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Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Magali Noël, Ciccio Ingrassia ... see more see more... , Nando Orfei , Luigi Rossi , Ferruccio Brembilla , Gianfilipo Carcano , Giuseppe Ianigro , Mario Liberati , Franco Magno , Marco Misul , Gennaro Ombra , Domenico Pertica , Josiane Tanzilli , Alvaro Vitali , Fernando Vona , Maria Antonietta Beluzzi , Gianfilippo Carcano

Federico Fellini's warmly nostalgic memory piece examines daily life in the Italian village of Rimini during the reign of Mussolini, and won the 1974 Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. The film's gre... read more read more...atest asset is its ability to be sweet without being cloying, due in great part to Danilo Donati's surrealistic art direction and to the frequently bawdy injections of sex and politics by screenwriters Fellini and Tonino Guerra. Fellini clearly has deep affection for the people of this seaside village, warts and all, and communicates it through episodic visual anecdotes which are seen as if through the mists of a favorite dream, playfully scored by Nino Rota and lovingly photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

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90% liked it

17,024 ratings

Critics

90% liked it

42 critics

R, 2 hr. 5 min.

Directed by: Federico Fellini

Release Date: February 13, 2009

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DVD Release Date: April 3, 1998

Stats: 875 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (875)

  • FilmFanatik
    November 13, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    I admit I've never been a huge Fellini fan, but I found Amarcord to be quite engaging. If anything, it's a portrait of humanity at its most interesting. The movie is funny, strange and surreal, but all at the same time being grounded in the reality of the story. The only minor pr... read moreoblem that I had with it is its leisurely pace during portions of the film when you just want to move on to the next adventure. I may be alone in that, but I felt it watching it. Otherwise, the film is a wonderful look at growing up in Italy through the eyes of Frederico Fellini.
  • fb1216165431
    September 10, 2011
    fb1216165431
    An unorthodox semi-autobiography of director Federico Fellini, 1930's Italy, Amarcord is a vivid and ill-tempered mock of the personal youth of the director-author enriched by adolescent desires and social-political subtexts. Bellissima!
  • axadntpron
    February 9, 2011
    axadntpron
    As you watch the film, you can tell you are on an incredibly personal journey. Fellini displays the delinquency of youth put against the backdrop of a land with such rich history. All within the context of Fascist rule in Italy. I didn't know Fellini had such a great sense of humor.
  • hunterjt13
    January 11, 2011
    hunterjt13
    Dear Federico Fellini:

    I just watched Amarcord, and I'm left wondering: if this was what your youth was like, why am I not more famous? After all, most of the film is spent on the "you" character chasing tail, getting into trouble, listening to "your" parents yell, pissi... read moreng on the classroom floor, and not really doing much of anything. Your youth was more wasted than Lindsay Lohan on New Years. I understand that this film is a love letter to the town more than a chronicle of your youth, but once you put this film out there for the public, aren't you supposed to elevate the particular to the universal?

    What I really want to know is why does everybody like you? I mean Woody Allen thinks you're amazing; Roger Ebert would let you skull fuck him. But I've watched two of your critically acclaimed films - movies that everybody said were good - and I still can't understand the attraction. What is it about you that people like so much? I'm genuinely curious.

    I read other reviews of Amarcord, and they said it was a comedy. I was shocked. The guy in the tree screaming "I want a woman" was funny? The fart jokes were material for a film auteur? I'm confused, man.

    In the end, what I really want is this: I know you're dead and all that, but if you could make a re-appearance and explain the attraction, I would really appreciate it. Or - and this would make me really happy - could you possibly tell us that your entire canon was a massive practical joke? Basically state that you were drunk most of the time and just threw shit at the wall - wrote the dialogue on the way to the set - and that you were as surprised as anyone when you got awards. I know your busy in the afterlife taking a harp lesson or fucking Marilyn Monroe, but I'm feeling like I'm missing out on something when I watch your movies, and I really want to know what it is.

