You won't be disappointed!

Sadly Over-hyped

best movie i've ever seen.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There's something about Fellini. I want to love his films, but they're so unashamedly self-indulgent that it's difficult to find something in them just for me. Not to say they aren't a joy for the most part, films like La Strada aside. Amarcord comes closest to love, but settles for really like. It's a difficult film at first, but once it's possible to latch onto recurring characters it gets much better. Each scene escalates into juvenile absurdity in a very entertaining way, but all are not equal as some vignettes feel like throwaways that don't add enough. The highlights are hilarious scenes like the man up in the tree yelling that he wants a woman. The sexual desires of the characters can be relatable, but it doesn't touch anything deep. It's all eventually just great entertainment. Regardless of its deliberately overdramatic topics, the rich cinematography pops in every moment. Maybe I'll find the Fellini film I love, but maybe they need a rewatch. 8 1/2 sounds built for me.8/10

I was laughing out loud while seeing this movie in the theatre yesterday, and so was much of the audience. But of course! There are scenes in this movie that are so honest and so clean that you can only laugh at them, or laugh at yourself, which would be the same thing. Because this movie is about you, me, all of us: Our dreams, our frustrations, our desires, our disappointments. Denying it would be hypocrisy, which we see a lot of in movies today: The obsession of hiding harshness, of being politically correct (and I have to say that the fact that the majority of very negative reviews on this title come from the USA speaks for itself...). We have all been there, actively or passively, maybe only watching, but there. People are the same everywhere! And it is just wonderful to see these portraits of people made with such honest love, without bad intentions or double morals, without prejudices. Maybe a little bit too much nostalgia, but hey, this is a movie of reconciliation with life, after the disillusion of La dolce vita and the sour sweet 8 e mezzo. Fellini is now accepting life with all its beauty - and its miseries. Fantastic. And great fun!

A jolly man in his golden years recounts colorful episodes of the past which took place in his seaside Italian town filled with farmers, families, students, and 30 visiting concubines. Director and co-writer Federico Fellini based the incidents on memories of his own hometown of Rimini in the 1930s, and the occasionally raucous journey is both a beguiling and amusing one, beautifully filmed by the estimable Giuseppe Rotunno. Fellini's fixation on big bottoms (and on breasts that look like big bottoms) isn't sequestered away for fear of making "Amarcord" look less prestigious. Hardly...the movie is full of low-ball, bathroom humor and sex-jokes, and is at its best when following a group of randy hooligan youths around town, weakest when it mixes political satire with fantasy (while the concubine episode seems to belong to a different picture altogether). An early dinner-table sequence--which, one presumes, features a typical Italian family--is staged for maximum impact (lots of gesturing, shouting and eye-rolling), yet the characters around that table, particularly the natty and unruffled uncle, become quite dear to us. The opening celebration of the coming of Spring is a bit flat, but the classroom montage which follows is hilarious and full of recognizable hijinks; another highlight is the visit with the insane uncle, who refuses to come down out of a tree. Fellini doesn't goose the story with grotesqueness, nor does he make big introductions; he allows the pages to turn and the audience to become absorbed by the vignettes in a lively, funny way. This Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film is one of the filmmaker's finest achievements. *** from ****

Having watched and loved La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and La Strada previous to Amarcord, I was understandably expecting good things for this film. And I got that exactly. This is said to be Fellini's most personal film, and this comes through loud and clear, as his direction is superb. So is the movie.When Amarcord is funny it is quite hilarious, and when it is poignant it is heart breaking. I can understand why someone mayn't like it, some aspects are rather coarse- not a bad thing for me- but if you see it again you may find it grows on you.The visuals as I thought it would be are beautiful. I loved the skillful cinematography, and the sets, locations and costumes are lavish and colourful. There are also some very memorable scenes, the peacock in the middle of the snow is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful images I have seen recently.I also love the score. I have always considered Nina Rota a wonderful composer; The Godfather, La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 all to name a few have a knack of being not only beautiful and haunting but also that they stick in the mind long afterwards. Amarcord's score is no exception, if anything it adds to the film's quirks and poignancy.The script is also fine. What I loved most about it was its deft mix of humour and sentiment and also childhood memory and adult insight. The story is never less than compelling, even with the expansive running time. It has interesting themes(ie. mocking Mussolini's regime, Roman Catholicism and the prejudices and peculiarities of the bourgeoisie) and for me it had few dull moments.The characters I think grow on you. They may seem like stereotypes at first perhaps, but once you see the film more, they are as human as they are grotesque. The acting is excellent, Magali Noel is the standout lightening up the screen with her allure and acting talent.Overall, Amarcord is a wonderful film, while it wasn't my first Fellini movie, I'd say this is a good enough introduction to the work of a master director. 10/10 Bethany Cox