Movie Info
Movie Name: Amarcord
Studio: F.C. Produzioni
Genre(s): Comedy/Drama
Release Date(s): December 18, 1973 (Italy)/September 19, 1974 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
They’re all looking at Red Ryder BB guns
Spring has come to the Italian seaside town of Borgo San Giuliano in the 1930s, and the puffballs are flying. Titta (Bruno Zanin) is going to have a big year. Titta’s father Aurelio (Armando Brancia) is frustrated with him while his mother Miranda (Pupella Maggio) is understanding. The town of Borgo San Giuliano is full of characters: promiscuous women, patriots, fascists, and everyday people. Titta and his lusty friends dream of sex and goofy off…life will change for Titta as the year passes and the puffballs fly again.
Written and directed by Federico Fellini, Amarcord is a comedy-drama. Following Fellini’s Roma in 1972, the film was released to positive reviews and is widely considered one of Fellini’s best films. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film with nomination for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The Criterion Collection released a remastered version of the film (Criterion #4).
Mussolini will save us all!
Amarcord is the phonetic translation of Mi ricordo (I remember) and the movie is a semi-autobiographical story of events in Fellini’s childhood. Fellini takes a lot of work. It isn’t a movie you can watch once and say “I get it”. Amarcord represents both a fond memory of childhood and a scathing commentary on it.
The movie has the undercurrent of fascism which does actually present itself in the film. Italy is changing and the people of Italy are changing like the town. While Titta and his friends are kids goofing off, the rest of the film shows a kind of breakdown of the society. Like the kids, the people of the town are pretty juvenile and driven by lust but there is a divide between the younger characters and the older characters. The juvenile behavior interrupts all aspects of life which keeps the over intellectual aspect of the film in check.
The movie is largely an ensemble cast with Bruno Zanin at the center. The cast is perfect and is both absurd but realistic. Everyone feels like an extreme of all characters. You have a nymphomaniac that is trash and a nymphomaniac that is admired. You have intellectuals and you have goofballs. The cast gets all of this.
Smooth, Titta
The movie looks great like most of Fellini’s work. The great seaside location and the sets in the film are fantastic. The movie has a lot of style and visuals. The people who live in the town feel real and rich and present an Italy that isn’t Rome or the islands.
Amarcord is a movie to watch over and over. You can develop your own feel for the film and your own theories of what Fellini is saying about the people in the movie. Knowing some of Italy’s past (which I admittedly know little of) is beneficial to understanding aspects of the film. Amarcord is a great experience. Fellini followed Amarcord with Fellini’s Casanova in 1976.
