The satire on display is so simultaneously subtle yet blatant that the movie itself is intoxicating.
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:51
Fresh:50
Rotten:1
Average Rating:9.1/10
Runtime: 3 hrs
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: In Federico Fellini's seminal film LA DOLCE VITA, a three-hour masterpiece that shows one man's descent into "the sweet life" of debauchery, Marcello Mastroianni stars as eccentric journalist... In Federico Fellini's seminal film LA DOLCE VITA, a three-hour masterpiece that shows one man's descent into "the sweet life" of debauchery, Marcello Mastroianni stars as eccentric journalist Marcello Rubini. On assignment to chronicle the lives of the rich and famous Italian aristocracy in a gossip column for a Roman newspaper, Marcello floats from one fabulous party to the next, meeting all varieties of beautiful, extravagant people. While he would never protest this seemingly ideal job, it makes him feel lonely and empty, and he stays up drinking and dancing night after night only to wake up each morning unbalanced and unfocused. The film follows Marcello's ups and downs in an episodic pattern in which each evening is a new story, a new adventure, a new dare, a new woman with whom to fall helplessly in love--but only for that night. Each morning the slate is wiped clean, and Fellini resets Marcello's score to zero. Sprinkled with religious images and gestures at salvation, LA DOLCE VITA is supreme in the beauty of its all-encompassing symbolism that is expressed through lavish sets, an alluring script, overemphasized physical movements, roller-coaster jazz music, and helpless emotions. [More]
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Anita Ekberg, Yvonne Furneaux
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Anita Ekberg, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noel, Nico, Alain Cuny, Riccardo Garrone, Laura Betti, Jacques Sernas, Nadia Gray
Director: Federico Fellini
Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi
Producer: Giuseppe Amato, Angelo Rizzoli
Composer: Nino Rota
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Reviews for La Dolce Vita
In spite of its thematic ugliness, this is a stunning-looking trawl through the Italian capital, with Ekberg's impromptu paddle in the Trevi fountain still the films enduring image.
Mágico e inesquecível, representa não apenas um fascinante estudo de personagem, mas também um mergulho dilacerante na fragilidade humana. E Ekberg tornou-se, para sempre, uma das maiores personificações de sensualidade oferecidas pelo Cinema.
It's winsome because of the stylish cinematography, which fills the screen with mind-blowing bizarre visuals.
...experienced as a series of bizarre vignettes, a headlong rush into the heady air of Rome's Via Veneta , its swank nightclubs and seedy gigolos, the perfume of fame and the stink of money.
Perhaps many spectators will squirm at the three-hour length of the film or of some of its sequences (though director Federico Fellini cut some 30 minutes from his final print), yet others will never notice they've sat that long.
The film was hugely successful and widely praised in its time, though it's really nothing more than the old C.B. De Mille formula of titillation and moralizing.
Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" operates on so many levels that it's tough to know where Fellini is coming from or where he's headed, regardless of how many times you've watched his film.
After what we've seen of decadence during the past three decades or so, La Dolce Vita now seems tame, but people wasting time in nightclubs, dancing in the fountains of Rome, and just generally hanging out seemed a bit of a shock in 1960.
There are perhaps a couple of party scenes too many, and the peripheral characters can be unconvincing, but the stylish cinematography and Fellini's bizarre, extravagant visuals are absolutely riveting.
Made at the peak of Fellini's career, La Dolce Vita provided the first look into Rome's decadent cafe society, boasting superlative performances from Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Anita Ekberg, and others.
My heart wants to tell you that it's a great film, but my head fights it. I can settle it by saying that it's important, and that its joys outnumber its missteps.
This remains a landmark movie that should be seen by every self-respecting movie buff.
What’s incredible about Federico Fellini’s work is its sense of life. Never once does this movie feel constructed or contrived, but rather appears to be unraveling before us, unscripted and uninhibited.
Latest News for La Dolce Vita
September 17, 2009:
Five Favorite Films with A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott of the New York Times -- and now, At the Movies -- is one of America's best-known and most trusted film critics. Scott's tenure with the Times began in 2000; prior to... More...
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