Vignettes alternate Federico Fellini’s memories of Rome during Mussolini’s rule with the contemporary cityscape. There, the director and his film crew are talking to locals and gathering footage—on the streets and from cranes above—with the aim of creating an authentic picture of 1970s Roman life.

This may be Federico Fellini’s Roma, yet the director opens up the doors of his city symphony to the crowd, reveling in all the many colors of the Italian capital. As taken with humble fistfuls of parmigiano as blessed cardinals in red robes, this saturnalian fresco throngs with raucous commotion.