“ROMAN HOLIDAY?”

By Raymond Benson

One of the great director Federico Fellini’s more curious motion pictures is his 1972 part-documentary/part-fictional collage that consists of “impressions” of Rome, both past and present. In many ways, it is the middle chapter of a trilogy that comprises Fellini Satyricon (1969) and Amarcord (1973), although not many film historians view them as such.

Roma is a love letter, so to speak, to Italy’s capital city. The film takes place in three time periods—sometime during the 1930s, the war years, and the present (i.e., 1971-72, when the movie was made). It is also very much a product of its time, when the counter-culture movement was still in full swing. The modern sequences of Roma are populated by “hippies” and long-haired youth, as well as motorcyclists, intellectuals (Gore Vidal makes an appearance as himself), and Fellini as himself. The sequences cut back and forth from the past to the present, presenting a story-less narrative that is jumbled and episodic; but the visuals of cartoonish decadence and surreal settings make up a fascinating piece of celluloid.

Many of the faces in the film—and I do mean “faces,” because Fellini always cast the most absurd caricatures as extras in his later pictures—are recognizable in Amarcord (easily one of the director’s best works). Anna Magnani provides allegedly her last screen appearance at the end of Roma, where she tells the narrator (Fellini, presumably) to go away and leave her alone. Many Fellini-esque hallmarks abound in the movie—feuding families, grotesque prostitutes, and irreverent ecclesiastical figures.

The 1930s-40s sequences are autobiographical. A young man arrives in Rome to be a journalist (as Fellini did), and stays with a large family that his mother knows. He explores the city, visits brothels, and goes to music hall performances. The present day scenes are more documentary-like, following the director and a film crew around the city as they shoot a traffic jam, the excavation of an ancient Roman home, and—the highlight of the movie—a wacked-out fashion show for priests, nuns, and bishops. Totally bizarre.

The Criterion Collection presents a 2K digital restoration of the international version of the picture (120 minutes). The long-lost original Italian cut was seventeen minutes longer, but these deleted scenes are included as supplements (as restored as possible). The feature comes with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack, as well as an audio commentary by Frank Burke, author of Fellini’s Films.

Other supplements include new interviews with filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino on Fellini’s influence, and poet and Fellini friend Valerio Magrelli. There’s a collection of Felliniana (posters, artwork) from the archive of collector Don Young, and the theatrical trailer. An essay by film scholar David Forgacs adorns the booklet.

Fellini’s Roma is a mess of a film, to be sure, but it’s always fun to play in a mess made by Fellini. It is a welcome addition to Criterion’s stable of excellent cinema.

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