Fellini's Roma (Subtitled) (DVD)

...film, perfect example of Federico Fellini's work. However, the film is rather difficult to understand and I would not recommend it to those who are not interested in alternative cinema.

In this review I try to explain the concept of Roma, as I've been always interested in Fellini's work and I think I can give a clear picture of the one of his most popular films.

3 POINTS OF VIEWING THE CITY
In a nutshell, "Roma" ...
...introduced through memory: Young Federico Fellini's first impressions of Rome. He recalls his longing to visit Rome since he was a child, his first experiences in the city as a teenager; we can observe the impact that the city has on his still provincial spirit and way of thinking. He has to deal with the typical Romans, the family he's living with in a roman family house and he has to follow their everyday life.

Secondly, Rome is ... more

Having seen "Roma" thousands of times, I decided to write a review, since it is one of my favourite films.
First of all, I would like to mention that the film should not be categorized as a drama. It is a documentary film, perfect example of Federico Fellini's work. However, the film is rather difficult to understand and I would not recommend it to those who are not interested in alternative cinema.

In this review I try to explain the concept of Roma, as I've been always interested in Fellini's work and I think I can give a clear picture of the one of his most popular films.

3 POINTS OF VIEWING THE CITY
In a nutshell, "Roma" displays three different essential points of view of the city, arranged and expressed in a way representative to the director's unique manner and technique.

Firstly, the city is introduced through memory: Young Federico Fellini's first impressions of Rome. He recalls his longing to visit Rome since he was a child, his first experiences in the city as a teenager; we can observe the impact that the city has on his still provincial spirit and way of thinking. He has to deal with the typical Romans, the family he's living with in a roman family house and he has to follow their everyday life.

Secondly, Rome is introduced through a comic, grotesque parody, as it is portrayed through Roman education, and the Romans' relationship with religion, history and politics.

Thirdly, Fellini attempts to see Rome objectively, considering only facts, through the eyes of the director. However, Fellini is finally observing Roma in an emotional way, influenced by his personal feelings and experience, making it obvious that although he was born in Rimini, deeply inside, he considers Rome his native city.

These three different points of view continuously alternate with each other, through flashbacks. The film takes us back and forth in time through individual vignettes that represent various aspects of Rome basically during the decades of 30's, 40's and 70's, with frequent connections to ancient Roman history and civilization.

SET OF CHARACTERS
In fact, "Roma" doesn't follow any particular plot or set of characters. The main character of "Roma" is the city of Rome itself, with its vivid life and various faces, its glorious history and its stunning monuments, shot by the dexterous Fellini' s camera and imagination. Thus, through symbolisms and indirect references, it is repeatedly incarnated as a human, and particularly as a female.

VARIOUS VIGNETTES:
ROME THROUGH MEMORY
-longing to visit Rome and first impressions
The film begins in the decade of 30's with the nocturnal image of a roadside sign indicating Rome, with the lights of the small town of Rimini (where Fellini spent his boyhood) in the background. This image reveals an invitation: Roma is calling young Fellini. Urban lifestyle always seems an exciting challenge to the young provincial boy, who feels confined to the narrow circle of his small hometown. Rome is a metropolis, a capital, a big city where "nobody knows you, and you are free to come and go".
The 18 year old boy finally came to Rome to become a newspaper reporter.
Being on his way to the place where he would stay, we get the first impressions of Rome through the boy's first direct contact with places he had been taught about, but had never seen. The camera tracks fast around Fontana di Trevi giving an unusual perspective, low angle shots of the monuments stress their stateliness. Various views of Rome appear to the screen, the remains of the Aurelian Walls, piazzas, fontanas.
Subsequently, everyday life and typical scenes in the Roman neighbourhood are introduced: the contemporary tram, a housewife shaking a rug out of a window. The plan passes through the main entrance of a courtyard house, through a characteristic Roman inner yard, ending up to the interior of the residence of a stereotypical Italian family.
In the house Fellini recalls his first impressions of the Roman relationships: As he enters the private life of the Romans, he realises that in this city, concepts such as family ties and hospitality juxtapose with the apparently cold and chaotic character of a metropolis.

