics simply because of these aspects. In other words, if the film makes you feel suicidal, critics ASSUME it MUST be good! So why did I enjoy this movie? Well, I liked looking into the old Italy of Fellini's childhood and observing all the interesting and quirky characters--I am a sucker for these elements. In fact, that is why I am a particular fan of the films of Marcel Pagnol--it's as if we are peeking into the private lives of ordinary but likable folks.

A Different Film

[xmdbx · 6/10 · 8 March 2019]

This is a hard review to write because this was a somewhat difficult movie for me to understand. It doesn't have a typical story structure, it kind of doesn't really have a main character and it is filled with artistic subjectivity. When looking at the film strictly as a comedy, it gets the job done. It made me laugh the whole time. When looking at it as a period or cultural piece, it also gets the job done. It is a convincing, albeit absurdist, portrayal of a small Italian town during the rise of Mussolini. It has the typical Fellini quirks; the silliness, the sensuality, the constant dialogue but it was missing something that made me love 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita. I can't pinpoint what that is but I definitely didn't care for the characters as much as I have in other Fellini films even though the acting was just as strong.

Carnivalesque

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 6 October 2016]

Amarcord is an episodic coming of age film from Federico Fellini. The film might have some autobiographical elements but it is a fee flowing almost anecdotal film of eccentric characters including some buxom women in the village of Borgo San Giuliano in 1930s Italy where Fascism is on the rise.

There is buxom Gradisca who runs a beauty parlour and arouses men's passions. Volpina the thin blond good time girl, the rotund and even more buxom tobacconist, the tiger like blond schoolteacher. In amongst this is adolescent Titta who plays pranks including on his father who gets extremely irate and his mother who always has to come to his son's defence.

The other boys in the town regularly touch themselves and the local priest is obsessed with whether the boys touch themselves and accuses them of masturbating as soon as he looks at them.

The film has fantasy sequences such as when a Sultan checks in the Grand Hotel with his harem. It has dark sequences as when Titta's socialist father is brought in for questioning by fascists and abused.

The film consists of little vignettes, it opens with a sequence of puffballs signifying that the winter is gone. There is a sequence where fog is so heavy a man cannot find his house even though he is standing outside it.

The film in some ways accompanies Fellini's 81/2 and lacks the tight narrative structure of La Strada. It does feel bloated and also strangely empty. This is signified by the ending because it just ends.

Reminiscences of a Great Filmmaker

[Benedict_Cumberbatch · 7 March 2006]

"Amarcord" was the first Fellini film I saw, about two years ago. It was on TV at 4 o'clock a.m. and I was very sleepy, but I watched it till the end. I wasn't disappointed at all, and I do want to watch it again.

It's not hard to say why this is considered one of Federico Fellini's masterpieces. "Amarcord" (which means "I remember" in the Italian dialect of Emilia-Romagna, the region in which Fellini was born and where the film is set) is one of the most dazzling, personal films you'll ever see. Though Fellini denied that the film is autobiographical (but agreed that has similarities with his own childhood), he made some of the most magic scenes in film history. Nino Rota's unforgettable music score is perfect to highlight the story of a teenage boy's daydreaming (and many other people) in the fascist 1930s Italy. There's a sentence written by the Brazilian author Machado de Assis in one of his novels that is suitable for this magnificent film: "O menino é o pai do homem" ("The Boy is The Man's Father").

A well deserved Best Foreign Film Oscar (Nino Rota should've won too – he wasn't even nominated!). 10 out of 10.

I remember...

[bobsgrock · 8/10 · 21 September 2009]

No other film maker remembers like Federico Fellini. He is able to comprehend and contemplate the importance and beauty of memory and images that come to our minds. He did it with practically every film he made, culminating with La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2. Here, towards the end of his career amidst some films that seemed to pretentious or overanxious to amuse us, he presents a story about people. Not just one person, but a whole group of people living in a small coastal town in Italy 1930s.

