Amarcord

The movie Amarcord was directed by Federico Fellini and shot in 1974. The setting of the story is a small town in Italy during the time period of the 1930's. In my research, I discovered that Mr. Fellini based most of his movies on his life experiences. The town depicted in this movie is Rimini, his home town. He was a well known director who was not afraid to express his characters' emotions and actions in bizarre or unorthodox ways.

The scene I watched opens with a young man, Titta, stopping by a tobacco store to purchase a cigarette. The shopkeeper is a robust, very well-endowed older women. When he walks in, the fat woman is all alone. Titta is skinny and immature and wants to prove his strength by claiming he can lift the fat woman off the ground. The fat woman closes the door for privacy and lets Titta try. He is so determined that Titta accomplishes this feat by lifting her more than once. Titta is sweating a great deal and breathing so heavy after this that he has to sit down to get his breath. As Titta struggles to lift her, the fat woman has a look of ecstasy on her face as if she was engaged in sexual activity. The next thing that happens is the fat woman opens her sweater and whips out her breasts. Titta is inexperienced and does not know how to handle the situation. He's not sure what he's supposed to do. The fat woman tells him to suck her breasts. Titta tries to please her, but again because he is inexperienced. He struggles to give her sexual satisfaction by continuing to suck and ask if he is doing it right. The fat woman becomes frustrated because she has not reached her sexual peak and rebuffs Titta. The next thing you know she gives him a cigarette and tells him to leave. Titta is too tired and weak to open the door, so the fat woman says she'll do it and opens it easily.

The director used the camera angles to illustrate the emotions of the two characters. The camera focused on the fat woman's big girth when Titta first walked into the shop and again when he was trying to lift her. There were several close-up shots of the woman's face depicting sexual arousal as he was trying to lift her and again as he was sucking on her breasts. The close-up shots of Titta's face were also well done because they showed him sweating and making these strange facial expressions because she was too heavy. You could tell from the close-up shots of his face that Titta was a young, smooth-faced boy. The camera angle of the woman's breasts made them look huge in comparison to the slight young man. The body shots were done so that the young man always looked very thin, while the body shots of the woman were done so that she appeared to be so much more bigger than Titta. This was accomplished by using certain camera angles for the characters, full shots for Titta and medium for the fat woman. The scene of the woman's huge ass with Titta's scrawny arms and small head around her were a good example of varying camera angles combined to make one shot.

The clothing was appropriate for the time period depicted, 1930's Italy. The fat woman wore a typical outfit of a skirt and sweater with plain shoes. The sweater was form-fitting and showed her black bra hanging out. The sweater helped to enhance and emphasize her cleavage. Titta was wearing a dark brown coat, with a scarf and black hat and a cream colored sweater and men's pants.

The version I saw had the script done in Italian with English subtitles. If you do not understand the Italian language, the subtitles were very helpful as it translated the dialogue between the two characters in the scene. This was especially important when Titta was trying to please the fat woman and kept asking her if he was doing it right. The dialogue also showed Titta's enthusiasm and the fat woman's encouragement and then impatience when she tired of trying to teach him the right technique.

The director used different lighting techniques to create the effect of going back and forth between light and dark. The swinging light fixture was used to make the light streaky and to help cast the woman's shadow on the wall. This made her look very big and kind of threatening compared to the puny young man.

The set depicted what a typical tobacco store in a small Italian town was supposed to look like during the time period. It was a simple, one-room store with the cigarettes stored in a box. The door was a roll-down door used for security purposes back then to keep out crooks.

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