Amarcord - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic memories from a master of the fantastic
Review: "Amarcord" (`I remember') is Federico Fellini's impression of a year in the 1930's: a surreal carnival of memories, it is a film with no plot, but with haunting images - caricatures of the petit bourgeoisie, satires of provincial institutions. Teachers are portrayed as inflexible, autocratic. The Church is obsessed with stamping out masturbation. Families are dysfunctional - a crazed uncle climbs a tree to shout that he needs a woman ... only to be coaxed down by a midget nun. The whole town takes to the sea to wait, late into the night, for a glimpse of a passing liner.

"Amarcord" is a series of loosely linked vignettes. A lawyer tries to act as ringmaster, giving us background information about the town of Rimini. It had been bombed flat in 1943-44. Fellini reconstructs fantastic memories of the place. Nostalgia, he implies, is fantasy - our reconstruction of memories as little dramas.

There is a monochrome quality to "Amarcord"; the actors wear dark clothing ... a few appear in red, such as the local hairdresser, Gradisca, focus of much teenage lust. The costumes evoke a sense of how and why that person is remembered.

If there is a central character, it is the town square, the focus of communal life. Here, the townsfolk come and go, participating in spectacles like burning an effigy of a witch or watching a Fascist politician deliver his speech.

The direction emphasises Fellini's affection for people. Fellini's politics is humanist rather than doctrinaire ... he invites an exploration of consciousness, famously asking his audience to see his films, not to try to understand them. Many of his films are autobiographical - you take to them and from them something of your own memories ... some shared feeling, some new insight.

Fellini turned his back on realism. He espoused the surreal. There is not necessarily any subject to the film. You, as viewer, are not there to be entertained, but to interpret, to deconstruct the work and evoke and reconstruct your own emotions.

Fellini plays with light and darkness; fog, smoke, snow, or a storm of seedlings caught on the wind obfuscate both the images and the memories. This is poetic film making. Fellini constructs his characters in two dimensions, then builds them into full-bodied people for whom you can feel affection and sympathy. It is the institutions - education, religion, family life, or Fascist organisations which are portrayed as farcical, grotesque and dysfunctional. People are merely fallible - the first narrator is an old down-and-out who appears to forget his lines and stumble over his words.

The actors look like real people - they are hardly glamorous. They are often grotesque, their physique, make-up, hair, and clothing taken to extremes ... the sort of extremes you find imprinted on your memory. Fellini dubbed the sound afterwards - often making the actors sound unreal.

If there are underlying themes to "Amarcord" it is Fellini's portrayal of the emptiness of Italian society, of a nation living on memories of the glories of Rome, so vacuous it failed to note the rise to power of morally and intellectually bankrupt Fascism. Fellini counterpoints this with an exploration of teenage sexuality. His teenagers are fascinated by bodily functions - gross, bawdy, inexperienced, and ultimately impotent.

Fascism is as impotent as teenage sexual fantasy ... and intellectually, it is every bit as insubstantial. When the townsfolk go out to watch the passing liner, a triumph of the Fascist state, they are eventually given the spectacle of a huge, two-dimensional image, lit up like a giant Christmas tree. It is obviously fake ... as illusory as the national identity created by the Fascists.

Not Fellini's finest work, but a fascinating series of images which will have a very individual impact. It is a film which benefits from being watched more than once. It may not get under your skin the first time ... but.

Rating:
Summary: Fellini Puts On The Charm!
Review: "Amarcord" is a "plot-less" movie, that goes from one story to another. There brief episodic scenes, that when they're all added up you have a movie that made you laugh, had a little heart, and perhaps maybe made you relive your past as well. In my opinion "Amarcord" is Fellini's most charming film. Even though films like "8 1\2" , "La Strada", and "The White Sheik" are great movies, this one carries something special with it. Nearly everything about this movie is a delight. Fellini's directing is great. The music by Nino Rota has to be my favorite thing about the whole movie! Maybe this sounds odd to some, to actually say you enjoyed the music in a movie more than the movie itself, but, if you've ever seen this movie, you'll understand. The cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno is very good as well. Fellini has been quoted as saying this movie is not autobiographical, but, does relate to some moments in his childhood. Well, whether the movie is or isn't autobiographical it's still a pleasure to watch. The movie for the most part follows Titta (Bruno Zanin) and his family. We see the way his family is, the scene at the dinner table makes me laugh everytime, unfortunately it's like watching my own family, and how sad is that! lol. We see his friends at school, and we even get to hear his confession, which was providing a little bit more information than I really needed to know lol. Look, there's not much more I could add that other's haven't already. If you've never seen a Fellini movie, this would be a good place to start. If your already a Fellini fan, why have you waited to see this? Again, not Fellini's best film, but, his most charming.

Rating:
Summary: Fellini in a nostalgic mood.
Review: "Amarcord" finds Fellini in a nostalgic mood, and attempting to create a highly stylized world (in this case, 1930's Italy), as opposed to his more realistic early films such as "La Strada." Whether this stylization dilutes the overall power of Fellini's film is for each viewer to decide, but it is worth noting that the director would only make two more films of "Amarcord's" quality - "Casanova" and "City of Women" - before directing the less memorable films like "Intervista" and "Voice of the Moon" which ended his career.

