Federico Fellini's Roma (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Like this movie. I saw it years ago, before traveling and staying in Rome a while. It is controversial, as I'm sure befits a product of one of Italia's native sons. Quite interesting, and a bit bawdy.

Disappointed. Some of the movie was good. Some not.

I just missed the criterion collection stick on it. Otherwise, it's phenomenal =D

Intereting Fellini movie as always. Bluray picture is significantly better than DVD. I now own both.

great

As expected, but somewhat disjointed story (?) line

One of the master's greatest films from his improvisational experimental period... Structurally it's complex, could even be seen as messy! Overall it's a series of tableaus that relate as different perspectives of the immortal city. There's a slight through-line of a young man from a small Italian town (Fellini?) experiencing Rome for the first time, but that disappears fast and we are treated to many amazing "stories." There's a very surreal (both hilarious and terrifying!) ecclesiastical fashion show being performed for a humble woman lost in nostalgia; a ride into the underground as a secret chamber of frescos is uncovered, and inadvertently destroyed; of course a trip to the brothels (it's Fellini after all!)... We're even taken for a early morning ride among a gang of motorcycles. It's filled to the brim with hilarious, colorful, usually mystifying details and scenes. But if you are looking for a film with one plot, this one is not for you! I would say it had a big influence on Woody Allen's Radio Days, with the many small stories only loosely related.

My favorite Fellini film, it's a memory piece and a tribute, a highly stylized documentary, it is many wonderful things.I was upset to find however that the Criterion bluray restoration of the film is extremely dark and muted. It looks unlike any copy of the film I've ever seen, either projected or VHS or digital, and not for the better. The colors don't pop, and half of the wonderful interesting faces that Fellini is known for are now so deep in shadow they become unreadable. You can't see the father at the start of the film, you can't see the peanuts bouncing off the fat man's head at the vaudeville show. You can't see the faces of the miners clearly. It just looks wrong. Why would Fellini go to the trouble to cast these fascinating faces which he was so well known for and then put them deep into shadow? He wouldn't have and probably didn't. They've made it look like an "art" film, in palette and tone and that was a wrong choice in my opinion. Very disappointing.