La dolce vita
Original movie poster
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 Anouk Aimée Yvonne Furneaux Magali Noël Alain Cuny Nadia Gray Lex Barker Annibale Ninchi Walter Santesso Jacques Sernas Nico
Distributed by	Koch-Lorber Films
Release date(s)	February 5, 1960 19 April 1961
Running time	174 min. / 180 min. (USA)
Country	Italy / France
Language	Italian French English German
All Movie Guide profile
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. Dolce Vita may refer to: La dolce vita, a 1960 film directed by Federico Fellini Michael Lucas La Dolce Vita, a 2006 gay pornographic remake of the 1960 Federico Fellini film Dolce Vita (song), a 1983 song by Ryan Paris Dolce Vita (perfume), a perfume by Christian Dior The First... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century. ... Angelo Rizzoli (born Milan, Italy, October 31, 1889, died September 24, 1970) was an Italian publisher and producer. ... Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century. ... Ennio Flaiano (born March 5, 1910 in Pescara - died November 20, 1972 in Rome), was an italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. ... Tullio Pinelli (June 28, 1908) is an award-winning screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I vitelloni, La strada, La dolce vita and 8 1/2. ... Marcello Mastroianni in 1958 Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (September 28, 1924 – December 19, 1996) was an Italian film actor. ... Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi. ... Anouk Aimée (born April 27, 1932) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning French film actress. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Alain Cuny (July 12, 1908 – May 16, 1994) was a French actor. ... Lex Barker (May 8, 1919 - May 11, 1973) was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes. ... Jacques Sernas, sometimes billed as Jack Sernas, born 30 July 1925, in Kaunas, Lithuania is a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career, first as a leading man and later as a character actor, perhaps best-known for his role as Paris in Helen of Troy. ... For other uses, see Nico (disambiguation). ... Koch-Lorber Films, launched in February of 2003, is an independent film distributor and DVD label based in New York. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... See also: 1959 in film 1960 1961 in film 1950s in film 1960s in film years in film film // Events April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I. Blues August 10 - Filming of West... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... Italian neorealism is a film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed in long takes on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors for secondary and sometimes primary roles. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Synopsis

Set in Rome in the 1950s where Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) covers the more sensational side of the news; movie stars, religious visions, and the decadent aristocracy.^[1]The film shows seven days and nights in the life of the reporter.^[2] Marcello is living with Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), a woman who loves him and wants a traditional marriage, but she is possessive and shows little ability to understand his unarticulated search for value and meaning in his life. He has encounters with other women – Maddalena (Anouk Aimée), a beautiful, wealthy, and jaded friend/lover, and Anita Ekberg as an American movie star named Sylvia. Marcello also briefly meets an unspoiled and charming girl working at a beachside restaurant.^[1] For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Marcello Mastroianni in 1958 Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (September 28, 1924 – December 19, 1996) was an Italian film actor. ... Anouk Aimée (born April 27, 1932) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning French film actress. ... Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi. ...

Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi.

Image File history File links Sjff_01_img0145. ... Image File history File links Sjff_01_img0145. ... Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi. ... The Trevi Fountain (in Italian, Fontana di Trevi) is the largest and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains of Rome. ...

Themes and motifs

In the film's opening sequence, a plaster statue of Christ suspended by cables from a helicopter, flies past the ruins of an ancient viaduct in Rome. 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. Marcello's helicopter is sidetracked by a group of bikini-clad women sunbathing on a rooftop; hovering above, he tries but fails to elicit a phone number from them. He laughingly shrugs off his failure and continues on. This page is about the title, office or what is known in Christian theology as the Divine Person. ...

The delivery of the statue is the first of many recurring scenes placing religious icons in the midst of the characters' demonstrations of their "modern" morality influenced by the booming economy and the emerging mass-consumer lifestyle.

Initial Inspiration

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 in fashion at the time. In various interviews, Fellini claimed that the film's initial inspiration was in fact this particular style.^[3] Brunello Rondi, 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." ^[4]

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 Cesare Pavese, the respected Italian novelist, Pinelli had closely followed the writer's career and felt that his over-intellectualism had become emotionally sterile, leading to his suicide in Turin in 1950. ^[5] 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. Alain Cuny (July 12, 1908 – May 16, 1994) was a French actor. ... Tullio Pinelli (June 28, 1908) is an award-winning screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I vitelloni, La strada, La dolce vita and 8 1/2. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Production

Most (but not all) of the film was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Over eighty locations were created by set designer Piero Gherardi including the Via Veneto, the dome of Saint Peter's and the staircase leading up to it, and the various nightclubs. ^[6] 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.) Constructed sets were combined with location shots depending on the script's requirements: a real location often "gave birth to the modified scene and, consequently, the newly constructed set." ^[7] 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. ^[8] Entrance of the Cinecittà studios Cinecittà (Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. ... Piero Gherardi (November 20, 1909 – June 8, 1971) was the brilliant Costume and Set Designer of Federico Fellinis La dolce vita and 8 1/2 for which he won two Oscars. ...

