La Dolce Vita
2004 DVD release. Pictured: Anita Ekberg
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
Release date	February 3, 1960 (Italy)
Running time	174 Min Germany 177 Min Portugal 165 Min USA 180 Min (premiere)
Language	Italian French English German
IMDb profile

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 rides in a helicopter carrying a statue of Jesus to the Vatican. Along the way, the 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 are the large-scale, Goyesque scene of the false miracle, when two children fake an appearance of the Virgin on the outskirts of Rome, drawing immense crowds, and the episode of 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).

Trivia

• 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.

External links

• South Beach Magazine Article with original cast photos.
• La dolce vita at the Internet Movie Database
• Photos of Via Veneto and Roma