Amarcord (1973)

There are fundamental and evidential reasons why critics tend to mythicise filmmakers and “Amarcord” is one of the main ones in regards to Federico Fellini. It is important that one should avoid the repetitive droning sound of critics and watch the film unaffected by other people’s definitive recommendations. To truly appreciate the dissection of the film into smaller (sometimes real and other times fictional) segments and to identify the important elements that emerge from under the romanticised memories of the past.

Besides, Amarcord means Remember. And so Fellini in one of his last, and possibly greatest, moments of his career, a career that defined European cinema, decides to make a film about his country in the 30s, stirring up memories, mixing images with emotions, daydreaming of alternative truths and criticising real and monumental events. For his cinema of memories, in which many accuse him of using poetry in lieu of making a political statement, will be overturned by himself and transformed into a spectacular cinema of erudition, touching contemplation and deep political circumspection.

It won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay, boasts Ruggero Mastroianni as editor, Giuseppe Rotunno as cinematographer and Nino Rota as composer. It is a prime example of a masterfully directed film which the more it brags about its excellence the more it foreshadows the decline of the great era of European cinema. Ilias Dimopoulos