La Dolce Vita
Encyclopedia
La Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film
written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini
. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come. Generally cited as the film that marks the transition between Fellini's earlier neo-realist
films and his later art films, it is widely considered one of the great achievements in world cinema.
A helicopter transports a statue of Christ over an ancient Roman aqueduct outside Rome while a second, Marcello's news helicopter, follows it into the city. The news helicopter is momentarily sidetracked by a group of bikini-clad women sunbathing on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building. Hovering above, Marcello uses gestures to elicit phone numbers from them but fails in his attempt then shrugs and continues on following the statue into Saint Peter's Square
.
) by chance in an exclusive nightclub. A beautiful and wealthy heiress, Maddelena is tired of Rome and constantly in search of new sensations while Marcello finds Rome suits him as a jungle he can hide in. They make love in the bedroom of a prostitute to whom they had given a ride home in Maddalena’s Cadillac.
1st Dawn Sequence: Marcello returns to his apartment at dawn to find that his fiancée, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux
), has overdosed. On the way to the hospital, he declares his everlasting love to her and again as she lies in a semiconscious state in the emergency room. While waiting frantically for her recovery, however, he tries to make a phone call to Maddalena.
), a famous Swedish-American actress, at Ciampino airport where she is met by a horde of news reporters.
During Sylvia's press conference, Marcello calls home to ensure Emma has taken her medication while reassuring her that he is not alone with Sylvia. After the film star confidently replies to the barrage of journalists' questions, Marcello casually recommends that Sylvia be taken on a tour of St Peter's.
Inside St Peter's dome, a news reporter complains that Sylvia is "an elevator" because none of them can match her energetic climb up the numerous flights of stairs. Inspired, Marcello maneuvers forward to be alone with her when they finally reach the balcony overlooking the Vatican.
2nd Night Sequence: That evening, an infatuated Marcello dances with Sylvia in the Baths of Caracalla
. Sylvia's natural sensuality triggers raucous partying while Robert (Lex Barker
), her bored fiancé, reads a newspaper. His humiliating remark to her causes Sylvia to leave the group, eagerly followed by Marcello and his paparazzi
colleagues. Finding themselves alone, Marcello and Sylvia spend the rest of the evening in the alleys of Rome where they wade into the Trevi Fountain
.
2nd Dawn Sequence: Like a magic spell that has suddenly been broken, dawn arrives at the very moment Sylvia playfully "anoints" Marcello's head with fountain water. They drive back to Sylvia's hotel to find an enraged Robert waiting for her in his car. Robert slaps Sylvia, orders her to go to bed, and then assaults Marcello who takes it in stride.
), his distinguished intellectual friend, inside a church playing Bach
on the organ. Steiner shows off his book of Sanskrit
grammar.
by two children. Although the Catholic Church is officially skeptical, a huge crowd of devotees and reporters gathers at the site.
3rd Night Sequence: That night, the event is broadcast over Italian radio and television. Blindly following the two children from corner to corner in a downpour, the crowd tears a small tree apart for its branches and leaves said to have sheltered the Madonna. Meanwhile, Emma prays to the Virgin Mary to be given sole possession of Marcello's heart.
3rd Dawn Sequence: The gathering ends at dawn with the crowd mourning a sick child, a pilgrim brought by his mother to be healed, but trampled to death in the melee.
s who recite inane poetry, strum the guitar, offer shallow ideas, and listen to sounds of nature recorded on tape. While one of the women declares it better not to get married so that one does not need to choose, Marcello responds that it is better to be chosen than to choose. Emma appears enchanted with Steiner's home and children, telling Marcello that one day he will have a home like Steiner's.
Outside on the terrace, Marcello confesses to Steiner his admiration for all he stands for, but Steiner admits he is torn between the security that a materialistic life affords and his longing for a more spiritual albeit insecure way of life. Steiner philosophizes about the need for love in the world and fears what his children may grow up to face one day.
's cha-cha Patricia
on the jukebox and then humming its tune. He asks her if she has a boyfriend, then describes her as an angel in Umbrian paintings.
. With Paparazzo, they go to the Cha-Cha-Cha Club where Marcello introduces his father to Fanny (Magali Noël
), a beautiful dancer, effectively offering him female companionship for the night. When Fanny invites Marcello’s father back to her flat, he suffers a mild heart attack.
4th Dawn Sequence: Despite Marcello's insistence that he stay and talk, his father hops on a taxi to catch the first train home.
), and other friends met on the Via Veneto are driven to a castle owned by aristocrats at Bassano di Sutri outside Rome. There, Maddalena seats Marcello in a vast room and then installs herself in another connected by an echo chamber. Professing her love and devotion to Marcello, Maddalena asks him to marry her while being kissed and fondled by another man. Unaware of her duplicity, Marcello offers confused replies that simply echo in a void.
When the group explores a suite of ruins annexed to the castle, Marcello is seduced by Jane, a man-eating American heiress (Audrey McDonald).
5th Dawn Sequence: Burnt out and bleary-eyed, the group returns at dawn to the main section of the castle.
6th Dawn Sequence: While in bed with Emma, Marcello receives a phone call. He rushes to the Steiners' apartment and learns that Steiner has killed himself and his two children.
6th Day Sequence: After waiting with the police for Steiner’s wife to return home, he meets her outside to break the terrible news while paparazzi swarm around her snapping pictures.
to Perez Prado
's cha-cha Patricia
. The drunken Marcello attempts to provoke the other partygoers into an orgy
. Due to their inebriated states, however, the party descends into mayhem with Marcello throwing pillow feathers around the room as he rides a young woman crawling on her hands and knees. Riccardo shows up at the house and angrily tells the partiers to leave.
, a bloated, stingray
-like creature, caught in the fishermen's nets. In his stupor, Marcello comments on how its eyes stare even in death.
