Saturday, July 24, 2010

Amarcord

Amarcord is a 1973 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale that combines poignancy with bawdy comedy. It tells the story of a wild cast of characters inhabiting the fictional Borgo based on Fellini's hometown of Rimini in 1930s Fascist Italy. Amarcord is Romagnolo for "I remember".
Titta's sentimental education is emblematic of Italy's "lapse of conscience". Fellini skewers Mussolini's ludicrous posturings and those of a Catholic Church that "imprisoned Italians in a perpetual adolescence" by mocking himself and his fellow villagers in comic scenes that underline their incapacity to adopt genuine moral responsibility or outgrow foolish sexual fantasies.
The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
There are numerous beautiful lines in the script (as above), or these for the neckerchief part:
   Don't try to be a wise guy! Answer! 
   They woke me from my sleep. I didn't even have time to put my tie on. 
   Your tie or your anarchist's neckerchief? -What neckerchief? 
   Would you like to drink a toast to the victory of Fascism? 
   Well, really at this time... 
The neckerchief of Spanish anarchists




Or this poem "Bricks", by 'Mortar', an old brick-maker:
My grandfather made bricks
My father made bricks
I make bricks, too,
but where’s my house?

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