It may not be his most dazzling or mesmerizing film, but Amarcord is Fellini's most personal journey. It is told through multiple narrators, all who add a little more the picture, but mostly it is told through the incredible images Fellini creates. His use of color is astonishing, balancing bright colors of passion against the dull lackluster colors of white and black. He also gives us multiple fantasy sequences, building on those of Guido in 8 1/2. Here, they are more abstract but more meaningful. There is a young boy probably supposed to represent him, but it is clear Fellini admired and loved all these quirky people. There is Gradisca the village beauty, Teo the crazy uncle, Aurelio the loud and stern father, and Miranda the loyal and loving mother. Fellini films all of them with such grace and affection, you can't help but be swept up into this world. And, as with most Fellini, you really don't want to leave either.

Excellent fellini nostalgia

[Faulkner333 · 8/10 · 21 May 2001]

Not made in the traditional way of Fellini's "golden-age" films. This film is a luscious, colorful, and visually striking piece of cinema. It revolves around adolescence, politics, and emotion. It does not rest on plot, or story line. It lets the viewer escape into another world of culture. It's stylistically elaborate, but instinctively accurate to human nature. Nino Rota's sweeping score is almost constant, the characters are vibrant and humorous. A satirical masterpiece with unforgettable images: A peacock in the snow, an enormous cruise ship, the grand hotel, and the dark public streets of Italy. But is it sentimental? Absolutely. However, I believe sentiment was a necessary tool for Fellini to use to show what is obviously his childhood.

Fantastic!

[phoeniks-1 · 10/10 · 12 December 2005]

Fellini's nostalgic account on his early years is a tremendously touching and fascinating time capsule that never lets up! More fiction of course that actual history lesson (this is after all Fellini!), although the period seems real enough. One unforgettable scene after another! No one did ever capture sentiment, poetry and drama the way Fellini did, in a way that made the clichés digestible and with real feeling and not emotional swamp. AMARCORD could be his best work alongside LA DOLCE VITA. Some of the best scenes includes the voluptuous big mama in the little town that could make Anita Ekberg green with envy and the old grandpa that still has a great appetite for the opposite sex. Classic movie-making of the highest order!

Remembrance

[faraaj-1 · 10/10 · 4 May 2006]

This is Fellini's best film and a fond remembrance of his youth in Mussolini's Italy. This came at a point in Fellini's career where he had made a number of unsuccessful films (like Julliet of the Spirits which is just painful to watch!) and most critics felt he had peaked. Probably his most accessible film, Amarcord can be appreciated - like Citizen Kane - just for its watchability, for the great direction or for the sub-surface themes (although the fact that the Fascist Party is never criticized is a controversy that surrounds the film). But the point is that the film is not there to judge but to remember the little moments and little joys.

It could be quite explicit at times and the colors are truly orgasmic. The pranks the village kids play are quite realistic and crude. In some way, they bring back memories of my childhood. There is no plot, only seasons and memories.

At once sentimental and unrealistic, Amarcord has a dream-like quality and you will in some ways remember your childhood, classroom pranks and different experiences when you watch this.

Their happiness and absurdity go hand in hand.

[AminZ5 · 6/10 · 3 July 2017]

The present: A town of horny retards. They are happy with their absurdity. Their happiness and absurdity go hand in hand.

Among all the retards, Aurelio and his wife are the voices of rationality. Half of this rationality (the wife) dies at the end; their son (Titta) who is in love disappears after Grandisca (the jewel of the town) marries the prince. An asset goes to the rich? There is no change in sight in the future.

It's a critique of a certain Italian community - perhaps the whole society. I don't need 2hrs and about 8 sequences to tell me about this 'dynamic'.

