La Dolce Vita
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- "Dolce Vita" redirects here. For other uses, see Dolce Vita (disambiguation).
| La Dolce Vita | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Federico Fellini |
| Produced by | Giuseppe Amato Angelo Rizzoli |
| Written by | Federico Fellini Ennio Flaiano Tullio Pinelli Brunello Rondi |
| Starring | Marcello Mastroianni Anita Ekberg |
| Distributed by | Koch-Lorber Films |
| Release date(s) |  February 5, 1960 19 April 1961 |
| Running time | 174 Min Germany 177 Min Portugal 165 Min USA 180 Min (premiere) |
| Language | Italian French English German |
| IMDb profile | |
La Dolce Vita (Italian for "The Sweet Life") is a 1960 film directed by Federico Fellini. It is usually cited as the film that signals the split between Fellini's earlier neo-realist films and his later art films.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film lacks traditional plot structure: instead, it presents a series of nights and mornings along the Via Veneto in Rome as seen through the eyes of its main character, a jaded society reporter named Marcello (played by Marcello Mastroianni).
Marcello is a man who commits to nothing: he has relationships with Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), his simple, jealous lover; Maddalena (Anouk Aimée), a sophisticated woman with whom he has an episodic relationship; Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), a beautiful actress whom he follows in her wanderings through Rome (including the famous scene of her nighttime bathe in the Trevi Fountain), and a multitude of other characters who inhabit the Via Veneto. Marcello wants to quit his job as a gossip columnist and become a novelist, but he never seems to be able to concentrate long enough to make any progress on his serious writings.
[edit] Famous scenes
The best-known scene may be that in which Anita Ekberg's character plays in the Trevi Fountain at night.
In the film's opening sequence, Marcello and a photographer colleague, named Paparazzo, ride in a helicopter. They are following another helicopter carrying a gilded statue of Jesus, suspended from a cable. The statue is being flown to the Vatican. Along the way, Marcello's helicopter stops to observe a group of women sunbathing on a rooftop. Marcello asks the women for their phone number and they ask him where the statue is being taken. The noisy engine of the helicopter precludes any mutual understanding. This motif of miscommunication replays itself throughout the film.[citation needed]
Another famous episode is a large-scale, Goyesque scene of a presumed false miracle, when two children claim an appearance of the Virgin on the outskirts of Rome, drawing immense crowds.
Another involves an intellectual soirée given by Steiner (played by Alain Cuny), a friend of Marcello with an apparently perfect family life, who ends up murdering his children and committing suicide. After Steiner's death Marcello embarks on an aimless life of orgies, after one of which he walks outside in the early morning to find a dead sea monster on the beach, the symbolic end to the film.
[edit] Production
The film was not made on location: the Via Veneto was meticulously recreated in the Cinecitta Studios.[citation needed]
In the "party of the nobles", attended by Marcello in a castle outside Rome, some of the servants and waiters (as well as some of the guests) are played by real aristocrats.
Fellini scrapped a major scene that would have involved the relationship of Marcello with an older writer living in a tower, to be played by thirties actress Luise Rainer. After many difficult dealings with Rainer, Fellini abandoned the scene, to which the actress reacted furiously, complaining that she had "spoiled a priceless piece of cloth to dress this character that will never be!"[citation needed]
[edit] Early appearances by stars
Fashion model and singer Christa Paffgen, who adopted the pseudonym of Nico and later performed with the Velvet Underground before pursuing a solo career, plays herself in the "party of the nobles" scene.
Adriano Celentano, who later became famous in Italy as a singer and actor, appears in the scene in the pseudo-ancient Roman nightclub, where Marcello makes his first advances to Sylvia.
[edit] Awards and recognition
Hailed as “one of the all-time classics of European Cinema” by The New York Times[citation needed], La Dolce Vita earned the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the 1961 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (designed by art director Piero Gherardi).
[edit] Influence
The character of Paparazzo, the news photographer (played by Walter Santesso) who works with Marcello, is the origin of the word used in many languages (normally in the plural, paparazzi) to describe intrusive photographers.'[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- South Beach Magazine Article with original cast photos.
- La dolce vita at the Internet Movie Database
- Photos of Via Veneto and Roma
- Roger Ebert on La Dolce Vita
- In depth essay on La Dolce Vita
| Federico Fellini |
|---|
|
Variety Lights (1950) • The White Sheik (1951) • I Vitelloni (1953) • L'Amore in Città (1953) • La Strada (1954) • Il Bidone (1955) • Nights of Cabiria (1957) • La Dolce Vita (1960) • Boccaccio '70 (1962) • 8½ (1963) • Juliet of the Spirits (1965) • Satyricon (1969) • I Clowns (1970) • Roma (1972) • Amarcord (1973) • Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976) • Prova d'orchestra (1979) • La città delle donne (1980) • E la Nave Va (1983) • Ginger and Fred (1986) • Intervista (1987) • La voce della luna (1990) |
| Preceded by Black Orpheus |
Palme d'Or 1960 |
Succeeded by The Long Absence tied with Viridiana |