7th Day Sequence: Paola, the adolescent waitress from the seaside restaurant in Fregene, yells for Marcello's attention from across an estuary but the words they exchange are lost on the wind, drowned out by the crash of the waves. He signals his inability to understand what she is saying or interpret her enigmatic gestures. Giving up, he shrugs and turns to join the partygoers as they move away from the coastline. The film ends in a long close-up of Paola waving to Marcello with an enigmatic smile.
In the film's opening sequence, a plaster statue of Christ
the Labourer suspended by cables from a helicopter, flies past the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct. The statue is being taken to the Pope at the Vatican
. Journalist Marcello and a photographer named Paparazzo follow in a second helicopter. The symbolism of Christ, arms outstretched as if blessing all of Rome as it flies overhead, is soon replaced by the profane lifestyle and neomodern architecture of the "new" Rome founded on the economic miracle of the late 1950s. (Much of this was actually filmed in Cinecittà
or in EUR, the Mussolini-style area south of Rome.) The delivery of the statue is the first of many recurring scenes placing religious icons in the midst of characters demonstrating their "modern" morality influenced by the booming economy and the emerging mass-consumer lifestyle.
newspaper L'Osservatore Romano
in 1960. Subject to widespread censorship, the film was banned in Spain until 1975 after the death of Franco
. Umberto Tupini, the Minister of Culture of the Tambroni government
censored it and other "shameful films".
in 1957. In various interviews, Fellini claimed that the film's initial inspiration was in fact this particular style. Brunello Rondi, Fellini's co-screenwriter and long-time collaborator, confirmed this view explaining that "the fashion of women's sack dresses which possessed that sense of luxurious butterflying out around a body that might be physically beautiful but not morally so; these sack dresses struck Fellini because they rendered a woman very gorgeous who could, instead, be a skeleton of squalor and solitude inside."
Credit for the creation of Steiner (played by Alain Cuny
), the intellectual who commits suicide after shooting his two children, goes to co-screenwriter Tullio Pinelli
. Having gone to school with Italian novelist Cesare Pavese
, Pinelli had closely followed the writer's career and felt that his over-intellectualism had become emotionally sterile, leading to his suicide in a Turin hotel in 1950. This idea of a "burnt-out existence" is carried over to Steiner in the party episode where the sounds of nature are not to be experienced first-hand by himself and his guests but in the virtual world of tape recordings.
Most (but not all) of the film was shot at the Cinecittà
Studios in Rome. Set designer Piero Gherardi
created over eighty locations, including the Via Veneto
, the dome of Saint Peter's
with the staircase leading up to it, and various nightclubs. However, other sequences were shot on location such as the party at the aristocrats' castle filmed in the real Bassano di Sutri
palace north of Rome. (Some of the servants, waiters, and guests were played by real aristocrats.) Fellini combined constructed sets with location shots, depending on script requirements—a real location often "gave birth to the modified scene and, consequently, the newly constructed set." The film's famous last scenes where the monster fish is pulled out of the sea and Marcello waves goodbye to Paola (the teenage "Umbrian angel") were shot on location at Passo Oscuro, a small resort town situated on the Italian coast 30 kilometers north of Rome.
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 1930s Academy Award-winning actress Luise Rainer
. After many difficult dealings with Rainer, Fellini abandoned the scene.
The famous scene in the Trevi Fountain
was shot over a week in winter: in March according to the BBC, in late January according to Anita Ekberg. Fellini claimed that Ekberg stood in the cold water in her dress for hours without any trouble while Mastroianni had to wear a wetsuit beneath his clothes - to no avail. It was only after "he polished off a bottle of vodka" that Fellini could shoot the scene with a drunk Mastroianni.
Interrupting these seven episodes is the restaurant sequence with the angelic Paola; they are framed by a prologue (Christ statue over Rome) and epilogue (the monster fish), giving the film its innovative and symmetrically symbolic structure. The evocations are obvious: seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven virtues, seven days of creation.
Other critics claim that this widespread view of the film's structure is inaccurate. Peter Bondanella, for example, argues that "any critic of La dolce vita not mesmerized by the magic number seven will find it almost impossible to organize the numerous sequences on a strictly numerological basis."
and Tullio Pinelli
, forged a cinematic narrative that rejected continuity, unnecessary explanations, and narrative logic in favour of seven non-linear encounters between Marcello, a kind of Dantesque Pilgrim, and an underworld of 120 different characters. These encounters build up a cumulative impression on the viewer that finds resolution in an "overpowering sense of the disparity between what life has been or could be, and what it actually is."
In a device used earlier in his films, Fellini orders the disparate succession of sequences as movements from evening to dawn. Also employed as an ordering device is the image of a downward spiral that Marcello sets in motion when descending the first of several staircases (including ladders) that open and close each major episode. The upshot is that the film's aesthetic form, rather than its content, embodies the overall theme of Rome as a moral wasteland.
, Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
highlighted the film's variations in tone: "Highly expressive throughout, Fellini seems to change the tone according to the subject matter of each episode, ranging from expressionist caricature to pure neo-realism
. In general, the tendency to caricature is greater the more severe the film's moral judgement although this is never totally contemptuous, there being always a touch of complacence and participation, as in the final orgy scene or the episode at the aristocrats' castle outside Rome, the latter being particularly effective for its descriptive acuteness and narrative rhythm."
In Filmcritica XI, Italian poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini
argued that "La dolce vita was too important to be discussed as one would normally discuss a film. Though not as great as Chaplin
, Eisenstein
or Mizoguchi
, Fellini is unquestionably an author rather than a director. The film is therefore his and his alone... The camera moves and fixes the image in such a way as to create a sort of diaphragm around each object, thus making the object’s relationship to the world appear as irrational and magical. As each new episode begins, the camera is already in motion using complicated movements. Frequently, however, these sinuous movements are brutally punctuated by a very simple documentary shot, like a quotation written in everyday language".
In France, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, film critic and co-founder of Cahiers du cinéma
, felt that "what La dolce vita lacks is the structure of a masterpiece. In fact, the film has no proper structure: it is a succession of cinematic moments, some more convincing than others… In the face of criticism, La Dolce Vita disintegrates, leaving behind little more than a sequence of events with no common denominator linking them into a meaningful whole".
