Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
A pictorial weaving of the bizarre fragments of Fellini's imagination and memory, AMARCORD is set in a seaside village (very similar to Fellini's boyhood town of Rimini) in the 1930s. Through the eyes of the impressionable young Zanin, Fellini takes a penetrating look at family life, religion, love, sex, education, and politics. Among the characters are Zanin's constantly battling mother and father, and a priest who listens to confession only to spark his own deviant imagination. Although Italy is under the control of the Fascists, the regime's oppressiveness remains obscure to the naive villagers, who worship an immense, daunting banner of Il Duce's face. There is hardly a character in AMARCORD left unscathed by Fellini's biting wit, yet the director manages to present them lovingly. Unique personality traits, revelations of personal weakness (and thus humanness), are valued for the color and variety they add to the world. AMARCORD won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1974.