The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, August 10-16
Amarcord (1973)
Directed by Federico Fellini
Fellini’s greatest films are generally full of enough ludicrously dark humor, touches of sentimentality and auteur-rific genre-foolery to make you laugh, cry, cringe, squirm, squint and shout all at once, and maybe slap your knees and furrow your brows as well. And maybe barf a little bit in your mouth. Ranking for certain as one of Fellini’s most successful, celebrated and narratively meandering masterpieces, Amarcord will tease you on all such emotional fronts by way of a raucous, dreamy, boisterous, at times touching and politically reflective depiction of fascist-era life in a small Italian town, namely Borgo San Giuliano, a village located near Fellini’s hometown of Rimini. It’s a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story that both indulges in and pokes fun at nostalgia, and that reads like a hyperbolic graphic-novel version of a heritage film. Think of Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso shot through with Sin City, maybe, and a Tarantino title or two. Or don’t think of anything, but prepare for your face to be consistently contorted with tears, fear and joy. The title of this film is a dialect word meaning “I remember.” To see it is to have many of its characters, absurdities and Mussolinian buffooneries stamped into your mind for ever. Paul D’Agostino (August 12-18, 11am at IFC Center’s Fellini series)
