Tutte Delinquent!

Ok, life is a circus and that is clear. This is the recurrent subtext that Fellini stamp in his movies and Amarcord would not be different. In fact, it was the movie that most explored this sense of ridiculous that life presents. Each of the scenes could’ve been named “acts” of circus and the characters have incredibly imprinted archetypes.
The movie starts with a bonfire to burn the witch, which symbolises the beginning of the spring. But the scene is portrayed as a circus number, while the several kinds of characters (from the clown who starts the festivities arranging the fire to the master of ceremonies) drift around without any particular objective.
But all of that is apparent and too obvious and I have a personal feeling that Fellini is not really a man of the obvious. His movies are simple, but that does not mean that it is obvious.
Comparing with 8½, which is a movie about aging as an Italian, Amarcord is a movie about growing up as an Italian. The figures and images that are presented in 8 ½ are being constructed in Amarcord. The love for woman, drinks, talking, stories, and life is show in primitive form. Take for example the love for woman. They young men on the movie had no taste whatsoever! They would get excited with none in particular women: the tobacco seller, the crazy “whore”, etc. This is the intensity that is brought into the screen; they have so much to love that they cannot hold themselves. It is not a horny youth. They just have too much to give.
So, every symbol in this movie has the role of recreating the joy of the young times, and that’s probably memories of Fellini himself. But that does not matter if it is him or not. It could be the memories of any of those kids that try to survive their first years.
And the recreation has to be perfect, because those moments are impossible to be described or reacted. That’s why the “Narrator ‘lawyer’” is completely ignored, not only by the people in the city, but also for us viewers. Those tales cannot be passed as a chronicle. They have to be lived!
So the role of actors was not to act their characters. They had to live their characters because that was the only way to recreate those childhood moments. They could not be translated in any sense of narration. They had to live the exact same moment. So if that was the most perfect emulation of life, the aesthetic of circus was not allegorical. It was directly related to what life truly is.
It is hard not to compare Amarcord and 400 blows. Fellini is slapping Truffaut really hard saying “Take this your French ussy.” 400 blows explores this sense of subjective hard reality. It gave the movie a nude sense of reality and causality but the strong sense of perspective was preserved in following the main character as its main source of “angles.” Amarcord is more about reality because it flows to every direction and perspective without boundaries. Was it about the kid, about the period of time? It was an omniscient perspective of intrinsic life. And that is okay. Life will keep going despite the new number in the circus.
And then the matriarch dies. Before it, every aspect of the Italian life was ignored. Cities, fascism, women; nothing was really important. But the core of Italy, or any Hellenic culture, is the worship of the maternal image, and the worship of mothers toward their offspring. It is the mutuality of the Madonna and their worships. They love each other. But the image of the mother dies and the entire circus becomes the stage for the ultimate drama. The purpose of life of an Italian is to serve their mothers and make them proud. What to do?
Marry I suppose. That clearly demonstrates the relationship of Italians and their women. They are all extensions of their mothers. The love for huge breasts is the fixation for the maternal image. So the spouse is the recreation of your own mother. Every Italian suffers, somewhat, of Oedipus complex.
How beautiful it is? Fellini signed his testimonial on his own life, but it was in fact a big reflection of what an Italian should be. If the movie was somewhat faster, he would have masterfully succeeded. The slowness provoked a restless feeling. I bet it had this in mind, but if it was faster the feeling of euphoria would be greater. But life is restless and repressing.
At the end all he had to say that all Italians are delinquents. And that what makes them adorable.