Amarcord



""Fellini brought to maturity this conviction. That in order to extract profound truth from the reality of the phenomenal world that appears before us, you must reinvent that reality""

- Vittorio Boarini, Director of the Fellini Foundation

How does one go about describing such a movie? This is surely among Federico Fellini's best movies, exquisitely filmed and with a haunting soundtrack (by Nino Rota) that might follow you for the rest of your life. It is also a movie so fantastically nostalgic, filled with wondrous, larger-than-life characters, with an almost universal appeal. It's probably one of those movies that's best experienced.

The plot itself is largely autobiographical, from Fellini's own memories as a child, and can be said to consist the story of that an small Italian town of Borgo during the Mussolini dictatorship. It mostly focuses on a 'typical' Italian family and their numerous mishaps, but there are many, many side-characters and side-stories...

It was widely praised at the time of its release, being exceptionally well received by critics (some even calling it a instant classic) and winning the Oscar for best foreign language film. To this day it tends to appear in 'best of all time' lists, with merit.


 * Big Beautiful Woman: The tobacconist.
 * Black Shirt: The originals.
 * Blind Musician: The accordionist.
 * Book Ends: The "puffballs" (floating seed pods) that serve as the first sign of spring.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Constantly.
 * Burn the Witch
 * Coming of Age Story
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Four of the kids combine it with Auto Erotica.
 * Dirty Old Man
 * Dumb Blonde: Volpina.
 * Fascist Italy: One of the most poignant examples.
 * Huge Holographic Head: Though it’s not holographic, but made of flowers. And it’s Mussolini’s.
 * Marshmallow Hell
 * Nuns Are Spooky: A dwarf nun at that!
 * Post Modernism
 * Quirky Town
 * Slice of Life
 * Urine Trouble: In the middle of a class, done by some kid, in a very ingenious way.
 * Working Class People Are Morons: Seriously; almost all the town is showed as a bunch of ignorant buffoons. As an ingenious Take That, one woman proudly declares that almost all the town is a member of the Fascist Party. Think about it.