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, 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]} The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as the World Depression. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Luise Rainer (born January 12, 1910 in either Düsseldorf, Germany or Vienna, Austria) is a two-time Academy Award-winning film actress. ...

The famous scene in the Trevi Fountain was shot in March when nights were still cold. Fellini claimed that Anita 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. ^[9] The Trevi Fountain Trevi Fountain at night. ...

Seven Principal Episodes

The most common interpretation of the film is a mosaic linked together by its protagonist, Marcello Rubini, a journalist. ^[10] The seven principal episodes are as follows:

1. Marcello's evening with the heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée);

2. his long and frustrating night with Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), the American movie star, that ends at dawn in the Trevi fountain;

3. his relationship with the intellectual Steiner (Alain Cuny). This episode is divided into three sequences: a) the encounter, b) the party, and c) the tragedy;

4. the fake miracle;

5. his father's visit;

6. the aristocrats' party;

7. the orgy at the beach.

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. ^[11] The evocations are obvious: seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven virtues, seven days of creation. Anouk Aimée (born April 27, 1932) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning French film actress. ... Anita Ekberg in the Fontana di Trevi. ... Alain Cuny (July 12, 1908 – May 16, 1994) was a French actor. ...

Other critics claim that this widespread view of the film's structure is inaccurate. Dr. 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." ^[12]

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." ^[13] Abandoning traditional plot and conventional "character development," Fellini and co-screenwriters Ennio Flaiano 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." ^[14] Ennio Flaiano (born March 5, 1910 in Pescara - died November 20, 1972 in Rome), was an italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. ... Tullio Pinelli (June 28, 1908) is an award-winning screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I vitelloni, La strada, La dolce vita and 8 1/2. ...

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.

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. For other uses, see Nico (disambiguation). ... The Velvet Underground and Nico (from left to right: John Cale, Nico, Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker) The Velvet Underground (Affectionately known as The Velvets, or V.U. for short) was an American rock and roll band of the late 1960s. ...

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. Adriano Celentano (born January 6, 1938) is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, and TV host. ...

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 Times. ^[15] 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.^[16] The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Palme dOr The Palme dOr (Golden Palm) is the highest prize given to a film at the Cannes Film Festival. ... The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1939, is one of the worlds oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals. ...

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro in Portuguese) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. ... Palme dOr The Palme dOr (Golden Palm) is the highest prize given to a film at the Cannes Film Festival. ... The Long Absence (French: Une aussi longue absence) is a 1961 film directed by Henri Colpi. ... Viridiana is a 1961 film directed by Luis Buñuel and produced in Spain by Gustavo Alatriste. ...

In Popular Culture

• 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.'^[17] 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 Gessing." ^[18]

• Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation shows a heavy influence from the film. The scene in which Kelly is being interviewed in LIT very much resembles the scene in which Sylvia is being interviewed. Later in the film, Charlotte and Bob meet in the middle of the night and watch the famous fountain scene while drinking sake.

• Steiner's pessimistic speech about the future is quoted, in English translation, in the Divine Comedy song "The Certainty of Chance". 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."

• The Korean film A Bittersweet Life references the film. The title itself is a pun on the English translation of "La dolce vita", and the restaurant that the protagonist enforces for the mob is called La Dolce Vita.

• Bob Dylan's "Motorpsycho Nitemare" references the title of the film.

• While Homer Simpson is dressing for his date with Marge in Some Enchanted Evening, he hums the La Dolce Vita theme.

• The Steve Martin film "L.A. Story" opens with a hotdog stand dangling under a helicopter passing by a roof-top pool, with the sunbathing women waving as it passes, an obvious reference to La dolce vita's opening scene of a religious statue being carried into the Vatican.

For other uses, see Paparazzi (disambiguation). ... Lost in Translation is a 2003 comedy-drama film. ... The Divine Comedy is a pop band from Northern Ireland fronted by Neil Hannon. ... A Bittersweet Life is a 2005 film by Korean director Kim Ji-woon. ... This article is about the recording artist. ... Motorpsycho Nitemare is an early song written by American singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. ... For other uses, see Steve Martin (disambiguation). ... L.A. Story is a 1991 movie directed by Mick Jackson and written by Steve Martin. ...

References

In the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun", a blonde friend of the protagonist dances in the fountain until she is "rescued" by a male friend of theirs and led to dry land. People had crowded around to oogle but she needed to perform and re-act that scene, for inner growth and personal release. Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) [1] is an online database of information about actors, movies, television shows, television stars and video games. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Damian Pettigrew (born in Quebec) is a Canadian filmmaker and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus and Federico Fellini. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• La Dolce Vita at the Internet Movie Database
• Miami Beach USA Article with original cast photos.
• Photos of Via Veneto and Roma
• Roger Ebert on La Dolce Vita

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