Fellini's easiest film to like

[davidmvining · 10/10 · 4 January 2021]

Out of all of Fellini's work, this feels like the one that comes from the purest, most innocent, and most nostalgic part of Fellini's mind. Born from his memories of his childhood in Rimini, Amarcord acts as a companion piece to his previous film, Roma, as well as feeling almost like a prequel to I Vitelloni. Largely about a group of young boys in Fascist Italy, it's a collection of memories and events strung together in almost dreamlike fashion from the end of one winter to the end of the next. It's also warm and inviting and endearing, one of Fellini's easiest to like meanderings through his brain he ever made.

The end of winter in this town of Borgo San Giuliano is marked by the appearance of little natural puffballs flying through the air. There's to be no more snow, and life is to return to the little seaside town, and the residents of the town celebrate the oncoming spring by building a large bonfire in the town's central piazza capped by the witch of winter. Fellini uses this mass gathering to give the audience an introduction to the town and its characters. We see the group of half a dozen boys that most of the movie's action is centered around, mostly Titta along with his mother and father and his uncle. There's Gradisca, the town's most attractive single woman and hairdresser that the boys lust after. There's the large female owner of the tobacco shop that gets her own share of fantasizing from the boys. There's the young girl Aldina, the schoolgirl that another of the boys, Ciccio, is in love with. There's also Volpina, the local prostitute. These people revolve around each other as they welcome the new year in displays of humanity that involve the lighting of fireworks, teasing around the bonfire, and general rambunctiousness.

The movie follows Titta through school where we get portraits of his teachers, all distinctive and commanding in different ways. He goes to confession where the priest asks every boy about self-abuse. He gets into trouble when he goes to the movie with his friends and urinates on a local man's hat from the balcony, his father chasing him around and outside of the house with threats of violence. His mother reacts badly and mother and father end up yelling endlessly at each other with mother threatening to murder herself because she can't take it anymore (which he never follows through on).

One of the most interesting sections of the film is the treatment of Italy's fascism in the 30s. Titta's uncle likes to wear his uniform with pride, and the entire town turns out when an important fascist official visits, waving Italian flags, and singing fascist anthems. The town seems unified under the fascist ideals, but that night someone places a record player in the church's belltower that plays an anti-fascist theme and the fascists go kind of nuts. They run around in the dark until they all pull out their guns and shoot mindlessly and viciously at the record player when a key shot knocks it from its perch. The view of Fascist Italy has been surprisingly bright and colorful and even fun (with Ciccio fantasizing about the large floral arrangement made to look like Mussolini's face presiding over a wedding with Aldina), but the second that the lights go out and the outlawed music plays, the darker side emerges. Titta's father ends up the focus as he, absent from the celebration that evening because of a fight with his wife, gets dragged in and questioned aggressively, including some bits of torture. When he stumbles home we see the love that he and his wife have for each other that gets forgotten in their more heightened moments.

Throughout the film there's an undercurrent of unrealized goals, especially around sex, and that's one way that it ties into I Vitelloni. Fellini's recollections of Rimini obviously have a special place in his heart, but it also seems obvious that he's glad he left. What he showed he loved of Rome in Roma is very different from what he shows he loved of provincial Italian life in Amarcord. He seems to have seen life in Rimini as a beginning, not an end. The boys are all on the cusp of manhood, but they get thwarted in their pursuits of women like Titta's moment alone with Gradisca in the theater or his small adventure with the tobacconist, both undone by his lack of experience. Gradisca herself can't find any sort of future until she marries a carabiniere at the beginning of spring in the film's final scene and leaves the small town forever. Ciccio's love for Aldina is never anything more than unrequited, culminating in a fantasy of Ciccio driving a sports car and flipping her off as he drives off. The family takes the father's brother, Uncle Teo (Tio Teo in Italian, which amuses me) who lives in a mental hospital out for a lunch in the country. He ends up climbing a tree and shouting, "I want a woman!" at the top of his lungs for hours until they get the doctor and nurses from the hospital to coax him down. There's so much wanting in this small town in this movie, and there seems to be very little actual attaining.

