Roma (1972)

Despite amply displaying Fellini's outstanding skills as an visual artist and director, this very personal collage of memories and dreams of Rome will frustrate most viewers because of its lack of more than the skimpiest narrative or even characters beyond the central figure, a young man named Fellini who leaves his home town of Rimini and comes to the Eternal City where he plunges into the delights it offers (one could justly argue that Fellini’s Roma is itself many characters).

Visually much of it is  brilliant with the outstanding scenes being the richly cacophonic traffic sequence that opens the film and the surreal papal fashion show.  Great visuals in themselves do not make a great film but if you are familiar with and a fan of  the maestro's work there's much to be enjoyed  here as it is also a bit like leafing through the director's sketch book, revealing more about his technique than the finished films do.

 

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