Amarcord essays

Amarcord essays History can be interpreted in many different ways. It can be viewed from different perspectives and retold in many different voices. The beauty of it all is that historic events, as beautiful or disastrous as they may be, affect people on the individual level. An artist who wishes to retell his or her past cares not how others were affected, but how the artists themselves lived and overcame these situations. A vivid example of how an artist, in this case a film director, retells his own past during the years of WWII is of Federico Fellini. The film Amarcord is a colourful retelling of Fellinis life growing up in a small costal Italian city, ruled by fascist dictators. Unbound by any particular plot, Fellini uses various characters, and locations in and around the city to visualize personal situations in a comical, and often sexual way. In the movie Amarcord, a typical Italian family is portrayed by a series of high energy, care free, and sometimes violent characters. Fellini truly captures the essence of the family in the scene when they are eating together at the dinner table. The mother of the household is constantly slapping her son, and husband on the back of their heads for saying stupid things and acting inappropriate. The father, perturbed by his sons ignorance, threatens to kick him out of the house, and chases him around the table and out the door. Through the use of slapstick comedy, Fellini is able to give the audience a peak into what his family was like, and how his mother and father reacted in their daily lives. Another scene in the movie that visualizes a time in Fellinis past is when the fascist army comes marching down the street in front of all the townspeople. The scene is a retelling of how Fellini truly felt towards the fascists, and how ignorant the townspeople were to simply allow them to march in and rule the town. In this par ...