Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2022 | 6/52 | 1960s
Marcello rides in a helicopter flying over Rome, carrying a statue of Christ. A group of women sunbathing on the roof wave it down. Marcello asks for their number, but they decline.
At a club, he meets Maddalena. He goes home with her that night. The following morning, Marcello returns home to find his fiancee, Emma, has overdosed. While she’s in recovery at the hospital, he calls Maddalena.
And so it goes. The film chooses seven days from Marcello’s life as he looks for happiness in Rome. Emma provides stability, but Marcello wants freedom. Rome offers infinite possibilities, but Marcello wants a place to belong.
Marcello, a scandal journalist, desires to transition to writing but lacks clarity. He finds people with talent and passion, hoping they will show him what he is missing. But he does not belong to their lives — they found their place on their terms. And not all of them are as happy as they appear.
Sylvia follows her whims — she howls with the wolves and mews with a kitten she finds and cares for. She sees the Trevi Fountain, and she swims in it.
She's right. I've had it all wrong. We've all had it all wrong.
Steiner plays the organ with such passion. His life looks stable and happy.
Your life is a refuge — your children, your wife, your books, your extraordinary friends. I'm wasting my life. I'm not going anywhere.
But Steiner warns him against any life that feels chosen or planned.
This dichotomy — the life of the intellectual versus the life of pleasure — stops Marcello from settling. He wants both, but cannot bridge these lives. Like the helicopter whir in the beginning or the beach waves at the end, an unseeable chasm of noise keeps Marcello disconnected.
The film doesn’t take sides. It chastises as much as it allures. The audience member decides what appeals to them.
Time passes in strange ways. Marcello loses himself and nights become days. Fellini rejects the neorealist project’s use of social conditions to convey estrangement. Marcello, a man with everything, should be happy. But his want isn’t physical — it’s spiritual.
I feel like I’m only getting part of the meaning. Fellini’s message about Rome is vague, as I know nothing about the city and can only rely on the characters’ perspectives. Also, it’s over 60 years old — the world has changed a lot since then.
The first half of the movie breezes by. The second half, by design, is a slow descent into chaos.
This film is difficult to get into. It took about an hour for me to get a sense of its structure. I’ll need to watch this movie again in ten years to get a deeper understanding.