-Second world war outbreak: Illusion versus reality
Through a scene in an air raid shelter, Fellini brings back his memories of the second world war outbreak. Here Rome is represented as an illusionary protector city. The characters live in the illusion that Rome is an intrepid city, protected by the Pope, who "will not permit bombarding". Roma appears to "shelter" her people from the war. She protects them, or at least gives this feeling of protection. The characterization of Eternal City as "Mama Roma" is not given by chance. However, the truth is that Roma is vulnerable to the threat of the upcoming war. The attack commences, Rome is undoubtfully no longer invulnerable.

ROME THROUGH IRONY, PARODY AND SURREALISM

-Roman education, religion and history: extreme
morality
Is there anything more ironic than a pornographic slide slipping into a dry Roman history lesson? Fellini remembers himself his first impressions of the city in a school presentation, where a projector displays Roman monuments: Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four Roman basilicas, The tomb of the Cecilia Mendella on the Appia Antica, The Arch of Constantine, The Altar of the Fatherland, Saint Peter's, Holy Mother Church's Greatest Temple. Suddenly, the picture of a naked woman appears on the wall. The teachers are outraged and require religious songs to "purify themselves" after what they had seen. In another scene, the family watch a Roman Empire based film with awe. In the meanwhile, a housewife is flirting in the front row of the cinema hall. Picturing great religious concern in contrast to the earthly carnal desires, Fellini manages to give a sense of hypocrisy to the morality of the city. Though being ironic, he achieves not to insult ethics.

- Fashion industry and church: the other aspect
of Vatican City
Vatican is the centre of the government of the Roman Catholic Church. Also, no matter how irrelevant it may seem, a fashion show couldn't be but present in a movie describing Rome, as it is the capital of Italy, the heart of fashion industry. Therefore, the suggestion for creating fashion for clerics seems very logical to the witty filmmaker. "The world must follow Church and not vice versa". This part of the film is one of the mostly argued acts in Fellini's career. Though extreme surrealism, it expresses a sarcastic approach to catholic government's narcissism, a humorous levelling of the Vatican City's consequentiality, skilfully displayed without being insulting or provocative.

- Vaudeville show: Expressive City
The scene at the Barafonta theatre variety show, resembles the Roma of open expression, free of censorship, shame and sometimes respect. It is "the combination of the Circus Maximus and a brothel". Undisciplined audience booing and heckling, do not hesitate to throw even a cat on untalented art performers who keep on acting without being disturbed. While watching the movie with a friend, she made a fair comment: "These Italians even in a theatre cannot settle down!"
Air raid begins during a variety show. somebody lost his child, Sirens are surrounding the scene.

- Female Rome
If a city could have gender, then we can easily say that Rome is for Fellini a female one. Metaphorical scenes and allegories that indicate Rome's female nature are very frequent throughout the film. Various entrances in the city have metaphoric character, like in the sequence with the camera crew on a crane which serves as a phallic symbol or the one with the drill getting in the ancient roman house "penetrating" into the city's secrets: its unexplored subterranean areas.
Fellini' s Rome is personified both as a mother and a whore. The picture of a fat mama on her bed, is a distinctive metaphor for Rome. Overweight, overwhelming with a flavour of optimism. The lady says to young Fellini: "You are young and good looking, you' re going to like it here." In another scene, Rome is presented as a woman of loose morals dancing on the car while would-be lovers are waiting in the queue. It is the "carefree" city that everybody desires to visit.

ROMA THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DIRECTOR,
ATTEMPT TO BE OBJECTIVE

- Modern Rome through contrasts
Contemporary Rome is shown mainly by following Fellini's crew shooting the city. Various aspects of Rome during the decade of 70's are represented often through contrasting and exaggeration. A characteristic example of that is the shot where hundreds of hippies surround the forum and a Roman cathedral. The scene ends up with the image of a hippie standing on the top of Spanish Stairs like the Crucified: Roman religious concern and the monuments' gravity come in contrast with the hippies liberated ideas and lifestyle.

