La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita (
1960) (translation "The Sweet Life") is a film directed by
Federico Fellini and usually cited as the
film that signals the split between his earlier
neo-realist films and his later
symbolist period. Lacking traditional plot structure, the film is 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, as in his dealings with his simple, jealous lover (
Yvonne Furneaux), a sophisticated woman (
Anouk Aimée) with whom he has an episodic relationship, a beautiful bombshell (
Anita Ekberg) whom he follows in her wanderings through Rome (including the notable scene of her night bath in the
Fontana di Trevi), and a multitude of other characters that 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.
In the film's famous 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 theme of miscommunication replays itself throughout the film.
Among the more famous episodes of
La Dolce Vita 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 episode involves Steiner (played by
Alain Cuny), an intellectual friend of Marcello with a 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.
La Dolce Vita earned the
Palme d'Or at the 1960
Cannes Film Festival and the
1961 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (designed by art director
Piero Gherardi).
* The character 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 these intrusive photographers.
* One of the major scenes of the film would turn around 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 decided to scrap the scene for good, to which the actress reacted furiously, complaining that she had "spoiled a priceless piece of cloth to dress this character that will never be!"
* 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. Fashion model and singer Christa Paffgen, who adopted the pseudonym of
Nico and later performed with the
Velvet Underground before pursuing a solo career, also plays herself in the scene.
* The scene in the ancient-look-alike Roman nightclub, where Marcello makes his first advances to Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) also features an appearance by
Adriano Celentano, who later on became famous in
Italy as a singer and actor.
*
South Beach Magazine Article with original cast photos.
*
Photos of Via Veneto and Roma
