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Friday March 29th 2024

Amarcord | 1974

Amarcord location: Paradiso Sul Mare, Anzio
Amarcord location: the ‘Grand Hotel of Rimini’: Paradiso Sul Mare, Anzio | Comune di Anzio

Fellini's typically imaginative, anecdotal look at smalltown Italian life, set against the religious and Fascist backdrop of the Thirties won the 1973 Best Foreign Picture Oscar.

Like all of his later films, it was shot on the huge Stage 5 at Cinecittà Studios outside Rome. The town of ‘Borgo’, built in the studio by Art Director Danilo Donati, is based on the director's hometown of Rimini on Northern Italy's Adriatic coast.

The ‘Grand Hotel of Rimini’ exterior, though, where Bisceine has a dubious adventure with the sheik's wives, was too large even for Cinecittà.

It's the five-storey, art nouveau Paradiso sul Mare, which you can see in Anzio, on the coast 35 miles south of Rome.

Built in the early Twenties as a casino, it was closed on the orders of Pope Pius X, who had a problem with the notion of gambling so close to the Vatican. The owner was financially ruined and the building is now a wholesome catering school. It's owned by the town of Anzio and you can occasionally attend events.