Roma (1972)

Adalberto Maria Merli: Narrator

Quotes 

• Narrator : This gentlemen is a Roman. A Roman from dawn to dusk. As jealous of Rome as if she were his wife. He is afraid that in my film I might present her in a bad light. He is telling me that I should show only the better side of Rome: her historical profile, her monuments - not a bunch fo homosexuals or my usual enormous whores.

• Narrator : A man who had been to Rome, was a man of importance. Every night at the cafe, our questions were the same: if the women put out, if it was true that Mussolini screwed six times a day, and if at the zoo there was still chimp who could say, "Hello, Where are you from? Up your ass!"

• [first lines] 

  Narrator : Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening. The film you are about to see does not have a story in the traditional sense with a plot and characters that you can follow from the beginning to the end. This picture tells another kind of story. A story of a city. Here, I have attempted a portrait of Rome. When I was very small, and still had never seen her, since I lived in a little provencial town in the north of Italy, Rome for me was only a mixture of strange contradictory images.

• Narrator : These young people have other worries. They criticize their parents, the educational system, the government, and, while they're at it, they also criticize the film I'm making.

  Young Person : [to Fellini]  We wanted to ask you if your film would show Rome from an objective point of view.

  Narrator : They would like to see their problems and those of industrial workers discussed in this film. Well, these are certainly real problems and one should try and help resolve them. But, look, this film director is not even able to solve his own personal problems and, then, he may be wrong, but, he thinks we all do what we're able to do

• Narrator : These disenchanted young people, lying in the sun on the Spanish Steps, are hooked together like a basket full of kittens or a brood of chicks, falling asleep or making love or singing. They remind us how different we were. How different our relationship to women. We had to hide to make love: in the kitchen... in the darkness of movie houses, in the bathroom. It was so difficult to have a woman. So, one went to the whore house.

• Narrator : There were brothels of all types, hidden away in the narrow streets of the old quarter, squeezed in between the palazzos of the aristocracies, huge baroque churches, and the little shops of the antique dealers. It was furtive, hunted, sinful. And everywhere the sound of bells followed us. They even chased us inside, as a warning, a remorse, but, also as an invitation to sin. A sin that we would then go and confess the next day.

• Narrator : [at Festa de Noantri]  Of course, people eat and drink. What else? Not much different from a thousand years ago or the beginning of this picture or ever and ever.

• Narrator : On the other side of the Tiber, perhaps the most famous section of Rome. We have come here to complete our portrait of the city. It is where, every Summer, they celebrate the Festa de Noantri. Noantri means "ourselves." Appropriately, the Romans celebrate themselves.

• Narrator : This lady, going home, walking around the wall of a patrician palazzo, is a Roman actress, Anna Magnani. She might well be the living symbol of this city.

  Anna Magnani : You think so?

  Narrator : Rome seen as vestal virgin and she-wolf. An aristocrat and a tramp. A somber buffoon.

  Anna Magnani : Avere di. I'm far to sleepy now.

  Narrator : May I ask you a question?

  Anna Magnani : No. I'm sorry. I don't trust you. Ciao. Go to sleep.