dir: Federico Fellini
Il Duce speaks! A giant cray paper circle constructed into the face of Mussolini conducts a wedding ceremony between two junior high students during a dust storm. This is only one of the many marvels that director Federico Fellini has in store for the viewer yet to see AMARCORD.
The greatest love affair ever portrayed on screen is not between Bergman and Bogart in CASABLANCA or Leigh and Gable in GONE WITH THE WIND. The greatest love affair ever put on screen is between director Federico Fellini and his hometown. AMARCORD serves as the backdrop.
From Fascists to crazy teachers. From a bored confession hearing priest to a man scaring nymphomaniac. From young boys discovering the joys of masturbation to a boy’s first, impossible love for an star-studded older woman. From 30 dancing harem wives to a crazy uncle in a giant tree. From infatuation to marriage. From spring to spring. From year to year. Fellini remembers his younger days in a small Italian village. AMARCORD (I REMEMBER) is a love poem in the form of one nostalgic year from the director’s youth. It is also the best film Fellini ever made.
AMARCORD is told in twenty segments starting with the oncoming of Spring. Festival is in the air. A crowd gathers in the town square for the annual ceremonial burning of the snow witch (an baroque looking statue). The burning symbolizes the change coming. This will be a year for change for many characters, and yet, nothing changes. At the film’s end spring will have returned. The village remains nearly the same.
The main focus is a young boy of about thirteen named Titta Biondi (Bruno Zanin) and those around him. Titta’s put upon mother (Pupella Maggio) who plays comforter, nurse maid, and voice of reason for the house hold. Aurelio (Armando Brancia), Titta’s father, pretends to be a no-nose everyman but secretly is a trixter and anti-Fascist (at a time when to be so is very dangerous). Gradisca (Magali Noel) is the sexy, upper-middle class, eligible town favorite who is the first crush for young Titta. Tea, the mental hospital residing uncle (Ciccio Ingrassia), and all of Titta’s junior high age friends help to fill Fellini’s human canvas. The structure is loose. Although Titta is clearly the main human focus, the real star is the town. Titta is just the object of focus to give the film its structure. Fellini is not concerned with abandoning Titta when he wishes to show the viewer something else (like say 30 dancing harem girls). AMARCORD is a film novel told in chapters. Each chapter supporting the whole, which is the town. My personal favorite chapters: Spring on-coming, going to confession, Mussolini paying a visit, the History of the Grand Hotel, an all day (and night) boat tour, a foggy day, Titta buying a cigarette, the snowfall (people missing each other by seemingly fate), the snowball fight, and lastly, the spring wedding.
Love. That is the key word to describing AMARCORD. At his best Fellini remains unsurpassed by any other film director at portraying the festive quality of life on screen. Brilliantly sad, hilariously funny, and always endearing, AMARCORD bubbles over with contagious glee. Every frame is like a kiss from a beautiful, exotic lover. Never before has a filmmaker so seemed to love his subject matter. A giant smile enters the viewer’s face after five minutes. More than two hours later, the smile still resides. One leaves the film feeling more optimistic about life and cinema. AMARCORD is one of the best, and most personal, films ever made. The viewer ends feeling as nostalgic about this town as does the filmmaker and all we have ever seen is two brief hours of it. Greatness.