The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther
praised Fellini’s “brilliantly graphic estimation of a whole swath of society in sad decay and, eventually, a withering commentary on the tragedy of the over-civilized… Fellini is nothing if not fertile, fierce and urbane in calculating the social scene around him and packing it onto the screen. He has an uncanny eye for finding the offbeat and grotesque incident, the gross and bizarre occurrence that exposes a glaring irony. He has, too, a splendid sense of balance and a deliciously sardonic wit that not only guided his cameras but also affected the writing of the script. In sum, it is an awesome picture, licentious in content but moral and vastly sophisticated in its attitude and what it says".
To this day, La Dolce Vita remains a classic and one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time. Film critic Roger Ebert
considers it Fellini’s best film and lists it in his Top 10.
. It was nominated for four Academy Awards
, winning one for Best Costume Design: Black-and-White. La dolce vita also earned the Palme d'Or
(Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival
. It was voted the 6th Greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly
.
In 2010, the film was ranked #11 in Empire
magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema".
used in many languages to describe intrusive photographers.The character of 'Paparazzo' is inspired by photojournalists Tazio Secchiaroli
and Marcello Geppetti
.. As to the origin of the character's name itself, Fellini scholar Peter Bondanella argues that although "it is indeed an Italian family name, the word is probably a corruption of the word papataceo, a large and bothersome mosquito. Ennio Flaiano, the film's co-screenwriter and creator of Paparazzo, reports that he took the name from a character in a novel by George Gissing
." Gissing's character, Signor Paparazzo, is found in his travel book, By the Ionian Sea (1901).
The film has influenced or else been referenced in contemporary films, television shows, and songs. In Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation
(2003), Kelly's interview for LIT resembles Sylvia's interview scenes in La dolce vita. Charlotte and Bob later meet in the middle of the night and watch the famous Trevi Fountain sequence while drinking sake. Coppola said, "I saw that movie on TV when I was in Japan. It's not plot-driven, it's about them wandering around. And there was something with the Japanese subtitles and them speaking Italian - it had a truly enchanting quality". Steve Martin
's L.A. Story
(1991) opens with a hotdog stand dangling under a helicopter passing by a roof-top pool with the sunbathing women waving as it passes, a reference to the opening scene of a statue of Christ being carried into the Vatican in La dolce vita. In Goodbye Lenin (2003), directed by Wolfgang Becker
, a statue of Lenin is flown across Berlin
, recalling the opening scene of Fellini's film. The title of Korean film, A Bittersweet Life
(2005), is a pun on the English translation of La dolce vita ("The Sweet Life") and the restaurant that the protagonist enforces for the mob is called La Dolce Vita. The two protagonists of Marcos Carnevale's Elsa y Fred
(2005) recreate the scene in the Fontana di Trevi performed originally by Ekberg and Mastroianni while in Simon Pegg
's How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
(2008), Alison (Kirsten Dunst
) cites La dolce vita as her favourite movie. Fellini's film is later shown playing on a large, outdoor cinema screen. In the Daria
episode "Fire", Daria is quoted saying "watching a dead fish wash up on shore always puts me in a good mood" in reference to recommending the film earlier in the episode. Woody Allen
's Celebrity
(1998) is a New York-set re-working of La dolce vita with Kenneth Branagh
taking up Mastroianni's role, and Goldie Hawn
and Charlize Theron
taking on the roles held by Anouk Aimée and Anita Ekberg, respectively.
Comediennes Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
drew from La dolce vita (among other Fellini films) for an episode of their eponymous television comedy, French & Saunders
. Entitled "Franco E Sandro" (a faux-Italian title for the show), the episode parodied the surreal motifs in Fellini's films, including replacing the flight of the Christ statue with a statue of Madonna
. In the episode "Marco Polo
" of the TV series The Sopranos
, Junior Soprano
falls asleep watching La dolce vita. When Bobby Baccalieri
enters the room, Junior wakes up and comments on the statue of Christ hanging from the helicopter saying, "You can tell it's fake." Homer Simpson dresses for his date with Marge in "Some Enchanted Evening
" while humming the theme from La dolce vita.
Steiner's pessimistic speech about the future is quoted in an English translation in the song "The Certainty of Chance" by The Divine Comedy from their 1998 album Fin de Siècle
. It is the speech that begins, "Sometimes at night the darkness and silence frightens me. Peace frightens me. I feel it's only a facade, hiding the face of hell." Fashion model and singer Christa Päffgen, 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. Bob Dylan
's "Motorpsycho Nitemare" from Another Side of Bob Dylan
(1964) references the title of the film as does Blondie
's "Pretty Baby" from Parallel Lines
(1978).
Tributes to Fellini in the "Director's Cut" of Cinema Paradiso (1988) include a helicopter suspending a statue of Christ over the city and scenes in which the Trevi Fountain is used as a backdrop while Toto, the main character, grows up to be a famous film director.
The 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun
has a tribute to the famous scene in the Trevi Fountain
. One of the characters (Catherine), dances in a fountain in a manner reminiscent of Anita Ekberg's scene.
(1960). La dolce vita. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert Editeur. Ricciardi, Alessia (2000). "The Spleen of Rome: Mourning Modernism in Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita'". in Modernism/Modernity, Volume 7, no. 2, 2000, p. 201-219.
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come. Generally cited as the film that marks the transition between Fellini's earlier neo-realist
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
films and his later art films, it is widely considered one of the great achievements in world cinema.
Plot
Based on the most common interpretation of the storyline, the film can be divided into a prologue, seven major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and an epilogue. If the evenings of each episode were joined with the morning of the respective preceding episode together as a day, they would form seven consecutive days, which may not necessarily be the case.Prologue
1st Day Sequence:A helicopter transports a statue of Christ over an ancient Roman aqueduct outside Rome while a second, Marcello's news helicopter, follows it into the city. The news helicopter is momentarily sidetracked by a group of bikini-clad women sunbathing on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building. Hovering above, Marcello uses gestures to elicit phone numbers from them but fails in his attempt then shrugs and continues on following the statue into Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome .-History of St...
