The frustrating thing about "Roma" is that one can see Fellini testing out ideas he'd use to lesser effect in later films. The first part, which takes up about 40 minutes, is set in Rome during World War II. It features a reporter (Peter Gonzales) who seems to be a Fellini stand-in. Here is the genesis of his overtly autobiographical "Amarcord" (1973). But this section of "Roma" makes magic by swirling Fellini's genuine memories of Fascist Italy with a hallucinatory shifting of place. One moment, the reporter is in a house with a "little grandma" and a morbidly obese woman; the next, he's on a movie set.
The cinematography of "Roma" is so dark that earlier VHS editions of this film must have looked like mud. The few daytime exterior scenes are a relief. Criterion has done an excellent job of cleaning up the film so that it looks legible while still preserving the somber original look. However, the most striking formal element of this film is its sound design. "Roma" is meant to be played loud. While Robert Altman had only made a few features by 1972, Fellini seems to be taking a cue from his films—or perhaps Jacques Tati's—by mixing ambient noise, music and people talking. I don't think the spectator is intended to pick up on every individual element; the overall impact is what's important.
The second part of "Roma" takes place in the present day, with flashbacks to the Fascist era. It begins with a magnificent set piece of a film crew entering the outskirts of Rome. This is paralleled by an ending depicting a motorcycle gang exiting the city. In between, Fellini portrays another stand-in for himself: this time as a filmmaker struggling to make a film about Rome.
"Roma" isn't a documentary, but it features cameos by Gore Vidal and Anna Magnani as themselves. (Vidal says he lives in Rome because it's a good place to watch the apocalypse coming; Magnani refuses to talk to Fellini on camera.) Yet it follows in the footsteps of a genuine Fellini documentary, "The Clowns" (1970), and as outre as it gets, it always maintains the sense of reality lost by most of his later films. The scenes of massive crowds of hippies hanging around a piazza, playing guitars and flutes, feel genuine, even if later confrontations between these youth and cops are obviously staged. However, most of the picture, including the scenes of the film crew approaching Rome, was shot on Cinecitta backlots and sets.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmrKyimq6utc2gZp%2BdnKG2r7XSZqaurKKWtKa71Kxkq6edlnqzsdKtpqudlGK8r3nCq6CtnaKevK95waWsZqqRrg%3D%3D