Amarcord (1973)
Directed by Federico Fellini

Film Review

After a period of artistic over-indulgence in the late 1960s, the acclaimed Italian film-maker Federico Fellini returned to form with what is regarded by many as one of his greatest films, Amarcord.   An international success on its first release, the film was well-received by the critics and won a brace of awards, not least of which was Fellini's fourth Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category in 1975.

Like much of Fellini's work, Amarcord has a strong autobiographical component, and it is easy to read the amiable tearaway Titta Biondi as the young Fellini experiencing his first pangs of adolescence whilst growing up in his seaside hometown of Rimini.   The film's title means “I remember” in some local North Italian dialect and this is very much a film about memory, the tricks it can play, how events can become distorted and mingled together.  The episodic structure, the hilariously caricatured characterisation, the sugary artificial photography and Nino Rota's nostalgia-evoking score all add to the film's mesmeric dream-like feel.  In spite of the absence of a coherent narrative, in spite of a rich over-abundance of symbolism, this is one of Fellini's most accessible, amusing and enjoyable films.

Every one of Fellini's films has an exuberance that celebrates life, but through a strange distorting mirror, like a man looking backwards into his distant memory or into the murky depths of his own soul.  This can be seen in the director's earlier films - I Vitelloni (1953) and La Dolce vita (1960) - but it is most apparent in Amarcord.  There is a warmth and humanity to this film - stemming from the affectionate yet mocking portrait of its characters - which makes it particularly engaging.  Not one strata of Italian society is spared Fellini's celebrated wit in this film - the Church, working class families, teachers, street traders, prostitutes, even black-shirted fascists are ridiculed, but in a way that is strangely endearing.  The film also pokes fun at political ideology - the obviously “fake” ocean liner that is hailed with such enthusiasm before fading away into nothing is an obvious metaphor for Mussolini's fascism.

Amarcord represents the pinnacle of Fellini's art.  His last truly great work, it captures the essence of the director's approach to filmmaking, his penchant for spectacle, his passion for life, his love of his own people.  With the skill of a master craftsman, he takes the threads of his memory and weaves them into an affectionate dream-tapestry that is as much a scathing satire on Italian society of the 1930s as it is an honest and touching portrayal of a young man tearing himself from the chrysalis of adolescence.  Cinema is rarely as beautiful and richly evocative of the beauty of life as it is here.

Film Synopsis

Italy in the 1930s.  In an ordinary seaside town, the locals are celebrating the end of winter and the arrival of spring.  The rise of Mussolini's fascist party is welcomed as a sign of rebirth and the townsfolk happily prostrate themselves before the image of Il Duce.  Meanwhile teenager Titta Biondi discovers that he is beginning to experience strange, uncontrollable desires.  He is fascinated by three women: Gradisca, an alluring woman in a red dress, Volpina, a prostitute who tempts builders working on the beach, and a plump woman tobacconist with gigantic breasts...