ROMA

FELLINI’S ROMA 1970

Films about cities pick and choose certain places or neighbourhoods, frame some views and exclude others, and have some kind of narrative shape, however loose. But Fellini isn’t just giving us a lot of flashy scenes, his Roma is different, with its hybrid form and jagged structure. It is a hybrid in that it mixes various kinds of film: contemporary observation with semi-fictionalised private memory, pseudo-documentary with pure fantasy. 

There is also a rather open and improvised quality to the film, particularly in the contemporary parts. When it was finished, Fellini said ruefully that he had “the strange sensation of not even having scratched the surface” of the city. There were many other places in it he could have filmed but did not.

Almost every aspect of Rome that this film captures is in some way filtered through artifice and elaborated by fantasy. This was consistent with Fellini’s idea of projecting his personal vision of the city, but it was also to do with his preference for reconstructing real places on studio sets, which enabled multiple takes and more sustained work with actors and gave his director of photography, Giuseppe Rotunno, greater control of the lighting.

Overall Fellini is building a narrative that has a city for its protagonist instead of a single character.

Enjoy food and drinks from our licensed bar from 6:00PM.