.
Episode 1
1st Night Sequence: Marcello meets Maddalena (Anouk AiméeAnouk Aimée
Anouk Aimée is a French film actress. Aimée has appeared in 70 films since 1947. She began her film career in 1947 at age 14. In 1958 she portrayed the tragic artist Jeanne Hébuterne in the film Les Amants de Montparnasse...
) by chance in an exclusive nightclub. A beautiful and wealthy heiress, Maddelena is tired of Rome and constantly in search of new sensations while Marcello finds Rome suits him as a jungle he can hide in. They make love in the bedroom of a prostitute to whom they had given a ride home in Maddalena’s Cadillac.
1st Dawn Sequence: Marcello returns to his apartment at dawn to find that his fiancée, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux
Yvonne Furneaux
Yvonne Furneaux is a French film actress.-Personal life:Yvonne Furneax started her acting career in England in 1952. At first she started with a few minor productions...
), has overdosed. On the way to the hospital, he declares his everlasting love to her and again as she lies in a semiconscious state in the emergency room. While waiting frantically for her recovery, however, he tries to make a phone call to Maddalena.
Episode 2
2nd Day Sequence: That day, he goes on assignment for the arrival of Sylvia (Anita EkbergAnita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
), a famous Swedish-American actress, at Ciampino airport where she is met by a horde of news reporters.
During Sylvia's press conference, Marcello calls home to ensure Emma has taken her medication while reassuring her that he is not alone with Sylvia. After the film star confidently replies to the barrage of journalists' questions, Marcello casually recommends that Sylvia be taken on a tour of St Peter's.
Inside St Peter's dome, a news reporter complains that Sylvia is "an elevator" because none of them can match her energetic climb up the numerous flights of stairs. Inspired, Marcello maneuvers forward to be alone with her when they finally reach the balcony overlooking the Vatican.
2nd Night Sequence: That evening, an infatuated Marcello dances with Sylvia in the Baths of Caracalla
Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla.- History :...
. Sylvia's natural sensuality triggers raucous partying while Robert (Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
), her bored fiancé, reads a newspaper. His humiliating remark to her causes Sylvia to leave the group, eagerly followed by Marcello and his paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
colleagues. Finding themselves alone, Marcello and Sylvia spend the rest of the evening in the alleys of Rome where they wade into the Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....
.
2nd Dawn Sequence: Like a magic spell that has suddenly been broken, dawn arrives at the very moment Sylvia playfully "anoints" Marcello's head with fountain water. They drive back to Sylvia's hotel to find an enraged Robert waiting for her in his car. Robert slaps Sylvia, orders her to go to bed, and then assaults Marcello who takes it in stride.
Episode 3a
3rd Day Sequence: Marcello meets Steiner (Alain CunyAlain Cuny
Alain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
), his distinguished intellectual friend, inside a church playing Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
on the organ. Steiner shows off his book of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
grammar.
Episode 4
4th Day Sequence: Late afternoon, Marcello, his photographer friend Paparazzo (Walter Santesso), and Emma drive to the outskirts of Rome to cover the story of the purported sighting of the MadonnaMadonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
by two children. Although the Catholic Church is officially skeptical, a huge crowd of devotees and reporters gathers at the site.
3rd Night Sequence: That night, the event is broadcast over Italian radio and television. Blindly following the two children from corner to corner in a downpour, the crowd tears a small tree apart for its branches and leaves said to have sheltered the Madonna. Meanwhile, Emma prays to the Virgin Mary to be given sole possession of Marcello's heart.
3rd Dawn Sequence: The gathering ends at dawn with the crowd mourning a sick child, a pilgrim brought by his mother to be healed, but trampled to death in the melee.
Episode 3b
4th Night Sequence: One evening, Marcello and Emma attend a gathering at Steiner’s luxurious home where they are introduced to an absurd group of intellectualIntellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s who recite inane poetry, strum the guitar, offer shallow ideas, and listen to sounds of nature recorded on tape. While one of the women declares it better not to get married so that one does not need to choose, Marcello responds that it is better to be chosen than to choose. Emma appears enchanted with Steiner's home and children, telling Marcello that one day he will have a home like Steiner's.
Outside on the terrace, Marcello confesses to Steiner his admiration for all he stands for, but Steiner admits he is torn between the security that a materialistic life affords and his longing for a more spiritual albeit insecure way of life. Steiner philosophizes about the need for love in the world and fears what his children may grow up to face one day.
Intermezzo
5th Day Sequence: Marcello spends the afternoon working on his novel at a seaside restaurant where he meets Paola (Valeria Ciangottini), a young waitress from Perugia playing Perez PradoPerez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, musician , and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.His orchestra was the most popular in mambo...
's cha-cha Patricia
Patricia (Perez Prado song)
"Patricia" is a popular song with music by Perez Prado and lyrics by Bob Marcus, published in 1958. The song is best known in an instrumental version by Prado's orchestra that became the last record to ascend to #1 on the Billboard Jockeys and Top 100 charts, both of which gave way the next week...
on the jukebox and then humming its tune. He asks her if she has a boyfriend, then describes her as an angel in Umbrian paintings.
Episode 5
5th Night Sequence: Marcello meets his father (Annibale Ninchi) visiting Rome on the Via VenetoVia Veneto
Via Veneto is one of the most famous streets in Rome, Italy.The official name is via Vittorio Veneto, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto....
. With Paparazzo, they go to the Cha-Cha-Cha Club where Marcello introduces his father to Fanny (Magali Noël
Magali Noël
Magali Noël is a Turkish-French actress and singer. Originally from Izmir, she emigrated from Turkey to France in 1951, and her acting career began soon thereafter. She acted in multilingual cinema chiefly from 1951 to 1980, doing several films in Italian with renowned director Federico Fellini,...
), a beautiful dancer, effectively offering him female companionship for the night. When Fanny invites Marcello’s father back to her flat, he suffers a mild heart attack.
