Introduction
Every person has nostalgic memories of his childhood and his home town. There are not many films that put this theme of nostalgia in such a manner that the viewer longs to go back in time to relive those moments. One of these films and probably the most famous one is Federico Fellini’s 1974 Film “Amarcord”. This essay is directed toward discussing and analyzing the movie in terms of characters and their interaction resulted from a personal impression of watching this film.
Analysis
In analyzing the characters, it should be mentioned that due to the style of narration of the film which is divided to chapters the cast of characters is very diverse and viewers can decide which characters are the main for them. However, central character for the plot could be considered Titta, a young boy whose transfer to puberty is taking some focus in the film. The age of Titta implies the activeness of his hormones in his obsession with the beauty of the town Gradisca. One of the unforgettable moments of the movie is when Titta follows Gradisca into the movie theater and goes around until he is seated next to her.
Other memorable male characters include all the family members of the Titta family, and specifically Titta’s uncle Teo, who is somewhat crazy and obsessed with women but he cannot find any. Furthermore, in another memorable scene he lets everybody know about that desire when being in a picnic he climbs a tree screaming “I want a woman”. Titta’s father Aurelio is another character who has a bad temper, and his habit of wearing a tie whenever the fascists have a meeting, in a way providing a discreet political opinion or maybe it is another attribute of his character in objecting everything. A nameless character in the film, which is called “the lawyer” is providing the narration of the film, he has a very scrupulous about dates, but hated by the town residents for his boring talks.
The female characters in the film also have vast diversity in personalities. It should be mentioned separately the previously stated Gradisca, the object of the teenage love and obsession of Titta. She is a beautiful woman, who kind of naïve in someway, or it might be a representation of some category of women who put her look in the first place. Her obsession with her dress and her look is presented in her always being faultlessly groomed; waiting her prince on a white horse, her representation of the prince is incarnated in the actor Gary Cooper whose films she regularly attends.
The interaction between all the characters in the film is provided through what must be considered the “real “main character which is the town that might be representing Fellini’s childhood. However, the main relation that connects all the characters is the love. Different kinds of love, teenage idealized sexual love for an elder woman, unanswered love of naïve woman for a movie character, the sexual desire of Teo for any woman and achieving his “goal” with a midget nun.
Conclusion
The women in Fellini’s movie are showed to have major influence on everyday life of the town. The distinguished characters can represent various women personalities that accompany men throughout his life. Even in Titta’s family the so called iron fist of the father is delusional as the mother is the one who is ruling the house and tired of his idiocy threatening to kill herself every day. This vision of the women in the film could be considered a reflection of the views of Fellini as a child in his hometown. Showing how teen boys reaching puberty are tending to see the fully formed experienced women as their imaginative partner, which represented in the film as a joyful nostalgic journey back in time.