Fellini gives us a series of memories, fantasies, and dreams in the vignettes which make up his semi-autobiographical film 'Amarcord' ('I Remember'). The message which comes through is loving, and about the gaiety of life, embracing its madcap characters and moments - moments which will someday live in our memories, hazy though they grow, as little diamonds of light. I loved the scenes satirizing the Fascists and the Catholic Church, and they're all the more powerful in this context, where they are reduced in significance, and just another zany thing Italians dealt with (or deal with) in life. The film doesn't strike any major philosophical chords, briefly coming close as men peer up into the heavens, but the lines uttered as a poem by a construction worker are powerful ("My grandfather made bricks / My father made bricks / I make bricks, too / but where's my house?"). I may be in the minority here, but the film didn't strike me as particularly beautiful, though it was a pleasure to see Magali Noël (Rififi, La Dolce Vita, and many others). It held my interest, but lacked a big punch, even in its sentimentality, though I was always pulling for it, and loved the many references to Hollywood actors from the 1930's. Unfortunately, there is not enough depth here to consider it a great film, and Fellini too often indulged in caricatures and juvenile humor. Net, a mixed bag.

It's 1930s Fascist Italy. The movie follows the odd quirky villagers of a seaside town. The fascist local government takes control of the eager villagers with comical ridiculousness. The village is obsessed with sex which the Catholic Church tries to suppress.There are some great memorable characters and memorable scenes. The one missing thing is a good compelling lead character. Titta needs to have more scenes as the lead and he needs to be played by a charismatic actor. The vignettes start to get scattered without that central cohesive glue. Some are more surreal than other. The harem in the hotel goes a bit over the top. Otherwise I really like the quirkiness.

A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.Vincent Canby lauded it as possibly "Fellini's most marvelous film... an extravagantly funny, sometimes dreamlike evocation of a year in the life of a small Italian coastal town in the 1930s, not as it literally was, but as it is recalled by a director with access to the resources of the Italian film industry and a piper's command over our imaginations. When Fellini is working in peak condition, as he is in Amarcord, he somehow brings out the best in us. We become more humane, less stuffy, more appreciative of the profound importance of attitudes that in other circumstances would seem merely eccentric if not lunatic." Canby is spot on. Although I have not seen everything Fellini has done, this film jumps out for me as his best work. The giant Mussolini head, the blend of comedy and tragedy... it is just so full of moving imagery. I would be shocked if any of his films surpassed this level of brilliance.

Federico Fellini's 'Amarcord' is a chaotic, grotesque yet sentimental portrayal of an Italian childhood maybe not so different from the director's own. It entertains some Italian clichés (in a way that only an Italian could get away with), makes some serious points about the awfulness of fascism, and plays with the contrast between the eternal notion of "la dolce vita" with the reality of life in a poor, rural town in the years between the wars. It's fun but light; a lot of the humour is really very broad. I enjoyed it, but as my introduction to such a renowned cinematiste as Fellini, it didn't quite explain his illustrious reputation.