Roma (1972)

A fluid, unconnected and sometimes chaotic procession of scenes detailing the various people and events of life in Italy's capital, most of it based on director Federico Fellini's life.

Director:

Federico Fellini

Writers:

Federico Fellini (story), Bernardino Zapponi (story)

Stars:

Britta Barnes, Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Peter Gonzales Falcon	...	Fellini, Age 18 (as Peter Gonzales)
Fiona Florence	...	Dolores - Young Prostitute
Britta Barnes
Pia De Doses	...	Princess Domitilla
Marne Maitland	...	Guide in the Catacombs
Renato Giovannoli	...	Cardinal Ottaviani
Elisa Mainardi	...	Pharmacist's wife / Cinema spectator
Stefano Mayore	...	Fellini as a Child
Galliano Sbarra	...	Music Hall Compere
Anna Magnani	...	Anna Magnani
Ginette Marcelle Bron	...	(as Marcelle-Ginette Bron)
Gore Vidal	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marie Párová

Storyline

A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens. blending autobiography (a reconstruction of Fellini's own arrival in Rome during the Mussolini years; a trip to a brothel and a music-hall) with scenes from present-day Roman life (a massive traffic jam on the autostrada; a raucous journey through Rome after dark; following an archaeological team through the site of the Rome subways; an unforgettable ecclesiastical fashion show)

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Plot Keywords:

brothel | panties | female nudity | orgy | nudity | 

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Taglines:

Take a tour with Fellini through the eternal city.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian German English French Latin Spanish

Release Date:

15 October 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fellini's Roma

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ultra Film, Les Productions Artistes Associés

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Halfway through the film, in the outdoor scene where the older man is complaining about the degradation of Roman culture, you can see Fellini playing himself, surrounded by Italian college students and film crew members.

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Goofs

Peter Gonzales Falcon's hairstyles are all in the longish 1972 mode, even though the portions of the film in which he appears are supposed to be taking place thirty or more years earlier, at which time men's hair was cut much, much shorter, and would never be worn as it appears in this film.

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Quotes

Gore Vidal: You ask me why an American writer would want to live in Rome. First of all, because I like Romans. They don't give a damn if you're dead or alive. They're neutral, like cats. Rome is the city of illusions. It's not merely by chance that you have the church, the government, the cinema. They each produce illusions, like you do and like I do.

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Alternate Versions

Originally released in a 128 minutes version. Later cut to 119 minutes.

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Connections

Featured in Hope Springs (2012)

User Reviews

Whether you like or not, a masterpiece

You may or not like Fellini's extravagance ... and there's plenty to be had in "Roma". You may dislike the movie going back and forth in time, and around a period in history which you can't even relate to; you may dislike the lack of plot, the series of episodes from the director's past or fantasies. You may not share his vision of Rome, its women, its chaos, its fascist monuments and its hippies. You may not even be at all interested in Fellini's world and may find his movies, boring, or uninteresting. This one will be no exception, then. Well... After all, we did not all like Citizen Kane either.

For one thing is beyond doubt: Fellini's Roma is a true, genuine, masterpiece, one of the last gems coming out of the relentless, colourful imagination of an Italian director, who from La Strada to Amarcord, in some 15 years of movie-making, was able to concoct classic movies and nothing but. Fellini's Roma is a series of exaggerations (the characters, chaos, the brothels, the nights in Rome...) as Rome can be. It is an absolute tribute to a city one thousand times destroyed, one thousand times reborn, to the "city of illusions" as Gore Vidal puts is. It is above all a tribute to the Romans, who basically "could not care less whether you are alive or dead". And who better to capture this than Federico Fellini?