Compared with [Fellini's] other recent films, Amarcord is simple and classic to the point of self-denial.

Continues to resemble something a lewd, grouchy, fitfully indecent silent-movie director might have made for his first time using color and sound. That, at least, would explain the shouting.

Fellini is so bountiful with incident and observation that he makes most other film makers seem stingy.

It's a collection of memories, some of them lovely and heartfelt, some of them quite bitter and ugly, alongside lies, dreams and fantasies, all done in Fellini's inimitably vibrant, pulsating style.