--- title: "Amarcord: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/amarcord/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/amarcord" critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 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): what the critics said Critics' score 81 from 8 reviews: 7 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. 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. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 19 December 2020. 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 the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/the-essential-fellini-is-a-wonderful-gift-for-cinephiles) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 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 the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/amarcord-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Glenn Heath Jr. Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 February 2011. 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 the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/amarcord/) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 September 1974. 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 the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/20/archives/funny-marvelous-fellini-amarcord.html) ## The New Yorker — Penelope Gilliatt Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 September 1974. 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 the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/09/23/of-dreaming-and-mayhem) ## Los Angeles Times — Kevin Thomas Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 13 February 2009. 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 the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-feb-13-et-capsules13-story.html) ## Time Out — JR Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 3 November 2011. 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 the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/amarcord) ## The Guardian — Steve Rose Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 September 2004. 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 the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,1306067,00.html) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/amarcord.md