Described at the time of its release as his ‘autobiographical strip-tease’, Federico Fellini’s 14½ - Amarcord (1973) - is a bittersweet, wonderfully inventive evocation of the director’s childhood in the provinces of Emilia Romagna in the 1930s.
Although the film was co-written with prominent screenwriter (and fellow romagnolo) Tonino Guerra - who also worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on his masterful tetralogy from L’Avventura (1959) to Deserto Rosso (1964) - Amarcord is a deeply personal film with which Fellini revisits, and attempts to reconcile with, not only his own past but also that of the entire nation during the fascist years.
Within this broad framework, Fellini’s mischievous gaze is given free rein to explore a community in all its burlesque vitality. Populated with over fifty characters ranging from flatulent adolescents to buxom shopkeepers, neurotic schoolteachers to mad uncles, Amarcord eschews detailed character study in favour of a broad, colourful panorama wrapped up by the stunning set and costume designs of Danilo Donati.
From his earliest works – such as La Strada (1952) or I Vitelloni (1953) - Fellini has always proved to be a masterful orchestrator of complex set-pieces and, in Amarcord, whether it is the confined space of a family kitchen or a snow covered piazza, the director allows his characters to freely connect with and/or react to their surroundings, even if it involves climbing a tree and demanding to be sent a woman (in the case of the young protagonist’s Uncle Teo).
Ultimately, the strip-tease analogy is perhaps not as facile as it may seem, especially given the importance (and interaction) of both sexuality and musicality in the film. Absolutely vital to the fabric of Amarcord is the evocative, dream-like score by Nino Rota (Fellini’s collaborator on over a dozen films) which is used as both diegetic and non-diegetic accompaniment to the images. Indeed, so important is music to the film’s structure, several scenes appear to be actively driven by Rota’s score - undoubtedly one of his finest.
A vibrant, mischievous and magical film full of strange and beautiful images, Fellini’s ‘autobiographical striptease’ shows his home town of Rimini as he remembers it in the 1930s.
The Leopard 
MovieMail Latest
The Digital Edition of our December Film Catalogue is out now!
RSS Feeds | MovieMail Podcasts | December Film Catalogue | Subscribe to our email newsletter!
Amarcord 
