| | | A film by Federico Fellini.
Features: DVD
"In his carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Federico Fellini satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political repartee, all set to Nino Rota's classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award-winning Amarcord was one of Fellini's most popular films and remains one of cinema's enduring treasures."
"One of Fellini's wisest, warmest and most wounderful films." Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal
"...Fellini's last great work..." Steve Rose, The Guardian
""One of Fellini's wisest, warmest and most wounderful films."" "Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal"
"...Fellini's last great work..." "Steve Rose, The Guardian"
Editor's Note
Federico Fellini's AMARCORD, an acclaimed semiautobiographical episodic drama, examines life in a small Adriatic village just before Mussolini's reign in the 1930s. As the weather changes and spring arrives, the village holds a festival in which it burns a symbolic bonfire and celebrates new life. This gathering in the central square is the first of many others throughout the film. Each time the community assembles, its colorful members show themselves in full force, boasting their bizarre, disjointed personalities--and pure mischief is the result. Several of the village ladies wear their eyebrows penciled on in high, provocative arches, a style that seethes sex and drama, coaxing the camera to follow them. The film takes on a circusy, chaotic tone, making it difficult to see a clear plot structure; AMARCORD instead breaks up into several memorably surreal sequences, a few of which follow a young man named Titta (Bruno Zanin) who wanders in and out of the animated provincial landscape, meeting assorted crazy characters and obsessing over sex. The beautiful clashes with the grotesque and politics and family matters blend together while sex is offset by violence in the inimitable style of Italy's late master of cinema, whose tour de force won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Plot Summary
Fellini's sentimental yet scathing look at a small town near Rome during the prewar years. Told in several recurring episodes, the story features a teenage boy (who represent the director himself), his parents, his lascivious grandfather, a dizzy hairdresser in search of her "Gary Cooper," a mad uncle who straddles a tree demanding sex, and other colorful, odd characters. With the nostalgic tone of one's memories, the film stresses a series of episodes over a strict plot structure, and is masterfully handled by the flamboyant director. The film won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
| Features | Audio: Italian, English Dolby Digital 1.0 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scenes | | Dubbed: English | | Featurette | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Trailers |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Image |
| Release Date: 9/5/2006 |
| Running Time: 123 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1974 | | Catalog ID: 1632 | | UPC: 00715515018227 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Italian | | Available Audio Tracks: Italian | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (1976) | | | Oscar, Federico Fellini, Best Director | | | Oscar, Federico Fellini, et. al., Best Writing, Original Screenplay | |
Nominee (1975) | | | Golden Globe, Amarcord, Best Foreign Film | |
Winner (1975) | | | Oscar, Amarcord, Best Foreign Language Film Italy |
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...Fellini catches us by attacking where he is strongest, at gut-level..." 09/01/1974 p.244-5USA Today
"...A Fellini masterwork to rank along with 8 1/2 and I VITELLONI..." -- 4 out of 4 stars 09/01/1995 p.12D Chicago Sun-Times
"If ever there was a movie made entirely out of nostalgia and joy, by a filmmaker at the heedless height of his powers, that movie is Federico Fellini's AMARCORD." 01/04/2004 p.3 Uncut
"[Fellini's] unique, untethered imagination bleeds into every frame..." 10/01/2004 p.156 Los Angeles Times
"AMARCORD unfolds as a pageant, a fresco, in the splendid Fellini tradition that embraces the fantastic, the hilarious, the grotesque and the unexpectedly beautiful." 02/13/2009 Washington Post
"[A] 1973 color classic, which mostly abandons plot for a series of wild but often touching vignettes exploring the foibles, characters and cruelties of small-time life during the fascist years in Italy." 03/13/2009 Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
"The movie is filled with moments like that, and they're just right. But then there are moments of inexplicable, almost mystical beauty, as when the dandelion seeds drift in on the wind, or when an old lady sweeps up the ashes of the bonfire, or when a peacock spreads its tail feathers in the snow." - Roger Ebert
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