Fellini's Roma (Widescreen)

 

 

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Federico Fellini is a master and it is out of question. It is impossible to watch any of his movies and not to be fascinated --even if you don't like it. His images are dreamy and his stories deal with absurdity as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And it he did like nobody else. This is a genius trademark.

'Roma' is not among his most famous or praised movie, but it doesn't make of this little gem a lesser picture. Rather than a regular filme, with a sequencial narrative, introduction, climax etc, the movie consists in many vignettes in differente periods --past, present-- that is set in Rome. But the main character is the city itself. Things that have made of Rome what it is are there, such as pasta (typical Italian food), the art in the streets (like statues), Catholic religion...

I find it impossible to watch the movie and not be seduced by its beauty and inteligence. The images can be unforgettable. My favorite sequences are the one with the afrescos in the ancient Roman catacomb and the papal fashion show. They are surreal, they are funny, they are unforgetable. Past and present try to live to together in one of the oldest cities in the world, but it may not be possible. Like the old afrescos, the ancient city surrunders to the modernity. Really? Not, sure, because in the end motorcycles and Colosseum can live side by side-- rather than spoling each other, they enhance the other's beauty. And we find out that there is no place like Rome.

Would "Caligula" or "Nero" be shocked at what their city, the Eternal City, the City to which all roads once led, has become so many years into the distant future? Or would they (probably more likely) find a way to fit right in somehow? This is one of the "notions" that I found myself pondering as I watched this movie. It really is a great movie, and it is certainly worth any true film fan's time. I may have even liked (some of it at least) better than (again, "some of") La Dolce Vita.
Having grown up in a very Italian family - with my father having been born in a "pagliarone" ( roughly, a slang dialect term meaning "stone hut") in an ancient and very rural village probably not much unlike the one Fellini's main character ventures out to Rome from - I myself was definitely "right at home" , so to speak, watching scenes like the famous "dinner on the piazza". (Personally I could watch that scene again and again and not get tired of it, but...maybe it is "an Italian thing", so to speak, and others would not find it so amusing). However there certainly is no dearth of general humor to be found in the antics of the wild cast of characters which Fellini always brings into his films. And Roma of course is no exception to this. For example, the bedridden obese old woman in a hairnet, who owns the building that he stays in in Rome when he first arrives there, who tells him, "now let's just live in peace and not bust each other's balls"! Or the bald old man who does a rather convincing Mussolini impersonation. My personal favorite though would probably be either the ultra-tanned would-be "Continental" kind of guy who approaches the female American tourist telling her, "You VERY bella" and offering to take her picture, OR the guy in the piazza scene (which is supposed to have taken place some thirty years prior to that) who was wearing one of those nylon "do-rags" that rap stars favor today, and yelling up to his dark, beautiful brooding girlfriend to get down to the piazza before he beats the hell out of her ... "again". Sure, these are walking stereotypes, these characters, and negative ones at that. But, as they say, there is a kernel of truth (at least) in all stereotypes is there not? For instance that "dinner on the piazza" scene that I mentioned before? It does perhaps resemble some sort of "prototypical" summer-night-in-Bensonhurst, or somewhere like that, with plenty of gold chains, "dago-t's", and "pane e vino" to go around.
On a more serious note however the most touching scene (and this is a point that is usually generally agreed upon, I think, by most of the movie's fans) is the scene of the sudden (and apparently accidental) destruction of the ancient Roman frescoes by the modern Roman work-crew. Obviously this is Fellini's artistic "condemnation" , if you will, of the massive industrialization of the City in modern times, and the (clearly potentially disastrous) effects of what we may call the "godless modern" encountering the ancient and sacred. Cruel and loud machinery encountering the long-buried, the "resting-in-peace", the, once again, "sacred". It is in a way akin to some of the imagery in the much newer film called Fahrenheit 9/11. There we see American tanks and fighter jets turning up the sand with shells and bombs, and setting fires and explosions, in the very "Cradle of Civilization", the land of the very first codified and written-out system of law and order. Such imagery, like Fellini's vision of the vanishing ancient frescoes, is so evocative it can truly make the viewer want to weep.
Athough Roma has improved much since Fellini filmed it back in 1972 ( I just left there myself a couple of months ago so I can say this is definitely so), in this film, during the time that he is showing it to us, the City appears to be delusional, vaguely delirious with fever perhaps, or in the throes of a restless night full of tossings-and-turnings and wild "half-waking" dreams. It is these dreams which are in fact the "images" and "vignettes" that Fellini shows to us throughout the film.
Overall, in comparison with the (mostly) worthless garbage that is cluttering the racks at your local neighborhood video rental store, this film (ANY of Fellini's films for that matter) would certainly be much more rewarding for the would-be connoisseur of truly good movies to pick up and take home tonight.

