WillTravel

I just watched Fellini's Roma this weekend.
It *was* interesting, but of course made little sense. Is this supposed to be some sort of experimental Latin American magic realism/surrealism of the sort that I would associate with Garcia Marquez?

An Amazon link should anyone care to learn more:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l/-/B000059H9B

Is the ecclesiastical fashion show a real event?

degas

WillTravel, you must really be going through a rough patch. First you let some boob steal your nickname and now you waste your time with a crazy movie.

WillTravel

Degas, I wasn't about to allow my $3.49 DVD rental fee to be wasted. I did fast-forward through a bit of it, though.

cigalechanta

I happen to like this film. Here's a review for those not familiar with his work.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/conten...1/19/roma.html

WillTravel

I did enjoy a lot of it. For example, the Italian momma's boy scene was very funny, and many other scenes too for that matter. It would be interesting to see what Fellini could do with an update to 2004 (movie is from 1972).

degas

I hear you - thankfully Blockbuster and netflicks are engaging in a price war. I let them mail them to me plus get two free movie coupons a month. Takes the sting out of the loser movies that get every now and then.

111op

Don't know this one.

Have you seen other Fellini movies? I've seen "La Strada," "8 1/2" and "La Dolce Vita." His movies tend to be pretty outlandish. An especially outlandish one is "Satyricon," I believe, which I've not seen. Stylistically, I think that he's changed a great deal. "La Strada," made in the 1950s, was probably more akin to an Italian neorealist movie.

Anyway, I can't really say that I really appreciate Fellini. I've not been eager to explore the rest of his oeuvre.

For movies influenced by surrealism, you'll do very well by doing back to the Dali/Bunuel collaboration from 1929 called "Un Chien Andalou." It's a silent classic that gets replayed over and over. The opening scene is a classic. Bunuel's films are also a bit strange ("Belle de Jour," "Viridiana," etc.).

Also a silent German classic called "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" sets the standard as well.

SeaUrchin

I am a Fellini Fan and I have been for years. My favorites are 8 1/2 and Juliette of the Spirits although I just bought the DVD of La Dolce Vita and I am warming up to it, too, after not seeing it for years. I love the scene in the nightclub where Anita Eckberg and "Frankie" lead the dance line, she was so beautiful and at the top of her game. And of course the classic scene of Marcello and Sylvia in the Trevi Fountain and the scene of Sylvia howling with the dogs, I had forgotten about that one!

With Fellini you have to capture the nuances.

cigalechanta

Juliet of the Spirits has such lushness, I remember seeing it on the opening day here. In Amacord, the last scene of the peacock in the snow, opening his beautiful 'fan,"left me breatless. For very moving overall, i loved Nights of Caberia and La Strada. Fellini's wife, Juliet Messina was unforgettable.

KT

Not to mention his other wife, Giulietta Masina.

I, too, am generally a Fellini fan, except for Satyricon, which I found nauseating. His films are so...Felliniesque. Fellini's Roma makes a lot more sense in the context of what went before it, so it's really not the best one to start out with.

cigalechanta

Thanks for the correction, KT
She died five months after her husband.

tedgale

"some sort of experimental...surrealism..." (etc)

Jeez it was made in 1972!

Saw it when it first came out -- everyone (mainstream mdia included) was wild about Fellini then. But tastes have dumbed down a lot since.

It's "means" exactly what it appears to mean: it's really a documentary with made-up footage. I loved seeing Gore Vidal and Anna Magnani ("Go to bed, Federico&quot.....

BTW: I have not seen the film since its first release. So obviously it struck a chord of responsiveness in the impressionable Italophile student I then was.

kismetchimera

Anna Magnani was great in Roberto Rossellini 1945 classic movie: Roma Citta Aperta...( Rome Open City), is about WW2, when the city was occupied by the Nazis ,also is a Tribute to the Italian Reistance..

kismetchimera

Oops, mispelled the word Resistance..

cigalechanta

a few other great vintage films:
Open City,
The Bicycle Thief,
Bitter Rice,
Miricle in Milan,Ossessione
Paisan, and...

Shoeshine

artlover

I still love Fellini...Juliet of the Spirits probably one of my favorites!

dickv2

Good morning, another lover of most of the works of Fellini and my vote would be for Amarcord..Loved the various characters that exsisted within the film, the settings and time
period helped make this very enjoyable.
Richard of LaGrange Park, IL>

sognatrice2

Last year was a wonderful one for Fellini fans in NY, we had the great opportunity to see a retrospective if Fellini's entire body of work accompanied by an extraordinary show of his drawings, from the first to the last., and storyboards of his films.

He was a gifted cartoonist before he started making movies, and there were some great sketches of Tòtò, and the comic strip he drew of Mastorna, the film he tried to make for many years and was never able to complete. It seems he forsaw the end of his own life in the scenes of the film, and could never finish it.

The black and white films, like La Strada, 8 1/2, and Le notti di Cabiria were all restored to perfection, and films were shown weekly from October all the way through January!
There were also documentaries about him, and one, "Io sono un gran bugiardo" (I am a Big Liar&quot was just amazing! It showed him in the process of directing Marcello Mastroianni ( they were very funny together, and bickered alot while shooting scenes), and describing his feelings about Anita Eckberg, and the relationship with his wife Giuletta Messina.
Interviews with Terrrence Stamp (From making "Toby Dammit", and Donald Sutherland, who had a horrible time making "Casanova". They showed Fellini directing him, dictating every move, a total control freak!

In the end, some of the audience got to know each and stayed in touch. Lots of great discussions, and we all came to realize how totally autobiographical all his films are, especially La dolce vita. (Not in a literal way, but more in an emotional way.)


Even though it seemed kind of crazy, I just gave over to the experience, and went to every screening I could. It was a great education.

I love "Le notti di Cabiria", and for some reason, "Ginger and Fred" is one of my all time favorites, just for watching Giuletta Messina invent endless facial expressions, with those unforgettable eyes in constant motion. Even as a older woman, she is riveting to watch. I always tear up watching Marcello and her do that the dance routine, where he slips and falls while tapdancing, it makes you remember all of their roles from the past, and it's magical beyond words!.

Although he's been gone for a decade, I think I will never get tired of his fims!

Seaurchin, I love that seen from La dolce vita in the Trevi fountain too, and also the scene with the kitten- but the very best is the opening shot, with Marcello M and his cronies in the helicopter with the statue of Christ suspended from it, flying over Rome and flirting with the sunbathing girls on the rooftops! Great!

zeppo2

I think the scene in Roma where they excavate a subterranean villa, only to have the vibrant mosaics suddenly disappear as the air hits them, is one of the more memorable scenes in Fellini's body of work.

rbrazill

There is an excellent new DVD set out by Martin Scorsese called Il Mio Viaggio in Italia. Scorsese selected and discusses the post-war Italian filmakers who most influenced him including Rosselini, DiSica and Fellini. The two-DVD set contains scenes from virtually all of the movies mentioned here. It is definitely worth your $3.49