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Towards the beginning of ANNIE HALL, Woody Allen’s protagonist Alvy Singer overhears a pretentious Columbia professor criticise Federico Fellini’s latest film. “It is not one of his best,” the professor informs his date, as Allen rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “It lacked a cohesive structure, and you get the feeling that he’s not absolutely sure what it is he wants to say. I found it incredibly indulgent.”

Although the film is enjoyable, the same criticisms can be levied against TO ROME WITH LOVE – Allen’s latest homage to Fellini and to his own career. The film cuts between four narratives that never overlap, as a more satisfying (though also more predictable) screenplay might have them do. Allen’s self-indulgence (or perhaps more precisely, his self-absorption) manifests itself in his own on-screen character, Jerry – a former opera director anxious about his retirement – and in Alec Baldwin’s role. Baldwin gives a fantastic performance as John, a successful architect revisiting the city he briefly lived in during his youth.

John soon meets his youthful alter ego, Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), and warns him about falling for his girlfriend’s sexy friend (Elliot Page). The way in which John looks back on his youthful escapades provides a fitting parallel to Allen’s reflections in the film on his long career.

A second vignette follows the family of Hayley (Alison Pill), whose parents, played by Allen and Judy Davis, fly over to meet the Italian family of her new fiancée. In a further storyline, the clueless newly-wed Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) gets caught in a sticky situation with a high-class prostitute (Penelope Cruz).

Benigni’s talent as a physical comedian makes it impossible not to laugh at his confused reaction to his newfound fame.

The most satisfying narrative features Roberto Benigni’s character, Leopoldo; an average, middle-class Italian family man who becomes a celebrity overnight for no obvious reason. Benigni’s talent as a physical comedian makes it impossible not to laugh at his confused reaction to his newfound fame.

Allen pokes fun at our obsession with celebrities who have become famous for very little reason; he reminds us of the fleeting nature of fame, and of youth. He plays on clichés of foreigners falling in love with (and in) Italy, and of the culture’s reputation as one with rather loose sexual morals. In evoking these traditional and romantic conceptions about Rome, Allen consciously recalls the work of the Italian director he so admired, Fellini. Rome allows each of Allen’s characters to escape their normal lives and try on new identities and relationships, if only for a while. The film’s gorgeous shots of the Eternal City – its sunny skies, pristine ruins, never-too-crowded squares, and luxurious hotel suites – are enchanting for cinema-goers who love this Italian city.

…Allen makes a movie that, like Leopoldo’s fame, is ephemeral, though a great deal of fun while it lasts.

But the whole aesthetic of Allen’s Rome is a bit too perfect, and his storylines too superficial, to become too preoccupied with any one of its narratives. The self-congratulatory professor in ANNIE HALL may have been wrong about Fellini’s AMARCORD (which came out four years before ANNIE HALL), but his critique seems apt regarding Allen’s latest film. In the end, though, what does any of this matter? By playing with his audience’s expectations that the four narratives might come together, Allen makes a movie that, like Leopoldo’s fame, is ephemeral, though a great deal of fun while it lasts.

TO ROME WITH LOVE opens the Cambridge Film Festival with its UK premiere on Thursday 13th September at 19.45. Buy tickets for the premiere here.