FEDERICO FELLINI BRITANNICA MOVIE
It’s a movie of near misses, of could-have-beens, of might-have-beens. When tragedy strikes (mentioned above) his life continues as before, but without any pretense of pursuing happiness or fulfillment. La Dolce Vita is a cynical movie, an unflinching look into a man’s middle age in which there is no resolution. But then a third party enters the scene and this seemingly significant moment is supplanted by other moments and thereby forced into the dim past. During the course of their confessions, they declare their love and desire to marry and you believe that they are sincere. They speak to one another through a wall. They have a very romantic confessional scene one night when they get separated from the group in a large house. He has a near connection with a French dancer from the Cha-Cha club. We watch as he eagerly reads a letter from his mother but learn that he hasn’t written or visited her in years. His lack of meaningful contact/connection with women is a pervasive theme. There are other smaller but no less significant tragedies: Mastroianni’s lack of meaningful contact/connection with his father, the codependent nature of his relationship with his fiance, his inability to write his novel. But this seemingly perfect life is blown up by self inflicted tragedy. At one point we think he’s found “it,” through the example of a friend who has the seemingly perfect life: loving wife, beautiful healthy children, an enviable collection of books, art and music, eclectic parties, a reader, a thinker, a philosopher.
There are plenty of classic Fellini-esque elements: kooky music and dialogue, exotic parties, a parade of interesting faces in interesting costumes, unusual locations and scenes, crisp black and white cinematography and spectacular lighting.īut La Dolce Vita is essentially about the pathos of a middle aged man who lives a bright and shinny life surrounded by good looking people and fine things but isn’t happy or satisfied. We are all familiar with the iconic scenes: the movie’s opening with a statue of Jesus – arms out stretched – being transported by helicopter over the city, Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in the Trevi fountain, Mastroianni riding on the back of a crawling woman at a drunken party, Mastroianni driving around Rome in his convertible sports car looking fabulous, and the ever-present paparazzi acting like the Keystone Cops. Re-watching La Dolce Vita after many years I had forgotten what a very serious movie it is.