    Thanks,
    Jim
  • SirPant
    May 10, 2010
    SirPant
    Many would suggest that Amarcord is now a little dated, maybe it is but what a time. This film is hilarious and riddled with classic funny scenes that you've just got to love. Fellini's childhood, warts and all, are remembered here, all fondly, no matter what regret or want to fo... read morerget exist. It is a magical window into the life of a colourful village set in the 1930's, with all walks of life, emotion and personal issues covered. The scenes on Fascism are piratically poignant and all though it can seem a little 'Carry on' at times, there is nothing I can say I dislike about it, quite the opposite in fact.
  • RossCollinsUK
    October 16, 2008
    RossCollinsUK
    Seminal comedy of 30s life in a small Italian town. As a Brit the caricatures remind me of the "Carry On" series, "Carry on Mussolini" perhaps, but I can see why the Mediterranean types like it so much. "Voglio una donnaaaa!"
  • pier007
    August 14, 2007
    pier007
    Fellini re visits his home town and the peculiar people living there. a magical and hilarious stay, an everlasting "festa per la dolce vita"
  • drago25
    April 29, 2007
    drago25
    Everything I have seen by Federico Fellini thus far I have found immensely enjoyable - and this is no different. Amarcord is apparently a mosaic of Fellini's childhood in the Italian town of Rimini during the 1930's (during Italian Fascism, which plays a role in the film) - it do... read moreesn't really have a plot, it's just a series of events in a very vibrant and rich Italian town, as we take a look at the various families and characters that inhabit it, and it really is wonderful. Fellini's mastery in direction and storytelling is in full force here, the film appears utterly authentic and contains a lot of great light hearted humour I've come to expect in his films. I really loved the technique he used of ending each scene in an incomplete rather than complete fade (the screen doesn't fully fade to black before the next scene), which also gives it a cool, episodic feel. Beautifully nostalgic, and full of many truly amazing shots that are nearly unforgettable. While it's true that perhaps this film in scope is rather limited, and doesn't propose to raise itself towards some ultimate theme, as it is obviously a very personal work on Fellini's part - I still found it to be totally endearing, and pretty much on par with the rest of what I've seen from this legendary filmmaker. I think this film would be a good introduction to Fellini somehow, as it's definitely an accessible film, so if you don't know his work and want to, check this out. Do it either way, it's a great piece of work.
  • binky013
    April 23, 2007
    binky013
    Fellini, more than many filmmakers, takes the idea of "moving pictures" to heart when he shoots his projects. The idea of the photo album put on film is no more prominent in any of his work that I've seen than it is in Amarcord. It is as if a family photo album has been... read more recovered after a long rest in some darkly obscure attic trunk. Brought to light after many years, it is lovingly updated for present viewing.

    Fellini is a collector. He is an especially avid collector of faces. There are still the grotesques and the carnival atmosphere runs through the background, but all of his photo mementos, despite their warts, are warmly portrayed. His mind, like that photo album -- or perhaps a scrapbook -- recalls and weaves together reality and fantasy, memory and dream, and it is this kind of episodically flashing eclecticism and fluid portrayal that gives his best known works a kind of surreal quality of still photographs come to life.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    February 28, 2007
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Fellini's Best!

View All Amarcord Reviews

Critic Reviews

Wesley Morris
December 22, 2009
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Continues to resemble something a lewd, grouchy, fitfully indecent silent-movie director might have made for his first time using color and sound. That, at least, would explain the shouting. Full Review

Jay Cocks
April 27, 2009
Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine

Fellini is so bountiful with incident and observation that he makes most other film makers seem stingy. Full Review

Colin Covert
March 27, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Federico Fellini's films beg to be seen on a movie screen. Their panoramic, overstuffed frames and larger-than-life characters overflow the boundaries of home theater; their exuberant, generous humor ... Full Review

Philip Kennicott
March 13, 2009
Philip Kennicott, Washington Post

Orthodox Fellini lovers will give primacy to La Strada or La Dolce Vita, but Amarcord has its fans, and it's easy to see why. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
February 13, 2009
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

He [Director Fellini] leaves us with the hope that the human comedy just may be able to survive everything. Full Review

Variety Staff
December 3, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

This Fellini opus is his most accessible to mass audiences since La Dolce Vita. Full Review

Dave Kehr
December 3, 2008
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Uneven, loosely structured, and at times pretty vulgar as well as sentimental, but with some touching and lovely episodes. Full Review

Lance Goldenberg
December 3, 2008
Lance Goldenberg, Village Voice

What positions the film among Fellini's greatest are its punctuation points of mysterious beauty. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 15, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A totally accessible film. It deals directly, hilariously, and sometimes poignantly with the good people of this small town. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

When Mr. Fellini is working in peak condition, as he is in Amarcord, he somehow brings out the best in us. Full Review

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Amarcord Trivia

  • Fellini film with the Italian title that means "I remember"?  Answer »
  • What director links the movies "Amarcord", "The Nights of Cabiria", "La Dolce Vita", and "8½"?  Answer »
  • Woody Allen's "Radio Days" was partly inspired by which Fellini film?  Answer »
  • Which movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974?  Answer »
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