Film Review: Amarcord (1973)

According to Hollywood films made in the last few decades, life in a small town is one of the worst things that could happen to a human being. An even worse fate awaits those who were unfortunate enough to grow up in those dark, God‑forsaken places and are later forced to live forever traumatised by the experience. On the other hand, it seems that something more than the Atlantic Ocean divides Europe from America, because one of the most popular and beloved European films takes exactly the opposite view. This film is Amarcord , the 1973 comedy by famous Italian director Federico Fellini, which later inspired numerous imitations and homages, and even led a few American screen artists to adopt its heretical views about the benefits of small‑town life.

The film is based on a screenplay by Fellini and Tonino Guerra and it lacks a conventional plot. Instead, we follow one year in a 1930s Italian summer‑resort town, Rimini, through a series of short vignettes that depict various local events and customs, as well as a series of local, often very colourful characters. Although many of those characters occasionally take the role of narrator, the film concentrates on its nominal protagonist, the 14‑year‑old boy Titta played by Bruno Zanin , and chronicles his sexual frustrations, obsession with the local beauty queen named Gradisca played by Magali Noël , problems in his lovingly dysfunctional family, as well as the troubles his father played by Armando Brancia has with Mussolini’s fascist regime.

Amarcord is often noted as the ultimate nostalgia film, and that probably explains why it is very popular, even among those people who do not actually like Federico Fellini’s work very much. Every member of its potential audience would find part of himself or herself in this film, because Fellini here clearly illustrates the natural human desire to paint the past in the best possible light. The distortion between the actual past and its subjective interpretation can be found even in the title of the film – the word “Amarcord” is nothing more than a badly‑pronounced phrase “I remember” in a local Italian dialect. In the same way the word is distorted, so is the past in the memories of those who remember it. After the premiere, Fellini rejected any claims about the autobiographical character of this film, but it does not matter whether the Rimini of Amarcord actually resembles the Rimini…

Fellini’s views on nostalgia are clearly illustrated by the way he mixes reality and fantasy in this film. Even the most naturalistic scenes are laced with dark humour and grotesque images. Characters look like caricatures, actors playing them often deliberately overact, and women, especially those who fuel Titta’s sexual fantasies, often have certain body parts of gargantuan proportions. Every now and then, scenes that depict 1930s reality gradually slide into the fantasies of the film’s characters, and Rimini becomes almost indistinguishable from the magical place in the characters’ visions. Because of that, almost everything in this film looks different, and in most cases better, than it would have looked in real life. Even Fascism gets a Fellinian make‑over – Fellini views Mussolini’s totalitarian regime as nothing more than a visual spectacle explaining why similar regimes enjoyed…

Unlike many of his Italian colleagues in the 1970s, who used a 1930s period setting to explicitly condemn Fascism and serve a fashionable political agenda, Fellini does not care that much about politics. The lack of a self‑righteous moral perspective is compensated by Fellini’s humanistic approach to his characters. Each of them, regardless of age, gender, social class or physical appearance, is given the opportunity to express his or her views, dreams and fears. Fellini treats all those characters with warmth and affection, even when he paints them as grotesque caricatures of real people. Because of this warmth and democratic spirit, Amarcord could be viewed as one of the most humane films of the 20th Century, and it keeps its general feel‑good atmosphere despite depicting many uncomfortable, melancholic and even tragic moments.

Fellini could not produce such effects without using his own directorial talent, which gave a very personal touch to this film. The vignettes are not memorable only because of the characters; Fellini uses the camera, painting the film in bright colours, especially in the scenes that depict a character’s fantasies. Fellini also knows how to use locations, whether such a location happens to be a luxurious hotel, a bright‑coloured beach or the rural countryside. Even the down‑to‑earth streets of Rimini, where everyone knows everyone, gain a magical dimension during a snowfall. On the other hand, the lack of credible special effects somewhat diminished the same effect during the ocean‑liner scene. This atmosphere is also provided by the incredible talent of composer and Fellini’s long‑time associate Nino Rota. His Amarcord theme is probably one of the most recognisable, most popular and mos…

RATING: 9/10 ++++

Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 23rd 2000

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