Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
World-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.
Scorsese's deeply personal guided tour through Italian cinema history is a singular achievement in film essay/documentary form. The cinematographic analysis is exceptional — Scorsese's eye for visual deconstruction of neorealism, Fellini, Antonioni, and Visconti is genuinely illuminating, making great use of archival footage with rare insight. The Novelty is high because this isn't a standard retrospective; it's an auteur's intimate love letter that doubles as masterclass in cinematic grammar, with a distinctive voice rarely matched in film documentaries. Acting scores reflect the documentary's talking-head and narration format, which is effective but modest. The ending, while resonant, doesn't quite achieve the formal closure that would elevate it further.