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| Federico Fellini | 1961 |
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 Italy  |
La Dolce Vita is a classic by a classic film maker. You'll need to set aside a goodly chunk of time to see it. The movie's two hours and forty seven minutes long. It does drag a bit in the middle so you'll probably be wanting to be bright eyed and bushy tailed when you see it. You may even want to make a pot{s} of coffee and warm up a few danishes and devote a Sunday afternoon to it. Properly prepared, you'll get a lot out of the film. It's not something to try to squeeze in some evening after dinner and drinks. The first time I saw this was in a film class many years ago. There are better places to see it.
The movie's primary concern is modern life. {This is 1961 but it's applicable to many of the years since.} The emptiness of modern life, the pointlessness of much of it... our isolation from one another, our search for easy, fast gratification, the lack of substance... the cult of celebrity... most every important subject that's been dealt with in modern cinema is dealt with in some way here. The culture Fellini's dealing with here is the rich, young, upper crust of Rome, Italy. The women in the film run the gamut from beautiful to gorgeous, the men run the gamut... Marcello Mastroianni plays a jaded, sexy, reporter type that serves us as a sort of guide into this world as well as playing leading man and providing us with an oftentimes anti-hero. Marcello drives a Triumph TR3. I used to drive a Triumph TR3. Marcello's got good taste in cars. Piero Gherardi won the academy award for Best {black and white} Costume Design for this movie. I suppose that means that the filmmakers have pretty good taste in clothes too.
The film begins with a helicopter, which has a very large statue of Jesus Christ dangling from the underside, flying through ruins in Rome. Cut to girls in swimsuits standing atop a building waving to "Jesus" and flirting with the guys in the cockpit. ...Jesus flys over Rome for a while then we cut to a very bizarre Asian {Thai?} ritual being performed onstage in a night club. The camera wanders around the club for a while. While we're here, we meet Marcello and a photographer and "Maddalena {Anouk Aimee}". Maddalena is very rich and very jaded and ends up being a fairly central character in the film. Marcello runs into Maddalena at the bar and they exit soon thereafter.
As they leave the club, Marcello and Maddalena are surrounded by hordes of paparazzi. Paparazzi, in this film are portrayed very much like cockroaches or some sort of parasite. Everywhere these people go there are a half dozen or so guys with flash cameras scuttling to and fro about them. Marcello and Maddalena drive off in the Triumph, pick up a "working woman" and give her a ride home. When they get to her apartment they find that it's flooded. The woman curses the engineers that designed the place, straightens a few 2x12s that she's made a sort of bridge/walkway from and goes to make coffee. While she's making coffee, Marcello and Maddalena sneak into a dry room and have sex. The next morning they drive off and the woman invites them to stop by anytime they like. Cut to Emma {Yvonne Furneaux... Marcello's girlfriend}, stumbling drunkenly through her apartment. Marcello stops by, discovers that Emma's attempted to kill herself and drives her to the hospital for treatment. We spend some time at the hospital getting Emma back on her feet and talking with the nuns that run the place.
Cut to an airport. A private jet is coming in for a landing. Papparazzi scuttle into position and Sylvia {Anita Ekberg} mugs it up for the camera as she disembarks. Cut to a press conference. Sylvia flirts with everyone and all sorts of newsmen ask her all sorts of questions. Marcello gets a phone call from Emma who wants to know if he's alone with Sylvia. Emma wants Marcello to come home and spend the day with her. Marcello has other plans. He and Sylvia are going nightclubbing. They end up in a nifty club where you'll get to hear a lovely, jazz, version of "Arrivederci Roma" and some pretty surreal rock and roll. After some off the wall party scenes, Sylvia breaks up with her drunken boyfriend, Marcello and Sylvia run off by themselves, Sylvia spends some time howling at the moon then wanders around Rome with a kitten on her head and ends her travels by walking into a very large fountain. Back at the hotel the next morning, Robert, Sylvia's hung over boyfriend, slaps her and tells her to get some sleep then pounds on Marcello for a bit.
After a quick trip to church, Marcello's back at it again. This time he's got Emma in tow. There are a few humorous scenes here where they fight over bananas and breakfast. Marcello and Emma are on their way to cover a news story. Some local children have seen the Virgin Mary in a vacant lot and half of Rome seems really desperate to see the same apparition. Many newspeople are there to cover the story as well. The children run hither and yon across the lot looking for Mary to no avail. Many people follow them while they do this. It begins to rain, a riot ensues, a man is killed and morning sees Emma and Marcello looking on as the local priesthood is performing the appropriate rite. As the movie moves on Marcello spends much time cavorting and frolicking and driving across Rome in his Triumph, we have a murder suicide, a striptease, many parties, meet many new, exciting and bizarre characters and spend some time with a very large dead fish. I can't give it any other grade. Be warned that La Dolce Vita is a challenging film.
