Review of La Dolce Vita (1960) by John T — 02 Dec 2009

La Dolce Vita is a film so far ahead of its time, while being so clearly 'of' its time, that it remains magnificent, fresh and beautiful nearly 50 years after its release. Every time I view it, the darkness gets more real, the message so much clearer, the characters so much more contemporary. I can't help but believe that some of these characters appeared alien to at least some 1960s viewers -- at least in the US, and that this film might have represented a sort of foreign amusement ride, not so much understood as experienced. But those same characters are all too familiar now... the rich and out of touch, the blandly jaded, the secretly tormented intellectual, the purely sensuous and cynical.

This film is so modern, it's perhaps post-modern. For me, the ultimate post-modern weight of this movie became apparent as I watched a scene where a woman walked from her bus stop towards home while a band of vulturous photographers ("paparazzi" is a term coined from this very film) follow her. She has no idea why she is being followed, and they won't let on. They are simply collecting an image to be used in the media. The cops collect her and take her home. She will be informed of a horrible truth on her way to her home, where her husband and children await her, or so she believes.

TMZ is now a daily broadcast of these kinds images... only today, TMZ would not only reveal the horrible truth to the woman in a highly inappropriate, blunt and unfeeling way, before the police have a chance. TMZ would also ask upon the heals of that revelation, "How does it feel to discover these horrible facts?" Here, the degree of a media's placid cynical greed for imagery chronicling one's despair is even more severe than Fellini's worst prediction.

I realize that I haven't exactly explained what it is that I love so much about this movie. In fact what I've describe might seem awful, a horrifying nightmare of the future as told in the distant past.

I think at least a couple of things make me love this movie: Fellini's skill at showing rather than telling, via the characters and situations. Marcello Mastroianni's finest role is so seemingly effortless, he manages to be sympathetic while portraying a really empty, uncaring cad. The sweeping, almost epic scenes, a slice of life in 1960 and also a hint of things to come ... all done with the sort of visual and situational humor that make Italian cinema, and especially Fellini, so endearing. There is darkness here, and serious judgments about where "society" is headed, but Fellini's deft use of humor, pathos and incredible imagery all result in a film that is endlessly watchable.

La Dolce Vita is an immense achievement, one of my top-5 movies of all time. A masterpiece, and a film that continues to reward after many many viewings. A treasure.