Amarcord
If there exists something such as a slice of life film, I think “Amarcord” it is. Who cares about “Aria”? “Amarcord” makes you feel like you are actually in the film. Now of course there are episodes that are better or worse than others, but the fact that I was thoroughly entertained during the first 20 minutes of the film made me get into it very quickly.
It doesn’t matter whether life really is like that in Rimini, it feels like this film is taken just out of life and that’s the beauty of it. I don’t know when I have seen this the last time in an actual movie.
The film is a full of wonderful details: People running out of the movie theater because it started raining, boys playing pranks with their teachers, a crazy man climbing onto a tree, crying “I want a woman”. That is what this film is about, and I can’t think of anything comparable really. While I was not sure if I liked the episodic character in “Roma” (mainly because I felt that most episodes in “Roma” were absolutely boring), I think it is the only way to make a film such as this one.
I have always been unsure whether I liked Fellini. Now that “La Strada” was extraordinarily brilliant and “8 1/2” is a masterpiece, I guess I can’t help but like Fellini now, right?