| Marcello Mastroianni, Yvonne Furneaux,
Anouk Aimée , Anita Ekberg, Alain Cuny, Lex Barker
In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of
the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip
columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence
behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated,
ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential
newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue
with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk
Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual
prostitute (Adriana Moneta). The next day, Marcello juggles a personal
tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux))
with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep
film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams,
fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him.
With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow
and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it
and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like
depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque"
in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the sense of Rome
as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce
Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle
award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film
Festival. |