as himself Cassandra Peterson Historical contrasts and modern alienation Fellini repeatedly contrasts Roman life during wartime Fascist Italy with life in the early 1970s. The wartime scenes emphasize the congregation of neighbors in Rome's public places, such as street restaurants, a variety show, and a bomb shelter. With the exception of hippies and a conversational scene with Fellini bemoaning the loss of Roman life with radical students, the analogous congregations of the 1970s are between automobiles and motorcycles. Fellini makes a comparison between the parade of prostitutes at wartime brothels and a fantasy runway fashion show featuring clerical garb and a papal audience. Narrative devices The plot (such as it is) centers on two journeys to Rome by the director. The first is as a young man in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The second is as the director of a film crew creating a film about Rome. The film alternates between these two narratives. Deleted scene During editing, a scene with Alberto Sordi was cut because it was considered too immoral and cruel. Sordi played a rich man sitting at a bar watching some poor children playing ball. A poor man, blind, sick and lame, comes to cross the street, preventing the rich man from viewing the scene. Alberto Sordi, annoyed, begins shouting insults at the blind man: "Get out of the way, you ugly old man! Get out!". Release The film was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition. The film was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards but was not accepted as a nominee. The film is currently available on DVD and Blu-ray through The Criterion Collection. Reception On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Roma holds an approval rating of 67% based on 18 reviews, with an average score of 6.6/10. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four; praising Fellini's direction in the film he wrote, "Fellini isn't just giving us a lot of flashy scenes, he's building a narrative that has a city for its protagonist instead of a single character." Ebert ranked the film 9th in his 10 Best Films of 1972 list. See also List of submissions to the 45th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for