- The Subterranean City
Examining the city from the opposite viewpoint, through a skilful approach to the problems of constructing an underground railway system, the exciting unpredictable nature of subterranean Rome is revealed. The construction crew have to change route repeatedly as they encounter archaeological finds and underground watercourses. When they fortuitously unearth a pre-Christian house, Fellini achieves to touch again the subconscious with a very significant scene: Faces of ancient Romans pictured in the brightly coloured frescos are staring stoically at the crew like they are saying: "We' re ancient Romans, we' re still here!". All of a sudden, the vivid colours of the relics start to fade. The frescoes had been mummified by their 2000-year-long concealment, but on the moment they came in contact with the modern Metropolis' fresh air, they found themselves in the level of decay where they should gradually have fallen into, through all this time. Within the depiction of a city formed by different chronological and geological layers, another metaphor is veiled: Past may not be accessible but it is certainly momentous and still present, the rich Roman heritage seems to be overconfident about resisting to corrosion. "Roma is a myth and myths are perpetuated because they represent the unconscious like a subterranean journey".

- The Past and the Present
The final scene of the movie is steeped in the city's contradicting culture, between the past and the present. There is an intrusion of noise as motorcycles drive around the silent city at night. It is a tour around the historical centre of Rome, which is rendered in an impressive and original way. A scene full of contrasts.
Fellini uses fast shoots, perfectly representing the imposing character of roman monuments, churches and palazzos. Motorcyclists drive up via dei Condotti giving a wonderful aspect of Spanish stairs and Trinita dei Monti Church. They drive around piazzas, piazza di popolo, north gate of the City. Monuments stay there, stable through history and time, the motorcyclists leave the city, and the scene fades to black. The group of motorcyclists leave the inky black hauntingly luminescent city; Things come and go in Rome, but the spirit of the City remains.

STRUCTURE AND TECHNIQUES OF THE FILM: MIRRORING THE STRUCTURE OF THE CITY

-fragmented city
The movie's different individual acts put together almost like "movies within a movie" describe the different fragments and aspects of Rome and its life, as if they are "cities within a city".
Rome is a city comprising several different cities. It is a fragmented city full of contrasts, with many faces and several historical layers. It is the Historical City, the City of Vatican and the Cinematic City. Ancient is juxtaposed with modern, sacred comes in contrast with profane. This fragmented structure of the city is represented throughout the film, but it is directly observed in a particular sequence: when a construction crew digging an underground tunnel comes across the several historical stratae of the city that are set the one atop of the other.

- A noisy City
"Roma", could not be but a noisy film. It describes Rome's vibrant hearings through a sometimes-exaggerated soundtrack, which does not synchronize with the action. Fellini -like several Italian directors- recorded dialogues in a post-production, changing them during editing, paying no attention to the original script. In this way, there is a lack of lip-synch, voices aren't held to lip movements, and emphasis is laid to Italians' expressive body language and gestures. In addition, loose synch gives a more imaginative effect to what the artist wants to portray and dubbed dialogue gives a sense of "artificial intervention", which is undoubtfully very popular in Fellini's work.

"Emanation speech" is very characteristic mode of speech in "Roma". Layered dialogues may not give sense or not describe the movies' narrative, but they give an overall aspect of the characters and their way of life. Sentences may be unfinished or without proper articulation, get drowned in music; Overlapping speech, music, traffic noises or sirens, church bells and children's voices successfully give the vivid sense of Roman community.

Nino Rota' s music, described by the critics as "picturesque", contains a lot of parts, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes decadent. Being both strange and familiar, elegant and comical, traditional and eccentric, it contributes in describing Roma as a city full of contrasts that is being reborn again and again though time.

Images in many sequences do not harmonize with sounds, creating contradictory feelings about Roma and its citizens to the spectator. For example, in the Second World War sequence, when Young Fellini comes out of the bomb shelter, visually, everything seems to be calm and quiet, while we can see young couples walking along the street. Nevertheless, the sound of the blaring siren surrounding the scene creates intense anxiety, as it heralds Roma's bombing. In this way, Fellini enhances his favourite theme of Roman illusion versus reality (already discussed). Another example for this "disharmony" is several sequences, directly describing the corporeal aspect of Roman life (like whore-house visits or free-minded hippies life), which are surrounded by the sound of a church bell: Immediately, the corporeal reality of modern Rome comes face to face with the conservative spirit of Catholic Church.

CONCLUSION

Through the pure Fellini style, his auto-sarcasm and the "seemingly unstructured structure" of the congested city, the audience basically gets an overall aspect of a loud and energetic city whose every part has a separate narrative, a city with religious concern and moral values surviving through the centuries. Rome is incarnated, it is a female and is Eternal.
 

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