People are floated along by dreams, stories, and lies. The local street vendor, Biscein, maintains that when a wealthy foreign sultan came to stay at the Grand Hotel he made love to twenty-eight of the thirty women in his harem. The people of the town revel in the might of the Italian state when they all row out into the Mediterranean in the middle of the night to see the state's huge liner, the Rex, sail by. The boys all have fantasies that drive to elevate their small existence in this small town.

There's so much love in this movie for the characters and setting, and yet Fellini's satirical streak attaches itself to everything at the same time. It's obvious that Fellini has wonderful feelings towards the people he left behind, but he seems firmly committed to the idea that they should remain there for himself. The fact that it's in the past gives the film a melancholic and nostalgic effect that transcends the screen to the audience who can share in it even though the audience has never lived in a small Italian seaside town.

Amarcord is like a warm blanket. Full of specific and wonderfully drawn characters, all circling around each other with a central theme to tie it all together, the movie paints a specific portrait of a specific time and place that is incredibly inviting. It's probably Fellini's easiest to like film.

A tad disappointed

[supernma · 7/10 · 17 June 2010]

After hearing almost nothing but praise for Fellini's nostalgic look at a small, wacky town full of colorful characters (and having thoroughly enjoyed "8 1/2", "La Dolce Vita", "I Vitelloni" , and "The White Sheik") I was very excited when I popped in the DVD. However, as the film dragged on, I found my self sadly disenchanted.

First off, the costumes, sets, camera-work and acting are all superb, so I can't complain about those elements. The use color and lighting in the film is excellent as well, as is the score and soundtrack. Therefore, technically speaking, it is a very good film. However, the biggest problems I had were with the script and perhaps the story itself. I never cared about these characters. I didn't care who they were, what they did, or what the consequences were. I felt very disconnected throughout and unengaged. This is not to say it didn't have its moments. There are several scenes that made me laugh or smile, but they were too few, in my opinion. Maybe I simply don't "get" or like Italian humor? Another "turn off" for me was the toilet humor, mainly the gags concerning flatulence and masturbation. I find this crude more than funny. No, I wasn't offended, but I've never found bodily functions funny, so these moments of the film did nothing for me.

So, while it was a technically great film, and it clearly had a lot of heart and soul put into it (being a labor of love for Fellini), "Amarcord" ultimately left me with much to be desired.

A fantastic film.Both serious and VERY FUNNY!!!

[anton-6 · 10/10 · 18 November 2001]

Fellini's nostalgia trip to Italy in the 1930s.This film has something for everybody.I think that everybody can recognize them self in some scenes.The film is a comedy and it´s VERY funny but it´s also a fantastic beautiful film and a bit sad.The cinematography is masterful,the music is excellent by Nino Rota.The film has wonderful characters.

A warm and fantastic film to watch over and over again.5/5

needs a compelling charismatic lead

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 21 September 2015]

It's 1930s Fascist Italy. The movie follows the odd quirky villagers of a seaside town. The fascist local government takes control of the eager villagers with comical ridiculousness. The village is obsessed with sex which the Catholic Church tries to suppress.

There are some great memorable characters and memorable scenes. The one missing thing is a good compelling lead character. Titta needs to have more scenes as the lead and he needs to be played by a charismatic actor. The vignettes start to get scattered without that central cohesive glue. Some are more surreal than other. The harem in the hotel goes a bit over the top. Otherwise I really like the quirkiness.

Not my definition of magic or nostalgia

[ASuiGeneris · 5/10 · 9 November 2017]

I tried to like it, I really did.

Sure, there were some entertaining vignettes, interesting characters, a delightful soundtrack, and some heartfelt scenes, both physically and emotionally. But nothing really moved me. And I was bored. I understand this film was quite personal for Fellini. I guess that means I am unable to understand his Italian way of life quite enough to appreciate this one. I like Fellini overall, but this was definitely not one of his best.

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta," he said.

This was not magic. Not my kind, anyways.