Review of La Dolce Vita (1960) by Fabio M — 21 Mar 2008

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.The film shows seven days and nights in the life of the reporter. 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.

I open this review saying that it's very hard write a comment about this film.

This isn't a film for all,I reccomend it to the people who loves old classic movies who consider the cinema as art.

As italian I love this film because it gave me the oppurtunity of knowing the high society's life in Roma (la città eterna) during the 60's.

The movie is divided in Seven principal episodes:

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. the aristocrat's party;.

6. his father's visit;.

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.The evocations of the number seven are : seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, seven virtues, seven days of creation.