Fellini's Roma
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Movie Reviews of Fellini's Roma
Movie Review: Bravo, Maestro!,
Summary: 4 Stars
Beautiful and colorful Fellini's Roma (1972) is a very enjoyable film with a subtle message and a lot of heart. The magnificent Eternal City, one of the most famous cities in the world is deservingly the main character of this very personal for its creator, Maestro Fellini, film that can be described as a montage of unrelated scenes.
"Roma" consists of three parts. In the beginning, young Federico, the student in his native Rimini, learns about Rome from movies, plays, works of art, and from school history lessons. Then, as a young man, he arrives to Eternal City, strange, loud, and confusing on the outbreak of World War II. The third part takes us to the beginning of 70th when Fellini, the famous master is creating a visually unforgettable, full of life and history portrait of Rome consisting of several vignettes that take us back and forth in time and director's memory.
I think the reason I enjoyed "Roma" is that its vignettes have so much heart and love, irony , and interest to the master's favorite city, its past and present, to its streets, palaces, and cathedrals, and to its people, their laughs, smiles, and tears. Some of the stories are amusing (variety show, first Federico's dinner in one of the outside restaurants where everybody knows everybody) while some are very emotional.
A powerful scene takes place in an underground tunnel where subway construction workers discovered an ancient palace filled with beautiful frescoes of Ancint Rome period that later slowly fade out and disappear before our eyes taking with them a mystery of times long gone.
I loved the fashion show of nuns and priests; I liked the sequence with the prostitutes on display - both are typical Fellini's surreal scenes, funny and sad in the same time.
"Roma" is one of the best documentary style movies that I have seen. The main character in all its stories is Rome and that's the only character we need here.
Gracie Federico!
4.5/5
Movie Review: A dreamy Fellini journey
Summary: 4 Stars
Fellini's Roma is a delight for the senses. You do have to throw out your ideas of a conventional narrative, as the vignettes seems to go in a completely random order. Some ideas come back (the bordello, the outdoor restaurants, the apartment living), but they do change every time. Like a dream, or a David Lynch film (it looks like both Lynch and David Byrne watched this film about a million times before Lynch did Lost Highway or Byrne did True Stories), there is a hazy surrealism to the film. The colors and stories are interesting and exciting and the transformations that take place within them (the ride around Rome "like the ring around Saturn" turns from interesting (having never been there) to boring (you keep moving and moving and moving) to tragic, all in a few minutes) are all fascinating. Favorite vignettes include the subway ride to frescos and the old woman and cronies to the fashion show (yes, another thing Byrne stole, as he did the talent show). Is this the "real" Rome? Not a chance, but it does keep you occupied during the two hours. Gore Vidal makes a "end of the world" cameo, which is a strange touch, but fits in with the film. This is definitely a film which needs to be seen more than once, and does fit in with other Fellini films, everything from Satyricon (the same loopy lack of narrative structure) to City of Women (everything from the fabulous bordello scenes to the boxing match). This is not the best Fellini (the two aforementioned films and 8 1/2 (release it on dvd dammit) and And the Ship Sailed On), but it is an interesting journey. Hippies and the colleseum are well worth the time. Four stars out of a possible five from me.
Movie Review: Rome out of a dream
Summary: 4 Stars
First, the worst. The sound is HORRIBLE. Not because of any master-to-DVD transfer problems but because all the sound was post-synchronized in the original production. This means that the dialog seldom lines up with the actor(s) and it always has an ambience that has nothing to do with the scene. That was a very common characteristic of Italian movies at that time. As annoying as the sound is, so are the visuals fascinating. Very few directors have the imagination that Fellini had and there are many scenes which convey his trademark sense of absurdity and surrealism. And probably no other director ever combined satire with a love of his subjects so powerfully.
If you buy this DVD because you remembered the movie fondly from 25 or 30 years ago, be warned that it often comes across as very dated. But the beauty of "Roma" is that you can jump around without disturbing any continuity because it's really a collection of (long) vignettes. And most likely some of them will be better remembered than others.
If you love Fellini's work, none of what you see will surprise you. If you're not familiar with it, this is as exemplary of Fellini's work as you can get and you'll soon realize that no one makes movies like this anymore.
Movie Review: Hard to appreciate
Summary: 4 Stars
Roma is a film about Rome by one of the most revered film directors who ever lived - Fellini. As a piece of simple cinema entertainment this has little to offer; there is no plot and no characterisation, which makes it tough going if you are used to traditional Hollywood films. To have some understanding of the history of Rome will certainly help, but even then you may find this difficult to take. Where the film succeeds is Fellini's amazing direction and stunning use of images and colours. If you approach this film like you would a brilliant painting then it begins to make sense. However two hours is a long time to stare at a brilliant painting!
My initial reaction is perhaps a little negative compared with previous reviewers, however, I suspect that this is a film that will improve with repeated viewings. Nevertheless if you mainly watch mainstream movies I'd advise caution before buying - rent it or watch it on TV first.
Movie Review: Visual Feast from the Maestro
Summary: 4 Stars
Originally made for TV, Roma is a classic in the later Fellini style. Interspersed with typically hilarious autobiographical remembrances of the city, the maestro captures the incongruity of modern Italian society's imposition upon the historic significance (both ancient and 20th century wartime) of Rome. Worth catching is the cameo of the iconoclastic young Gore Vidal near the conclusion of the film.