• Oddly enough, I think the combination of the omniscient voice over, the lack of plot, the fact that fellini is in it (playing a director giving an interview talking about the movie), the shots of rome, etc- added up to some critics thinking this was some sort of pseudo-documentary- which is it definitely not.
  • There are, however, some gorgeous travelogue shots of rome that act as transitions between the vignettes
  • The film is a series of vignettes- I counted 6:
    • The dining on the street- fantastic
    • Highway in the rain- god awful- I don’t understand this at all- seems like a huge mistake for fellini- it literally makes him look like he was too lazy to wait for a sunny or non-raining day
    • Variety show- so-so
    • Subway construction- set pieces are nice but this is so-so as well
    • Brothel- superb
    • Pope fashion show- slightly above so-so because of the beautiful mise-en-scene and costume work
  • Like all latter Fellini it is a film of beautiful excess
  • Compared to some of his other works there’s less shots of tracking forward or backward with a character talking to main character (Marcello, or masina in Juliet) slightly off camera- this is one of the foremost stylistic trademarks of fellini
  • The film is live, vibrant, crying babies, overlapping dialogue, yelling, arguing, loud and crassness
  • Hundreds if not thousands of extras
  • His main characters here are really just empty vessels watching the spectacle around them
  • No plot at all which is fine with me
  • Very nostalgic- most of the vignettes are flashback to fellini’s memories era
  • Reminds me of woody’s radio days (1987) in almost every way
  • Borderline top 10 of the year quality film
  • Recommend/ Highly Recommend