Amazon.com Essential Video
At three brief hours,
La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in an ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically, with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title,
The Sweet Life), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties, or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, are merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life.
--Dave McCoy
Review
An international hit, partly due to its then-frank sexuality, La Dolce Vita (1960) marked an artistic turning point in Federico Fellini's career, confirming him as one of the premier filmmakers of international art cinema. Eschewing the remains of his roots in Italian Neo-Realism, Fellini turned tabloid journalist Marcello's day-to-day experiences among the international jet set into a visually flamboyant, Dante-esque odyssey through contemporary Roman decadence. From the surreal opening image of a Christ statue "flying" over Rome by helicopter through Anita Ekberg's frolic in the Trevi Fountain to the final beach scene, Fellini filled his first foray into widescreen photography with evocative imagery juxtaposing ancient Rome with modernity, surface beauty with spiritual desolation. Winner of the 1960 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, La Dolce Vita became a worldwide critical and financial success, turning Fellini first-timer Marcello Mastroianni into an international star and earning Fellini an Oscar nomination as Best Director. With La Dolce Vita appearing the same year as Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura, Fellini joined his compatriot as one of the leading cinematic poets of the modern condition, yet with a visual splendor and affection for the carnivalesque that would distinguish his work for the next decades. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
DVD ~ Federico Fellini
DVD ~ Federico Fellini
DVD ~ Federico Fellini
DVD ~ Vittorio De Sica
DVD ~ Federico Fellini
