a review of 阿玛柯德

1st Annual Criterion Challenge Week 19: Foreign Language Oscar Winners Watching this one, I was struck by how Fellini seemingly cast this movie in the same way that animators approach character design, with attention to getting a range of distinctive faces and looks, with every character getting a distinctive silhouette. There's maybe a few dozen different townsfolk that we follow in the ensemble, and even though Fellini doesn't go for a deep dive by focusing on any of them (even his avatar/ostensible main character Titta) for more than a few scenes, every single character feels recognizable and fully-realized from beginning to end. There's a wholeness to Fellini's fictionalized recreation of his boyhood that makes it feel authentic even when you notice the clearly heightened reality of the whole thing.