4th Dawn Sequence: Despite Marcello's insistence that he stay and talk, his father hops on a taxi to catch the first train home.
Episode 6
6th Night Sequence: Marcello, Nico (NicoNico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
), and other friends met on the Via Veneto are driven to a castle owned by aristocrats at Bassano di Sutri outside Rome. There, Maddalena seats Marcello in a vast room and then installs herself in another connected by an echo chamber. Professing her love and devotion to Marcello, Maddalena asks him to marry her while being kissed and fondled by another man. Unaware of her duplicity, Marcello offers confused replies that simply echo in a void.
When the group explores a suite of ruins annexed to the castle, Marcello is seduced by Jane, a man-eating American heiress (Audrey McDonald).
5th Dawn Sequence: Burnt out and bleary-eyed, the group returns at dawn to the main section of the castle.
Episode 3c
7th Night Sequence: Marcello has a violent argument with Emma in which he tells her that her love is maternal and smothering. She argues that to find a woman who loves Marcello as much as she does is what is important in life. He retorts that he cannot go on living being "loved" by her then demands that she get out of the car. She refuses. With some violence (a bite from her and a slap from him), he throws her out of the car and drives off. After a change of heart, he returns hours later to find her smoking a cigarette and picking flowers at the same spot he left her. She gets in the car without saying a word.6th Dawn Sequence: While in bed with Emma, Marcello receives a phone call. He rushes to the Steiners' apartment and learns that Steiner has killed himself and his two children.
6th Day Sequence: After waiting with the police for Steiner’s wife to return home, he meets her outside to break the terrible news while paparazzi swarm around her snapping pictures.
Episode 7
8th Night Sequence: An unspecified amount of time later, an older Marcello--now with gray in his hair-- and a group of partygoers break into a Fregene beach house owned by Riccardo, a friend of Marcello's. To celebrate her recent divorce from Riccardo, Nadia performs a stripteaseStriptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
to Perez Prado
Perez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, musician , and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.His orchestra was the most popular in mambo...
's cha-cha Patricia
Patricia (Perez Prado song)
"Patricia" is a popular song with music by Perez Prado and lyrics by Bob Marcus, published in 1958. The song is best known in an instrumental version by Prado's orchestra that became the last record to ascend to #1 on the Billboard Jockeys and Top 100 charts, both of which gave way the next week...
. The drunken Marcello attempts to provoke the other partygoers into an orgy
Orgy
In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party where guests engage in promiscuous or multifarious sexual activity or group sex. An orgy is similar to debauchery, which refers to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures....
. Due to their inebriated states, however, the party descends into mayhem with Marcello throwing pillow feathers around the room as he rides a young woman crawling on her hands and knees. Riccardo shows up at the house and angrily tells the partiers to leave.
Epilogue
7th Dawn Sequence: The party proceeds to the beach at dawn where they find a modern-day leviathanLeviathan
Leviathan , is a sea monster referred to in the Bible. In Demonology, Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and its gatekeeper . The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature...
, a bloated, stingray
Stingray
The stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes, and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae , Plesiobatidae , Urolophidae , Urotrygonidae , Dasyatidae , Potamotrygonidae The...
-like creature, caught in the fishermen's nets. In his stupor, Marcello comments on how its eyes stare even in death.
7th Day Sequence: Paola, the adolescent waitress from the seaside restaurant in Fregene, yells for Marcello's attention from across an estuary but the words they exchange are lost on the wind, drowned out by the crash of the waves. He signals his inability to understand what she is saying or interpret her enigmatic gestures. Giving up, he shrugs and turns to join the partygoers as they move away from the coastline. The film ends in a long close-up of Paola waving to Marcello with an enigmatic smile.
Cast
- Marcello MastroianniMarcello MastroianniMarcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
as Marcello Rubini - Anita EkbergAnita EkbergKerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
as Sylvia - Anouk AiméeAnouk AiméeAnouk Aimée is a French film actress. Aimée has appeared in 70 films since 1947. She began her film career in 1947 at age 14. In 1958 she portrayed the tragic artist Jeanne Hébuterne in the film Les Amants de Montparnasse...
as Maddalena - Yvonne FurneauxYvonne FurneauxYvonne Furneaux is a French film actress.-Personal life:Yvonne Furneax started her acting career in England in 1952. At first she started with a few minor productions...
as Emma - Magali NoëlMagali NoëlMagali Noël is a Turkish-French actress and singer. Originally from Izmir, she emigrated from Turkey to France in 1951, and her acting career began soon thereafter. She acted in multilingual cinema chiefly from 1951 to 1980, doing several films in Italian with renowned director Federico Fellini,...
as Fanny - Alain CunyAlain CunyAlain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
as Steiner - Nadia GrayNadia GrayNadia Gray was a Romanian-born film actress.Born Nadia Kujnir-Herescu in Bucharest, she left Romania for Paris in the late 1940s to escape the Communist takeover after World War II. Her film debut was in L'Inconnu d'un soirin 1949...
as Nadia - Annibale Ninchi as Marcello's father
- Walter Santesso as Paparazzo
- Valeria Ciangottini as Paola
- Riccardo GarroneRiccardo Garrone (actor)Riccardo Garrone is an Italian film actor. He has appeared in over 140 films since 1949.-Selected filmography:* Two Nights with Cleopatra * Woman of Rome * Doctor and the Healer...
as Riccardo - Ida GalliIda GalliIda Galli is an Italian film actress best known for her roles in Spaghetti Western films in the 1960s and 1970s.She has made over 60 film appearances since 1960. She starred in films such as Adios Gringo , Blood For A Silver Dollar often billed as Evelyn Stewart alongside Giuliano Gemma .-...