Rating:
Summary: Fellini Puts On The Charm!
Review: "Amarcord" is a "plot-less" movie, that goes from one story to another. There brief episodic scenes, that when they're all added up you have a movie that made you laugh, had a little heart, and perhaps maybe made you relive your past as well. In my opinion "Amarcord" is Fellini's most charming film. Even though films like "8 1\2" , "La Strada", and "The White Sheik" are great movies, this one carries something special with it. Nearly everything about this movie is a delight. Fellini's directing is great. The music by Nino Rota has to be my favorite thing about the whole movie! Maybe this sounds odd to some, to actually say you enjoyed the music in a movie more than the movie itself, but, if you've ever seen this movie, you'll understand. The cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno is very good as well. Fellini has been quoted as saying this movie is not autobiographical, but, does relate to some moments in his childhood. Well, whether the movie is or isn't autobiographical it's still a pleasure to watch. The movie for the most part follows Titta (Bruno Zanin) and his family. We see the way his family is, the scene at the dinner table makes me laugh everytime, unfortunately it's like watching my own family, and how sad is that! lol. We see his friends at school, and we even get to hear his confession, which was providing a little bit more information than I really needed to know lol. Look, there's not much more I could add that other's haven't already. If you've never seen a Fellini movie, this would be a good place to start. If your already a Fellini fan, why have you waited to see this? Again, not Fellini's best film, but, his most charming.

Rating:
Summary: Rapturous
Review: A stunning, gorgeous work. The seemingly accidental colliding of scenes, which come and go as memories do, is what makes Fellini's Amarcord (I remember) such a perfect depiction of one's memories of youth. It feels like a collection of moments so bright and vibrant, that it is totally believable that it would be those that the central figure, Titta, would remember. Fellini remembers his own childhood, of course, through Titta in Amarcord, and the help of a lot of fantasy and fiction, which Fellini loves to deploy in order to reach penetrating truth. Rich colours, cinematography, and a beautiful Nino Rota score also help create the dreamlike feel of memory. Fellini had such a sense for movement - both of the camera, and for the arrangement of figures in the frame (also known as mise-en-scene), and though it is nearly impossible to pick a favourite Fellini work, this sense works here just as marvellously and hypnotically as it does in 8 1/2. Amarcord is an enrapturing film - truly a thing to behold

Rating:
Summary: A Gem
Review: A wonderful Fellini film, not just limited to foreign film fans. Amarcord chronicles Fellini's youth in his hometown with the charm, nostalgia, and humor that only Fellini can. Rich with diverse and memorable characters along with a beautiful score by Nino Rota.

Rating:
Summary: Such a nice movie, but Criterion should have done better...
Review: Amarcord (I remember) is also a love song ro Rimini, Fellini's home town in the "Riviera Romagnola" in Italy. It's a delightful movie made of small stories, small vignettes somehow tied together by the often comical but sometimes sad vicissitudes of one family, and especially of one joung boy. As many point out, this is not one of Fellini's best movies, but Fellini is so great that Amarcord is still way way better than most other directors can produce at their best. There are many characters, here, that you will not forget. Gradisca (whose name would sound a bit like "please have some", and the story will tell you why), the woman that all males in town desire. Volpina ("little fox"), a half-mad nimphomaniac that spends most of her time looking for a man of any age. The huge "Tabaccaia" (the woman that sells cigarette). The old old mason who has worked all his life building houses but doesn't have his own, and invents little poems ("my granny built houses, my father built houses, I build houses, but where's my house?" is his latest creation. But you should speak Italian to really appreciate how funny the poem is).
Some sequences, though, really are Fellini at his best: like the arrival of the "Rex" at sea, or when the old granfather get lost in the thick fog, just to discover that he is still in front of his house.
This may not be a masterpiece, but it's a beautiful movie full of nostalgia for a time long lost, a time beautiful more because it represents the director's youth than for what it really represented (fascism was rampant then, and surely not to be missed by Fellini later).
If I have a problem with this movie... it's the DVD that Criterion produced. Image and sound are excellent, but there are virtually NO extra materials. Not a commentary, not an interview. This is a real pity, as so much could be said on any of Fellini's movies. For the same price you can buy a two-disc edition of La Strada, or La Dolce Vita, or 8 1/2, and each one of these DVD's will give you an eternal masterpiece and plenty of extra material of *outstanding* quality.
So, the movie is beautiful, but Criterion really should have done better, here.

Rating:
Summary: Amarcord
Review: An amazing movie. All members of my family are "addicted" to this Felini's masterpiece. Even more, I've bought this video several times and gave it as a prezent to my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: Brilliant. I especialy like the bit where he will only fly Qantas. A superb film with enough automotive subtext and backstory to keep even the car-craziest folks entertained.

Rating:
Summary: overrated italian fragmentation
Review: Call it what you like, but this movie is not the "slice of life" that many will attempt to push down your gullett. You have to dig deeply into your imagination to pretend to gain a semblance of significance while watching this one. If you want a storyline, or even a story with a purpose, forget it. If you want something Italian worth watching, go with Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, or The Bicycle Thief. All of these are great movies, Amarcord is not.