Bonfire of the Inanities

Chronicling one year in the Rimini of his boyhood, Federico Fellini’s Amarcord is at heart a wistful coming-of-age tale, fueled by youthful mischief and tempered by familial dysfunction. And it suggests, in its own deliriously loopy way, an influence on Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights, Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, among others. Fellini puts the usual conventions in a blender and pours out a parade of leering men and lascivious adolescents lusting after voluptuous townswomen while fascists enforce their tyranny and worship an enormous papier-mâché Mussolini. But no sooner does the film descend into giddy chaos than it’s elevated into moments of sublime beauty and wonder, accompanied by a Nino Rota theme you’ll be humming for days afterward. Beginning today, Tivoli Cinemas (4050 Pennsylvania, 913-383-7756) presents Amarcord in a beautifully restored print. For more information, see tivolikc.com.

Fri., April 17, 2009