Défilé de mode écclésiastique au Vatican

Versions
Le film dans sa version pour l’Italie dure 128 min, avec une voix off peu présente de Fellini lui-même, et aussi une scène avec Mastroianni et Sordi.La version pour l’export dure 120 minutes avec une voix off plus développée et dite en anglais.Le film a été restauré en 2010 par le laboratoire L'Immagine Ritrovata de Bologne à l'initiative des Musée national du cinéma (Turin), Cineteca Nazionale (Rome) et Cineteca di Bologna .

Whether you like or not, a masterpiece

Author: Margaux
29 March 2000
You may or not like Fellini's extravagance ... and there's plenty to be had in "Roma". You may dislike the movie going back and forth in time, and around a period in history which you can't even relate to; you may dislike the lack of plot, the series of episodes from the director's past or fantasies. You may not share his vision of Rome, its women, its chaos, its fascist monuments and its hippies. You may not even be at all interested in Fellini's world and may find his movies, boring, or uninteresting. This one will be no exception, then. Well... After all, we did not all like Citizen Kane either.

For one thing is beyond doubt: Fellini's Roma is a true, genuine, masterpiece, one of the last gems coming out of the relentless, colourful imagination of an Italian director, who from La Strada to Amarcord, in some 15 years of movie-making, was able to concoct classic movies and nothing but. Fellini's Roma is a series of exaggerations (the characters, chaos, the brothels, the nights in Rome...) as Rome can be. It is an absolute tribute to a city one thousand times destroyed, one thousand times reborn, to the "city of illusions" as Gore Vidal puts is. It is above all a tribute to the Romans, who basically "could not care less whether you are alive or dead". And who better to capture this than Federico Fellini?

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14 out of 17 people found the following review useful:

In "Roma" the shot could be a routine traffic jam; with Fellini not an ordinary one. Along the standard highway appears darkly hooded figures--one holding a silhouetted parasol--while a bonfire casually smolders, emitting clouds of black smoke.It's no longer just a normal freeway but a Felliniesque creation mounted on the surreal palette of a genuine stylist.

Contemplate the quality of his characteristically rapid-paced dialogue, and you'll discover it's less communicative discourse and more self-indulgent chatter.All the Fellini trademarks are there: big breasted women, clownlike characters, rude Rabelaisian remarks, all to brassy street band accompaniments tooted on worn, cheap instruments.

In some ways "Roma" picks up where "Satyricon" leaves off, minus main characters. It's all an extremely personal vision--and not a little bit weird, rather like temporarily inhabiting the domain of a slightly warped mentality. Recalling my own visit to the Eternal City, I don't recall experiencing anything like this purgatorian collage. Then again, I suppose what we see is pretty much the result of who we are.

Made just a couple of years after Antonioni filmed his "Zabriskie Point" in Los Angeles, Fellini never "did the foreign thing," opting to remain working on his home terrain.For Fellini fans and others with an interest in film history, "Roma" occupies a valid place for observation, notation and appreciation.

                                           Une romaine authentique : Anna Magnani

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Yet another Fellini's masterpiece

Author: cflav from Modena, Italy
26 July 2001
Everything is revolving around Rome in this movie, its beauty, its decadence, its history, its inhabitants, seen with the eyes of our magnificent Maestro: Fellini. The scene of the war-period theatre is one of the funniest of the whole history of cinema and no subtitle can render it in a proper way, you should live in Rome for years to fully appreciate the dialogues. It's worth seeing for the countless characteristic "faces" that Fellini was used to employ for his movies, giving that special taste to his works we are still call "fellinian" nowadays.

                                                  Rome antique et Rome de 1972

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A wonderfully colourful and dazzling spectacle

Author: GEOHOD from United Kingdom
27 December 2004
As I already knew this film was virtually plot less I had not been expecting a great deal from Fellini, but I was given more than a great deal. Fellini sets out on an almost mythical journey through the shocking but wonderfully real City of Rome as he remembers partly as a boy and as a young adult. You could be mistaken for thinking that Fellini was criticising Rome but he is actually praising its vibrancy in a way in which only he can.

There is no plot to speak of, just an array of both gritty characters and breathtaking backdrops. I am not surprised that this film has a relatively low rating because most viewers would feel that for a film a plot is essential. However in my opinion Fellini demonstrates that a plot is not always needed to make a film enjoyable, funny and gripping, as he showed with his brilliant account of his growing up in Amarcord. I would definitely urge you to see Fellini's Roma, as it is not an unbelievable storyline, but a pure film, which will grip you with its continuous vibrancies. 9/10