In watching this film, especially the parts shot at 'home' in the apartment, one gets that alien feeling as if showing embarassing home movies to a stranger. There is an unapologetic "this is life, have some wine and pasta and shut up you mouth" feel to parts of this movie that I wouldn't change! Having been raised mostly by an Italian family, I noticed certain subtle things about the people depicted, especially in the big feast scene, that many wouldn't pick up on. The unruly child singing the song with naughty lyrics (cute and funny), the vicar walking around shaking his money bag hoping for donations, and the best part of that scene...
A dark handsome young man with a do-rag and pullover sweater is shouting to his lady that she stop her whining and come down and join the feast! It's a wonderful little scene the way he has to coax her down, then she's glad she came.
However, Fellini is not one to leave it up to the subtleties. The scene of the fashion show for Catholic clergy is unmatched in it's genius. NOTE THE OBVIOUS SWIRLING, SHINING SUN-DISK BEHIND THE POPE! The Pope comes out, resplendant in a shining golden garment, looking like the Sun King, and I must say...it took Fellini to figure that out!
Another highlite for me is the scene in the vaudeville style theatre. There is just something disturbing about the whole scene that I cannot put my finger on. At the same time it's wildly entertaining, especially the antics of one particular teenager with a certain big fella. Whack! What has always been the most disturbing for some reason is the act that comes from the back of the theatre. Three men dressed in black coats and tails, faces painted white, black derby hats, holding long white candles come out and do a few numbers. They are trippy, they are freaky, and I can't figure out why, but they are downright scary to behold. For the life of my I can't say why.
In writing this review I have jumped around, stopping my typing to insert something out of order, just like Fellini. Not just like Fellini, that's impossible. I must say though, he has warped my sense of perception in films for the better.
I'm not going to ruin it for you. You simply must see the movie.

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3.0 out of 5 stars It's Fellini !
Perhaps this isn't the best introduction to Fellini's films but it is nevertheless an interesting mid-career extravaganza. Read more

Published on Oct 7 2009 by nobody

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of a mess.
I found it really hard to love this film as I do his others. Same thing goes for Satyricon. This film just seems like Fellini showing off and going on a visual rant. Read more

Published on Aug 25 2004 by Antonio Giusto

1.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it was weird
It is not only incoherent, but inconsistent. There is one scene, in which old frescoes, newly discovered, are destroyed by exposure to the fresh air, which does seem to convey... Read more

Published on Jun 1 2004 by Rosemary West

4.0 out of 5 stars Odd, but not odd enough
An interesting film to watch once. I loved Fellini's Satyricon, and was searching for another like that. This one is disturbing, but not disturbing enough for me. Read more

Published on Mar 2 2004 by Captain Tetanus

4.0 out of 5 stars Startling urban images
Fellini takes the viewer on a tour of the city that becomes a kaleidoscope of ancient and modern images and impressions, from archaeological discoveries to the typical... Read more

Published on Aug 22 2002 by Pieter

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime...
...This movie is the ultimate achievement of film on film by a man who if he had been a painter would have been the equal of Picasso or Rembrandt or if he were a novelist would... Read more

Published on April 13 2002 by inframan

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of Fellini's best but it still has its moments
In his later years, Fellini seemed to veer off into stream-of-consciousness flicks. 'Roma' feels like a conversation about Rome that moves from one topic to another with a vague... Read more

Published on July 28 2001 by K. Hicks

4.0 out of 5 stars A dreamy Fellini journey
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. Read more

Published on Jun 16 2001 by Steve Arthur

4.0 out of 5 stars Rome out of a dream
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. Read more

Published on May 16 2001 by Shimon

5.0 out of 5 stars A Keeper
I love latching onto a DVD that's worth keeping - and that means worth repeated watchings. ROMA fits the bill. Read more

Published on April 29 2001 by tom

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