--- title: "Amarcord" year: 1973 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/amarcord" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-16T10:46:10.017590+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T10:46:10.475944+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Amarcord (1973) Directed by Federico Fellini · 2h 03m · MPA R · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 81 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* A whole town remembers its youth, and nobody remembers being the boring one > Federico Fellini’s *Amarcord* is funny, tender and generous towards people who can be exhausting company. The crowded town scenes and Nino Rota’s music make its wandering worthwhile, though the jokes about women grow tiresome. ## Synopsis In a small Italian coastal town in the 1930s, Titta Biondi (Bruno Zanin) is caught up in youthful pranks and fantasies about women. Around him are Miranda Biondi (Pupella Maggio), Aurelio Biondi (Armando Brancia) and Gradisca (Magali Noël). Adult pleasures occupy the boys’ imaginations, while outspoken relatives keep family life noisy and crowded. Outside, public gatherings bring the inhabitants together, with local gossip, private desires and provincial fascism all part of the same community. The stories move from one resident to another as the town goes about its business. ## Review *Amarcord* is an affectionate comedy about a community whose members all seem convinced that their business should concern everybody else. Federico Fellini makes their company worth keeping, even when the anecdotes run long and the sexual jokes repeat themselves. Written by Federico Fellini and Tonino Guerra, it follows memories and fantasies through small-town life, with little interest in keeping one person at the centre. The film asks us to enjoy the interruptions, and usually gives us good reason to. The setting is a small Italian coastal town in the 1930s, with Titta Biondi, played by Bruno Zanin, among the people through whom we come to know it. Youthful pranks and sexual fantasies sit alongside the clamour of family life. Pupella Maggio as Miranda Biondi and Armando Brancia as Aurelio Biondi help make that clamour funny, because neither seems to regard being ignored as a reasonable possibility. The scale of the acting belongs to people accustomed to making themselves heard. Giuseppe Rotunno’s cinematography is especially effective when the inhabitants gather in public: our attention can wander among them without losing the pleasure of the whole scene. There is space for several kinds of foolishness at once. Danilo Donati’s production design makes the town feel like a place recalled years later, with its oddities made more conspicuous. That exaggeration suits the broad performances, and the town remains recognisable as somewhere people have to live together. We laughed at the public gatherings, where everyone seems to be trying to claim a little more attention than their neighbours. The crowd scenes are funnier than the isolated comic sketches because the vanity keeps finding fresh faces. Yet the 1930s setting, under fascism, makes the town’s appetite for display uncomfortable. Federico Fellini allows its political ugliness to share space with its comedy, and the fondness for these people does not require us to approve of everything they do. Ruggero Mastroianni’s editing lets the episodes take their time, sometimes beyond the point at which a joke has done its work. Across 123 minutes, the wandering becomes part of the pleasure, but there are stretches when another anecdote feels like one too many. Nino Rota’s music is more economical in its effect, finding sadness beneath the comedy without turning every pause into an appeal for sympathy. It helps the changes of mood feel natural even when the episodes themselves are uneven. The women are a more persistent limitation. Magali Noël’s Gradisca is warmly played, and the performance makes us wish the film spent more time considering the women outside the boys’ fantasies. The repeated attention to women’s bodies can leave their personalities underexamined. Those jokes are tiring, and the affection that serves the family scenes so well cannot make every adolescent fixation interesting. As a film about growing up, *Amarcord* is unusually willing to let the surrounding adults take over. Its interest in the neighbours and relatives makes room for irritation as well as fondness, which keeps the nostalgia from becoming too cosy. This is an evening for watching people, with no guarantee that the next person will be more agreeable than the last. Choose it when nobody is waiting for the plot to get on with things. *Fi1m score 82, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Amarcord’s affectionate, comic recollection of small-town life, praising Fellini’s ability to turn memory into fantasy without losing its sadness. The praise centres on the town’s inhabitants, the dreamlike imagery and the movement between humour and darker scenes under fascism. Several reviews find the episodic storytelling expressive rather than disjointed. The Los Angeles Times singles out Nino Rota’s music and Giuseppe Rotunno’s cinematography for their evocative power. The divide concerns how far that affection excuses the indulgence, with seven positive reviews and one sharply negative response. Time Out prefers the public ensemble scenes to individual episodes that lean on corny jokes. The Guardian is the clear dissenter, treating the recollections of local women, youthful pranks and provincial fascists as tiresome old stories. Most other critics find enough invention, tenderness and coherence in those anecdotes to sustain the film. ### Reviews we read (8) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): Ebert calls Amarcord a movie made entirely out of nostalgia and joy by a filmmaker at the height of his powers. He praises how Fellini gathers legends of his youth, transforming memories with affection and fantasy into larger-than-life characters. