Amarcord

For the vocal ensemble, see Amarcord (ensemble).

Amarcord
Theatrical release poster by John Alcorn
Directed byFederico Fellini
Written by
Produced byFranco Cristaldi
Starring
CinematographyGiuseppe Rotunno
Edited byRuggero Mastroianni
Music byNino Rota
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 18 December 1973 (1973-12-18) (Italy)
  • 10 May 1974 (1974-05-10) (France)
Running time
124 minutes
Countries
  • Italy
  • France
LanguageItalian
Box office$2.3 million[1]

Amarcord (Italian: [amarˈkɔrd]) is a 1973 comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the village of Borgo San Giuliano (situated near the ancient walls of Rimini)[2] in 1930s Fascist Italy. The film's title is a univerbation (words combined to form a single word) of the Romagnol phrase a m'arcôrd ("I remember").[3] The title then became a neologism of the Italian language, with the meaning of "nostalgic revocation".[4] The central role of Titta is based on Fellini's childhood friend from Rimini, Luigi Titta Benzi. Benzi became a lawyer and remained in close contact with Fellini throughout his life.[5]

Titta's sentimental education is emblematic of Italy's "lapse of conscience".[6] Fellini skewers Mussolini's ludicrous posturings and those of a Catholic Church that "imprisoned Italians in a perpetual adolescence"[7] 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 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for two more Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Original Screenplay the following year.

In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[8]

  1. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 295. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  2. ^ "Borgo San Giuliano". Fondazione Federico Fellini.
  3. ^ Pettigrew 2003, p. 76. Fellini elaborated further by suggesting that the Italian words amare ('to love'), cuore ('heart'), ricordare ('to remember') and amaro ('bitter') were contracted into the Romagnolo neologism, amarcord (a m'arcôrd, in Italian io mi ricordo).
  4. ^ "amarcord in Vocabolario". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Fellini's Homecoming – Amarcord". The Criterion Channel.
  6. ^ Bondanella 1978, pp. 20–21.
  7. ^ Bondanella 1978, p. 20. For other discussions of Fellini and fascism, see Bondanella's The Cinema of Federico Fellini and I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon.
  8. ^ "Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera". www.corriere.it. Retrieved 11 March 2021.