as Debutante of the Year - Audrey McDonald as Jane
- Polidor as Clown
- Gloria Jones as Gloria
- Alain Dijon as Frankie Stout
- Enzo Cerusico as Newspaper photographer
- NicoNicoNico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
as Nico
Themes and motifs
Marcello is a journalist in Rome during the late 1950s who covers tabloid news of movie stars, religious visions and the self-indulgent aristocracy while searching for a more meaningful way of life. Depicting the ease, confusion, and frequency with which Marcello is distracted by women, the film's theme "is predominantly café society, the diverse and glittery world rebuilt upon the ruins and poverty" of the Italian postwar period.In the film's opening sequence, a plaster statue of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
the Labourer suspended by cables from a helicopter, flies past the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct. The statue is being taken to the Pope at the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. Journalist Marcello and a photographer named Paparazzo follow in a second helicopter. The symbolism of Christ, arms outstretched as if blessing all of Rome as it flies overhead, is soon replaced by the profane lifestyle and neomodern architecture of the "new" Rome founded on the economic miracle of the late 1950s. (Much of this was actually filmed in Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
or in EUR, the Mussolini-style area south of Rome.) The delivery of the statue is the first of many recurring scenes placing religious icons in the midst of characters demonstrating their "modern" morality influenced by the booming economy and the emerging mass-consumer lifestyle.
Censorship
Perceived by the Catholic Church as a parody of Christ's second coming, the scene and the entire film were condemned by the VaticanHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
newspaper L'Osservatore Romano
L'Osservatore Romano
L'Osservatore Romano is the "semi-official" newspaper of the Holy See. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released...
in 1960. Subject to widespread censorship, the film was banned in Spain until 1975 after the death of Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. Umberto Tupini, the Minister of Culture of the Tambroni government
Fernando Tambroni
Fernando Tambroni Armaroli was an Italian politician of the Christian Democratic Party. He was a lawyer, a prominent supporter of law and order policies, and for a brief time in 1960, the 37th Prime Minister of Italy...
censored it and other "shameful films".
Production
Although critics have often commented on the extravagant costumes used throughout Fellini's films, few realized that the origin behind La dolce vita was the sack dress, introduced by the designer BalenciagaBalenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
in 1957. In various interviews, Fellini claimed that the film's initial inspiration was in fact this particular style. Brunello Rondi, Fellini's co-screenwriter and long-time collaborator, confirmed this view explaining that "the fashion of women's sack dresses which possessed that sense of luxurious butterflying out around a body that might be physically beautiful but not morally so; these sack dresses struck Fellini because they rendered a woman very gorgeous who could, instead, be a skeleton of squalor and solitude inside."
Credit for the creation of Steiner (played by Alain Cuny
Alain Cuny
Alain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
), the intellectual who commits suicide after shooting his two children, goes to co-screenwriter Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:...
. Having gone to school with Italian novelist Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...
, Pinelli had closely followed the writer's career and felt that his over-intellectualism had become emotionally sterile, leading to his suicide in a Turin hotel in 1950. This idea of a "burnt-out existence" is carried over to Steiner in the party episode where the sounds of nature are not to be experienced first-hand by himself and his guests but in the virtual world of tape recordings.
Most (but not all) of the film was shot at the Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
Studios in Rome. Set designer Piero Gherardi
Piero Gherardi
Piero Gherardi was the Costume and Set Designer of Federico Fellini's La dolce vita and 8½ for which he won two Oscars....
created over eighty locations, including the Via Veneto
Via Veneto
Via Veneto is one of the most famous streets in Rome, Italy.The official name is via Vittorio Veneto, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto....
, the dome of Saint Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
with the staircase leading up to it, and various nightclubs. However, other sequences were shot on location such as the party at the aristocrats' castle filmed in the real Bassano di Sutri
Bassano Romano
Bassano Romano is a town and comune in the province of Viterbo, in northern Lazio ....
palace north of Rome. (Some of the servants, waiters, and guests were played by real aristocrats.) Fellini combined constructed sets with location shots, depending on script requirements—a real location often "gave birth to the modified scene and, consequently, the newly constructed set." The film's famous last scenes where the monster fish is pulled out of the sea and Marcello waves goodbye to Paola (the teenage "Umbrian angel") were shot on location at Passo Oscuro, a small resort town situated on the Italian coast 30 kilometers north of Rome.
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 1930s Academy Award-winning actress Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
. After many difficult dealings with Rainer, Fellini abandoned the scene.
The famous scene in the Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....
was shot over a week in winter: in March according to the BBC, in late January according to Anita Ekberg. Fellini claimed that Ekberg stood in the cold water in her dress for hours without any trouble while Mastroianni had to wear a wetsuit beneath his clothes - to no avail. It was only after "he polished off a bottle of vodka" that Fellini could shoot the scene with a drunk Mastroianni.
Seven principal episodes
The most common interpretation of the film is a mosaic linked together by its protagonist, Marcello Rubini, a journalist. The seven principal episodes are as follows:- 1. Marcello's evening with the heiress Maddalena (Anouk AiméeAnouk AiméeAnouk Aimée is a French film actress. Aimée has appeared in 70 films since 1947. She began her film career in 1947 at age 14. In 1958 she portrayed the tragic artist Jeanne Hébuterne in the film Les Amants de Montparnasse...
) - 2. His long, frustrating night with the American actress Sylvia (Anita EkbergAnita EkbergKerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
) that ends in the Trevi fountain at dawn - 3. His reunion with the intellectual Steiner (Alain CunyAlain CunyAlain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
); their relationship is divided into three sequences spread over the entire film: a) the encounter, b) Steiner's party, and c) Steiner's tragedy - 4. The fake miracle
- 5. His father's visit/Steiner's Party
- 6. The aristocrat's party/Steiner's tragedy
- 7. The "orgyOrgyIn modern usage, an orgy is a sex party where guests engage in promiscuous or multifarious sexual activity or group sex. An orgy is similar to debauchery, which refers to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures....
" at the beach house
Interrupting these seven episodes is the restaurant sequence with the angelic Paola; they are framed by a prologue (Christ statue over Rome) and epilogue (the monster fish), giving the film its innovative and symmetrically symbolic structure. The evocations are obvious: seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven virtues, seven days of creation.
