Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

DubyaHan The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Claudio Carvalho "Roma" is a feature with neither plot nor timeline and composed by an edition of disconnected footages of Rome, the Eternal City. Fellini makes a homage to Rome and depicts and entwines moments of the ancient and the modern Rome, such as during the fascist period of Mussolini; building the subway; in a traffic jam; a fashion show for the Church members; brothels with clients and prostitutes on display; repression; ordinary people on the streets and restaurants. For fans of Fellini and Rome, this movie may be a must-see; otherwise, it may be boring and too long. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Roma de Fellini" ("Fellini's Roma")

TheLittleSongbird Of the five movies so far I have seen of Fellini's, Roma is my least favourite, but that doesn't mean at all that it is a bad film. It's just that I think La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and Amarchord are masterpieces and La Strada a near-masterpiece.Roma while perhaps being the most personal of Fellini's films for me was just very, very good. For my liking, Fellini occasionally shows a lack of intellectual rigour and when he is reminiscing and chatting with the likes of Marcello Mastroianni while mostly companionable and insightful there is the odd occasion where he comes across as a tad overbearing.However, Fellini more than makes up for it with a very interesting and insightful experimental/documentary-like approach to this film. Mastroianni, Gore Vidal and Anna Magnani are a delight to watch, the film does have a subtle message and told with a lot of heart and Nino Rota's score is atmospheric, nostalgic and lilting. Like all his films, the visuals show a genius at work. The cinematography is spellbinding and The Eternal City is gorgeous. Here Fellini's images are at their best in the 1940s music hall show, the unearthing of the ancient villa and the fashion parade.All in all, enchanting and interesting if not Fellini's best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

jotix100 Federico Fellini's love for his adoptive city was unique. It was only natural he would make this film in which his awe and admiration for what became his playground is captured in vivid images which only could come from one of the most important masters of the Italian cinema of all times. The film is both a comedy and a sort of documentary in which we watch the director, himself, performing the role of what he did behind the camera, for our benefit.The film is autobiographical in many aspects. We watch as the young Federico, an aspiring journalist arrives in Rome from his native Rimini. His new home is in an apartment where he has been recommended to stay by relatives. The place was pure chaos with the many different Roman characters he found there. The heat of the summer brought everyone to the streets where dining was an art. The food in great proportions in spite of a war going on. Fellini is an observer of his new surroundings. The woman street singer that goes through the tables, reminds us a little bit of Gelsomina, an immortal character created by the director, and also of Cabiria, the fun loving prostitute.Rome, being a the chaotic place it was, is presented at a dizzying speed by the director who has taken his camera outside along a busy highway as fans from Naples arrive to attend a soccer match against the local team. The autostrada is some is a metaphor that emphasizes the confusion and the chaos anyone feels when arriving to Rome. Fellini ends it all in a massive car tie up in the street around the Colosseum. Fellini renders homage to his city in the last sequence as well taking the viewer through a night ride by motorcyclists that passes by all the best known monuments of the city.We are also taken to a neighborhood music hall that presents vaudeville acts. The atmosphere was typical of the one found in such places where everyone went to have a good time with their friends and neighbors. These places attracted a rough crowd that made a tough place for performers in which to act. Theater in Italy, although not remotely close to the scene Fellini shows, is a place where the real drama is not presented on stage; the real show is given by all the people that go to be seen without shame of behaving in strange ways.The subway excavation sequence offers an interesting aside in which the present day and the olden times come together when the workers discover a Roman home underground. The magnificence of the images that are discovered reveal the proud past of one of the oldest and most artistic civilizations of all times. Alas, it is only short lived because of the air that penetrates the hidden frescoes found under the rubble make them disappear.The brothel also played a big part in the sentimental education of the maestro. We have seen prostitutes in all of of Fellini's films in one way, or another. He wants to take us to two different kinds of pleasure houses, one for the common citizen and a high class one that closes up when important celebrities decide to have private fun. Fellini juxtaposes the scenes at the brothels with a gathering of the Catholic Church higher ups that have come to Princess Domitilla's palace for an ornate fashion show for ecclesiastical fashion that is decadent in the excesses presented. Like with other Italian creators, Fellini had an ongoing love-hatred by the institution that has ruled the lives of Italians for centuries."Fellini's Roma" was a great creation by Federico Fellini. It is as important as some of the other films because it captured the soul of the city Fellini loved so much. This was possible because of the images cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, a amazing photographer of many of the director's work. Nino Rota's musical score is also an asset in the film. The cast is enormous to single out anyone, they all contribute to make this film a tribute to Rome, the eternal city.

faraaj-1 Fellini's Roma falls somewhere between Julliet of the Spirits and Amarcord. Both were directed by him in 1965 and 1973 respectively. The first was a mess and virtually unwatchable. The second is one of the greatest works of cinema. So Fellini's Roma too is a fragmented mess. There is no coherent story and absolutely no plot. The fragments are not inter-related and some of them are completely surreal. The one with the papal fashion show immediately leaps to mind. However, there is great beauty too - the Fellini touch. The scenes with the eating out and the fresco discovery were shot with a master touch.The bulk of the action takes place over a 24 hour period in Fascist Italy. Its worth a look for Fellini fans but don't try to derive any sense from this. Ciao!