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/the-essential-fellini-is-a-wonderful-gift-for-cinephiles) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (90/100, inferred): The critic praises this Oscar-winning bittersweet nostalgia piece as Fellini's most slyly elegiac work, highlighting its timeless universality and memorable set-pieces like the Fascist rally and luxury liner arrival despite its episodic structure. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/amarcord-review/) - **Slant Magazine**, Glenn Heath Jr. (90/100, inferred): The critic praises how Amarcord captures the fluidity of memory and nostalgia through its episodic structure, visual poetry, and tonal shifts between light and dark. Fellini’s fragmented portrayal of a town and its inhabitants during the rise of fascism is seen as a poignant reflection on the fallacies of recollection. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/amarcord/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (90/100, inferred): Canby calls Amarcord possibly Fellini's most marvelous film, an extravagantly funny and dreamlike evocation of a year in a small Italian coastal town in the 1930s. He praises its imaginative recreation of small-town life as recalled by the director. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/20/archives/funny-marvelous-fellini-amarcord.html) - **The New Yorker**, Penelope Gilliatt (85/100, inferred): Gilliatt finds Amarcord even more beautiful and detailed than 8½, the most dreamlike film Fellini has made, about childhood recalled by a fifty-year-old man. She praises its economical, anecdotal yet cohesive quality as a comic but stirringly saddening work of affection and wonder. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/09/23/of-dreaming-and-mayhem) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (80/100, inferred): Thomas describes Amarcord as a ravishing memory film in which reminiscence, rumor, legend, local history and male sexual fantasies flow with ease and grace. He singles out the evocative powers of composer Nino Rota and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno in this restoration. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-feb-13-et-capsules13-story.html) - **Time Out**, JR (70/100, inferred): Fellini recreates a fantasy vision of his hometown under fascism with soap opera and burlesque elements, achieving stronger effects through ensemble scenes in public spaces. Individual character moments often fall back on corny jokes, yet the film retains Fellini's distinctive flavour overall. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/amarcord) - **The Guardian**, Steve Rose (40/100, inferred): This is regarded as Fellini's last great work, which is a polite way of saying it was the last time anyone indulged him with the resources to create something 'Fellini-esque'. It's a bit like listening to a granddad's old stories - which mostly revolve around voluptuous local women, youthful pranks, voluble relatives and provincial fascists. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,1306067,00.html) ## Details - **Director:** Federico Fellini - **Director:** Federico Fellini - **Screenplay:** Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra - **Story:** Tonino Guerra, Federico Fellini - **Cinematography:** Giuseppe Rotunno - **Editor:** Ruggero Mastroianni - **Music:** Nino Rota - **Production design:** Danilo Donati - **Costume design:** Danilo Donati - **Producer:** Franco Cristaldi - **Cast:** Pupella Maggio as Miranda Biondi; Armando Brancia as Aurelio Biondi; Magali Noël as Gradisca; Ciccio Ingrassia as Teo, Titta's Uncle; Nando Orfei as Patacca, Titta's Uncle; Luigi Rossi as Lawyer; Bruno Zanin as Titta Biondi; Gianfilippo Carcano as Don Baravelli - **Runtime:** 2h 03m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 19 September 1974 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtG9ZM-ZHnY ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, leaving 2026-09-30 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, FR, GB, NL, RO, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1976: Best Director (nominated); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated) - Academy Awards 1975: Best International Feature Film (won) - International Submission to the Academy Awards 1975: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Good Morning* (1959): Another neighbourhood full of stubborn people, with gentler jokes and equally sharp observation. - *Cinema Paradiso* (1988), Fi1m 84: For more small-town recollection, with the cinema itself supplying the shared fascination. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso.md) - *Fanny and Alexander* (1982), Fi1m 92: A crowded family remembered with affection, dread and an eye for adult foolishness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fanny-and-alexander.md) - *The Long Day Closes* (1992): Childhood recollection made from music, faces and the feeling of being indoors. - *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: A quieter childhood under fascism, attentive to what adults leave unexplained. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/amarcord