Other critics claim that this widespread view of the film's structure is inaccurate. Peter Bondanella, for example, argues that "any critic of La dolce vita not mesmerized by the magic number seven will find it almost impossible to organize the numerous sequences on a strictly numerological basis."
An aesthetic of disparity
Critic Robert Richardson suggests that the originality of La dolce vita lies in a new form of film narrative that mines "an aesthetic of disparity." Abandoning traditional plot and conventional "character development," Fellini and co-screenwriters Ennio FlaianoEnnio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
and Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:...
, forged a cinematic narrative that rejected continuity, unnecessary explanations, and narrative logic in favour of seven non-linear encounters between Marcello, a kind of Dantesque Pilgrim, and an underworld of 120 different characters. These encounters build up a cumulative impression on the viewer that finds resolution in an "overpowering sense of the disparity between what life has been or could be, and what it actually is."
In a device used earlier in his films, Fellini orders the disparate succession of sequences as movements from evening to dawn. Also employed as an ordering device is the image of a downward spiral that Marcello sets in motion when descending the first of several staircases (including ladders) that open and close each major episode. The upshot is that the film's aesthetic form, rather than its content, embodies the overall theme of Rome as a moral wasteland.
Critical reception
Writing for L'EspressoL'Espresso
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine...
, Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
highlighted the film's variations in tone: "Highly expressive throughout, Fellini seems to change the tone according to the subject matter of each episode, ranging from expressionist caricature to pure neo-realism
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
. In general, the tendency to caricature is greater the more severe the film's moral judgement although this is never totally contemptuous, there being always a touch of complacence and participation, as in the final orgy scene or the episode at the aristocrats' castle outside Rome, the latter being particularly effective for its descriptive acuteness and narrative rhythm."
In Filmcritica XI, Italian poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
argued that "La dolce vita was too important to be discussed as one would normally discuss a film. Though not as great as Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
or Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
, Fellini is unquestionably an author rather than a director. The film is therefore his and his alone... The camera moves and fixes the image in such a way as to create a sort of diaphragm around each object, thus making the object’s relationship to the world appear as irrational and magical. As each new episode begins, the camera is already in motion using complicated movements. Frequently, however, these sinuous movements are brutally punctuated by a very simple documentary shot, like a quotation written in everyday language".
In France, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, film critic and co-founder of Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
, felt that "what La dolce vita lacks is the structure of a masterpiece. In fact, the film has no proper structure: it is a succession of cinematic moments, some more convincing than others… In the face of criticism, La Dolce Vita disintegrates, leaving behind little more than a sequence of events with no common denominator linking them into a meaningful whole".
The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
praised Fellini’s “brilliantly graphic estimation of a whole swath of society in sad decay and, eventually, a withering commentary on the tragedy of the over-civilized… Fellini is nothing if not fertile, fierce and urbane in calculating the social scene around him and packing it onto the screen. He has an uncanny eye for finding the offbeat and grotesque incident, the gross and bizarre occurrence that exposes a glaring irony. He has, too, a splendid sense of balance and a deliciously sardonic wit that not only guided his cameras but also affected the writing of the script. In sum, it is an awesome picture, licentious in content but moral and vastly sophisticated in its attitude and what it says".
To this day, La Dolce Vita remains a classic and one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time. Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
considers it Fellini’s best film and lists it in his Top 10.
Awards and recognition
La dolce vita was hailed as "one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s" by The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. It was nominated for four Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, winning one for Best Costume Design: Black-and-White. La dolce vita also earned the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
(Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival
1960 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Georges Simenon *Marc Allégret *Louis Chauvet *Diego Fabbri *Hidemi Ima *Grigori Kozintsev *Maurice Leroux *Max Lippmann *Henry Miller...
. It was voted the 6th Greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
In 2010, the film was ranked #11 in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema".
In popular culture
The character of Paparazzo, the news photographer (played by Walter Santesso) who works with Marcello, is the origin of the word paparazziPaparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
used in many languages to describe intrusive photographers.The character of 'Paparazzo' is inspired by photojournalists Tazio Secchiaroli
Tazio Secchiaroli
Tazio Secchiaroli was an Italian photographer known as one of the original paparazzi. He founded the agency Roma Press Photo in 1955....
and Marcello Geppetti
Marcello Geppetti
Marcello Geppetti was an Italian photographer.This is how David Schonauer, the editor in chief of American Photo magazine, described Marcello Geppetti in 1997 during an exhibition at New York's Robert Miller Gallery....
.. As to the origin of the character's name itself, Fellini scholar Peter Bondanella argues that although "it is indeed an Italian family name, the word is probably a corruption of the word papataceo, a large and bothersome mosquito. Ennio Flaiano, the film's co-screenwriter and creator of Paparazzo, reports that he took the name from a character in a novel by George Gissing
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.-Early life:...
." Gissing's character, Signor Paparazzo, is found in his travel book, By the Ionian Sea (1901).
The film has influenced or else been referenced in contemporary films, television shows, and songs. In Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation (film)
Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
(2003), Kelly's interview for LIT resembles Sylvia's interview scenes in La dolce vita. Charlotte and Bob later meet in the middle of the night and watch the famous Trevi Fountain sequence while drinking sake. Coppola said, "I saw that movie on TV when I was in Japan. It's not plot-driven, it's about them wandering around. And there was something with the Japanese subtitles and them speaking Italian - it had a truly enchanting quality". Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
's L.A. Story
L.A. Story
L.A. Story is a 1991 American romantic comedy film, written by and starring Steve Martin. Set in Los Angeles, California, it relates a series of episodes in the romantic life of an L.A. TV weatherman. It includes surreal sequences in which he is offered romantic advice flashed to him by a freeway...
(1991) opens with a hotdog stand dangling under a helicopter passing by a roof-top pool with the sunbathing women waving as it passes, a reference to the opening scene of a statue of Christ being carried into the Vatican in La dolce vita. In Goodbye Lenin (2003), directed by Wolfgang Becker
Wolfgang Becker
Wolfgang Becker is a German film director and writer. He is best known to the international audience for his work Good Bye Lenin! .-Biography:...
