LA DOLCE VITA
Italy, 1959, 170 minutes, Black and white.
Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaux, Nadia Gray, Alain Cuny, Lex Barker, Jacques Sernas, Magali Noel, Laura Betti.
Directed by Federico Fellini.
La Dolce Vita is a classic film of Italian cinema, winning the Palme D’ Or at Cannes in 1959, confirming the status of Federico Fellini as one of Italy’s leading directors of the 20th century. By this stage, he had made several significant films including Oscar winners La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. He was then to go on, during the 1960s to make such classics as 8 ½, Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini Satyricon, continuing into the 1970s and 1980s.
La Dolce Vita is a film about Italian society, specifically Roman society during the 1950s. Its famous opening, implying some kind of moral judgement, has a helicopter transporting a statue of Jesus over the city. In the helicopter is Marcello, a middle-aged journalist, something of a roue, hobnobbing with the social classes, attractive to women, engaged to a neurotic woman, dissatisfied with life, looking for opportunities – but ultimately looking away.
The film is in striking black-and-white, widescreen. it has a musical score by Nino Rota and incorporates many of the popular songs of the period.
The film consists of a number of episodes, activities during the night and the consequences in the following dawn. Perhaps the best known is that of the paparazzi going to the airport to greet the international star, played by Anita Ekberg, and Fellini’s satire on the paparazzi, on celebrities – and the famous scene of Anita Eck Berg splashing in the Trevi Fountain.
There are some domestic sequences between Marcello and the women, reporting on children who have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary, nightclubbing, seeking out his friend Steiner (Alain Cuny) who seems an ideal but who disappoints Marcello, a night out with his father.
Significant is the character of a young girl serving in a trattoria who disturbs Marcello as he is typing but with whom he has a conversation – and it is she, at the end of the film, who offers him some kind of hope, but he cannot make out what she is calling to him across the beach.
While the film is certainly of its period, it is most interestingly made, and is a portrait of the period as well as something of an indictment.
1. Acclaim, awards, the career of Federico Fellini? Italian cinema in the 1950s and 1960s?
2. The city of Rome, black-and-white photography, widescreen? The aerial views of the city? The Trevi Fountain, the locations for the action, The homes, the castle, the beach?
3. The musical score by Nina Rota? The incorporation of popular Italian songs?
4. The range of the cast, Italian and International?
5. The structure of the film, the series of episodes, the nights, the dawns?
6. Marcello, the screen presence of Marcello Mastroianni, Italian icon? His age, the character and his background, his absent father, his regard for his mother, his journalistic career, assignments, following the celebrities, with the paparazzi, his cameraman? His friends, associates? His relationship with Emma, love, concern? His encounters with Maddalena?
7. The statue of Jesus hovering over Rome, the visuals, modern Rome, the bathers at the pool, the old city, the Vatican? The religious and cultural significance of this presence of Jesus over Rome?
8. Marcello at the clubs, the encounter with Maddalena, her background, being bored, his going away with her, to the woman’s apartment, the affair with her?
9. His concern about Emma, his return, her taking the pills, emotional distress, the love, the later phone calls, her clinging to him, her wanting reassurance that he was not alone with Sylvia, accompanying him to the parties, his concern about her treatment?
10. The range of other women in the film and Marcella’s attraction to them, Sylvia?
11. Meeting Sylvia at the airport, the paparazzi, Anita Ekberg in the role, her presence, statuesque, language, the press conference and the range of questions, inane questions? Her relationship with Robert? Silly going to the Vatican, climbing St Peter’s, the comment on her energy? Going dancing, the Baths of Caracalla, the range of people present, the men and women, older and younger, the touch of the grotesque? Her dancing with Marcello, Robert and his drinking, drawing caricatures? In Rome, going to the Trevi Fountain, the famous sequence, Sylvia and anointing Marcello with water, going home, Robert angry, slapping her, punching Marcello?
12. The episode with the children and their visions? The children themselves, confusion? The adults all gathering, wanting to follow the children? The priest, his caution, scepticism? The media? The pilgrim with his mother, trampled by the crowd? Emma present, her prayer to the Madonna about having sole possession of Marcello’s heart?
13. The significance of Steiner? Marcello going to the church, the priest genial and lending Steiner the Sanskrit book? Steiner playing the organ? The gathering at his house, his wife and children, culture, poetry, sounds of nature, discussions about marriage and an ideal, Steiner and his being in the middle, not a specialist, not an amateur? His concerns about the world and the future for his children?
14. Marcello meeting his father, going to the club, Fanny and her relationship with Marcello, his failure to get her photo in the media, her attraction to the father? Marcello explaining to the paparazzo his relationship with his father? Going to Fanny’s place, the father having a heart attack, Marcello concerned and getting treatment?
15. Marcello at the beach, trying to write, the encounter with Paola, from Umbria, the simplicity, listening to the jukebox, talking to Marcello – and her later being the final image of the film?
16. The meeting friends on the Via Veneto, the decision to drive to the castle, with Maddalena, the party, explorations, the echo chamber, Maddalena’s proposal, the other man kissing her, the night, the American, Jane, and Marcello with her? The owner in the morning at her going to Mass, with the clergy?
17. The drive with Emma, in the car, stopping, the argument, Marcello’s complaints about her possessiveness, a reaction, pushing her out of the car, waiting by the roadside all night, Marcello returning, picking her up, going home, the scene of them in bed together?
18. The phone call, the news about Steiner, his killing himself and his children?
19. The passing of time? Marcello still in this Dolce Vita world? The party, Nadia and her divorce from Riccardo, Riccardo and his spurning the people, Nadia doing the striptease? The reaction of the men and women, old and young, the film star, the gay man and relationships? The touch of the orgy? Marcello and his getting the pillow and scattering it over the guests?
20. Dawn, going to the beach, the whale stranded, a contemporary leviathan, the reaction of everyone, the focus on the eyes?
21. Marcello on the beach, seeing Paola, her signalling, his not being able to hear her, a possibility of a change of life – but his turning and going
back to join the crowd?
22. The film seen as a morality play, observation on life in Italy in the 1950s, post-war Italy?
