I guess I'm just not meant to be a Fellini fan. I've seen three of his films ("La Strada", "Nights of Cabiria", and "8 1/2"), and though I've rated them well enough based on his visual style and technique, they didn't really engage me in a meaningful way. This film is most similar to "La Strada" in regard to the randomness of the situations presented. There really is no coherent narrative to the story and scenes proceed along rather arbitrarily. If the idea is that Fellini is conjuring up nostalgic memories from his past I'd be okay with that, but I miss the structure of a story with a sound beginning, middle and ending. In this picture, the director appears to be satirizing his youth perhaps, turning daily life into something of a circus with adolescent desires and male fantasies abounding. A particular thought occurred to me regarding the wandering narrator who kept popping up from time to time. I thought he might have been the adult Titta (Bruno Zanin), all grown up and reflecting back on his youth, but that was not the case. In retrospect, that might have been a way for Fellini to more effectively tell his story. For this viewer, I'll have to content myself acknowledging that when it comes to Fellini, I'm just not going to get it.
Review of Amarcord