, a statue of Lenin is flown across Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, recalling the opening scene of Fellini's film. The title of Korean film, A Bittersweet Life
A Bittersweet Life
A Bittersweet Life is a 2005 South Korean film directed and written by Kim Ji-woon and starring Lee Byung-hun...
(2005), is a pun on the English translation of La dolce vita ("The Sweet Life") and the restaurant that the protagonist enforces for the mob is called La Dolce Vita. The two protagonists of Marcos Carnevale's Elsa y Fred
Elsa y Fred
Elsa y Fred is a 2005 Spanish-Argentine film co-production directed by Marcos Carnevale and starring Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla and Federico Luppi.- Synopsis :...
(2005) recreate the scene in the Fontana di Trevi performed originally by Ekberg and Mastroianni while in Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
's How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (film)
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is a 2008 British comedy film based upon British writer Toby Young's 2001 memoir of the same name. The film follows a similar storyline, about his five year struggle to make it in the United States after employment at Sharps Magazine...
(2008), Alison (Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
) cites La dolce vita as her favourite movie. Fellini's film is later shown playing on a large, outdoor cinema screen. In the Daria
Daria
Daria is an American animated television series produced by Paramount Television, and created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn for MTV. The series focuses on Daria Morgendorffer, a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic teenage girl who observes the world around her...
episode "Fire", Daria is quoted saying "watching a dead fish wash up on shore always puts me in a good mood" in reference to recommending the film earlier in the episode. Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's Celebrity
Celebrity (film)
Celebrity is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay focuses on the divergent paths a couple takes following their divorce.-Plot:...
(1998) is a New York-set re-working of La dolce vita with Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
taking up Mastroianni's role, and Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
and Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
taking on the roles held by Anouk Aimée and Anita Ekberg, respectively.
Comediennes Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
drew from La dolce vita (among other Fellini films) for an episode of their eponymous television comedy, French & Saunders
French & Saunders
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....
. Entitled "Franco E Sandro" (a faux-Italian title for the show), the episode parodied the surreal motifs in Fellini's films, including replacing the flight of the Christ statue with a statue of Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
. In the episode "Marco Polo
Marco Polo (The Sopranos episode)
"Marco Polo" is the sixtieth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the eighth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Michael Imperioli, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on April 25, 2004.-Guest starring roles:...
" of the TV series The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, Junior Soprano
Junior Soprano
Corrado John Soprano, Jr., played by Dominic Chianese, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. Usually referred to as "Junior" or "Uncle Jun", he is the mentor and surrogate father for capo Tony Soprano. A younger Corrado sometimes appears in flashbacks and is played by Rocco...
falls asleep watching La dolce vita. When Bobby Baccalieri
Bobby Baccalieri
Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri, Jr., played by Steve R. Schirripa, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was a Capo and later the acting underboss of the DiMeo Crime Family, as well as Tony Soprano's brother-in-law...
enters the room, Junior wakes up and comments on the statue of Christ hanging from the helicopter saying, "You can tell it's fake." Homer Simpson dresses for his date with Marge in "Some Enchanted Evening
Some Enchanted Evening (The Simpsons)
"Some Enchanted Evening" is the thirteenth, final aired, and first produced episode of The Simpsons first season and originally aired on the Fox network on May 13, 1990. Although it was the first episode produced, it aired as the season finale due to significant animation problems. The episode...
" while humming the theme from La dolce vita.
Steiner's pessimistic speech about the future is quoted in an English translation in the song "The Certainty of Chance" by The Divine Comedy from their 1998 album Fin de Siècle
Fin de Siècle (album)
Fin de Siècle is the sixth album by The Divine Comedy, released in 1998.-Track listing:# "Generation Sex" – 3:31# "Thrillseeker" – 3:33# "Commuter Love" – 4:42# "Sweden" – 3:25# "Eric the Gardener" – 8:26# "National Express" – 5:05...
. It is the speech that begins, "Sometimes at night the darkness and silence frightens me. Peace frightens me. I feel it's only a facade, hiding the face of hell." Fashion model and singer Christa Päffgen, who adopted the pseudonym of Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
and later performed with The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
before pursuing a solo career, plays herself in the "party of the nobles" scene. Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host.-Biography:Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck"...
, 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. Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Motorpsycho Nitemare" from Another Side of Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released August 8, 1964 by Columbia Records....
(1964) references the title of the film as does Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
's "Pretty Baby" from Parallel Lines
Parallel Lines
Parallel Lines is the third studio album by American New Wave band Blondie, released in 1978 by Chrysalis Records. Their most popular and best-selling effort, Parallel Lines was the first Blondie album to be produced by Mike Chapman. The album reached number one in the United Kingdom in February 1979...
(1978).
Tributes to Fellini in the "Director's Cut" of Cinema Paradiso (1988) include a helicopter suspending a statue of Christ over the city and scenes in which the Trevi Fountain is used as a backdrop while Toto, the main character, grows up to be a famous film director.
The 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun
Under the Tuscan Sun
Under the Tuscan Sun is a 2003 film based on Frances Mayes' 1996 memoir of the same name. The film was directed by Audrey Wells and starred Diane Lane.-Plot:...
has a tribute to the famous scene in the Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....
. One of the characters (Catherine), dances in a fountain in a manner reminiscent of Anita Ekberg's scene.
Further reading
Costa, Antonio (2010) . Federico Fellini. 'La dolce vita. Lindau: collana Universale film. Fellini, Federico, and Joseph-Marie Lo DucaJoseph-Marie Lo Duca
Joseph-Marie Lo Duca was an Italian-born writer and critic. He was based in Paris and was one of the founders of Cahiers du cinéma.-Bibliography:...
(1960). La dolce vita. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert Editeur.
- Kezich, TullioTullio KezichTullio Kezich was an Italian film critic, screenwriter, playwright and actor.Kezich was born in Trieste...
(2005). "Federico Fellini and the Making of 'La Dolce Vita'". in
External links
- La Dolce Vita text by Roger EbertRoger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
.