Roma

1972
R
2h

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

14K

YOUR RATING

Satire Comedy Drama

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.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.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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

14K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 3 wins & 3 nominations total

Trivia
First feature film appearance of Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She and a friend were living in Rome when they ran into someone they met in Las Vegas the year before when they were working as showgirls. He was working as a student director for Ferderico Fellini and introduced them to him. He invited them to appear in the film. They played several small uncredited parts throughout with no speaking lines. Peterson said in an interview years later that her total screen time was less than 30 seconds. But she said she enjoyed it and that Fellini was "a great guy."

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.

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.

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

Connections
Featured in Film Night: The Secret World of Federico Fellini (1972)

User reviews69

Review

Featured review

8/10

With Fellini there is no need for a "plot".

Fellini's films are a collection of unforgettable images, rather like reading through a photo magazine in a foreign language - you don't need to know the language to understand the pictures. The subtitles can be turned off and you can still follow one stunning vignette after another. Best of all, this film can be watched over and over because you will see something new or interpret it a different way each time.

Rome is seen as a carnival and the people are the freaks, carneys and revellers. Rome has been a great city for over 2,000 years and was once THE city - the center of the world. One cannot imagine New York in 1,800 years time, and certainly not Washington. The film shows the evolution of that great city into a noisy, overcrowded, modern-day nightmare of chaotic traffic, circling around the ancient ruins. Life goes on. We all turn to dust, but others come to take our place.

The most unforgettable image for me was the ecclesiastical fashion show as gaudy and vulgar as anything Ken Russell could dream up. My biggest problem was with the subtitles. Somehow I doubt that the viewers of Fellini's film choose to use vulgar American slang.