ROMA, a confounding and confused semi-documentary, tried the patience of even the most devoted Fellini fans. The story, such as it is, begins in the small town where young Fellini, played by Majore, is born. Majore wants desperately to live in Rome and finally moves there in 1938, just
before war breaks out. Majore gives way to Gonzales as a teenaged Fellini, living in a tenement where he observes the rich, noisy lives of his neighbours.
Jump to the early 1970s and Fellini, as himself, is now a renowned director making a picture. He's shooting a scene in a traffic jam during a heavy rainstorm, and his memory is jogged back to his early days in the city when he attended a vaudeville show during the war. Back in the present,
"Fellini" is shooting the construction of the subway that has been being built for decades: wherever workers dig, they make an archaelogical find and the area becomes off-limits to the builders. We visit bordellos, a perverse clerical fashion show, and a street festival where cops besiege radical
youths. Amid further reveries, Fellini begins interviewing people on camera: Anna Magnani, Gore Vidal, Alberto Sordi, and Marcello Mastroianni, among others. (The latter two were cut from the US print.) Darkness descends, the city begins to snore, and the silence is overwhelmed by a horde of
motorcyclists careening through the city past the old relics and winding up at the Colosseum.
What does it all mean? Who knows? Fellini had already made two movies about directorial alter egos with creative block, LA DOLCE VITA and 8 1/2. Here, however, the director himself is blocked: he recycles familiar themes and ideas, with the result that ROMA often feels like a remake. Episodic and
enigmatic, it's almost a parody of Fellini's other movies. Two versions were released, in English and with subtitles; the dubbed version is unobjectionable. Many laughs and just as many winces. leave a comment
