Customer Reviews
Off-beat classic - By: J. Roberts, 10 Dec 2008 
Federico Fellini's masterpiece 'La Dolce Vita' (The Sweet Life) stars Marcello Mastroianni as the eccentric journalist/publicity agent Marcello Rubini.
The film has much to say about the nature & culture of 'celebrity', as Marcello floats through an endless series of vapid parties & meaningless gatherings, surrounded by an array of hollow & seriously jaded individuals. The paparazzi play a huge part in this film, & their relentless hounding of various 'celebrity' figures is scarily similar to the behaviour of current paparazzi in Europe & America. This makes Fellini something of a visionary.
The film has a very loose structure & contains some very off-beat, almost surreal scenes, particularly the party scenes, which are downright odd to say the least. Overalll, the film looks beautifully shot, elegant & stylish; a masterclass in film-making.
Marcello Mastroianni's performance is powerful & never anything less than completely convincing, especiallly the scenes in which he argues with his severely mistreated wife. The passion in their arguments is fascinating to watch. A wonderful supporting cast also display some tremendous acting, whilst the characterisation right across the board is also very convincing.
This film very vividly captures the decadence & futility of fame, wealth, & that tainted thing known as 'celebrity'.
[4.5]-It's true that you must appreciate film to appreciate La Dolce Vita - By: Jenny J.J.I., 25 Nov 2007 
This being my second Fellini film has made want him even more. Knowingly enough its Fellini's breakthrough film. In here it celebrates modern Rome as seen through the eyes of a celebrity journalist, Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni), a frustrated writer earning his keep by staying out every evening on the Via Veneto where he comes into contact with the rich & famous. We are supposedly witnessing the moral decline of Western civilization, & the worship of movie stars as religious icons. The reporter has a live-in girlfriend, who wants to get married, the possessive & depressive Emma (Yvonne Furneaux). He has many dallliances; one is with a bored nymphomaniac society gal (Anouk Aimee).
In this sporadic tale Marcello moves around the city with the paparazzi, ready to catch the action, & he has the power to make & break the Celebes he covers. Marcello, a celeb himself, attends nightclubs & parties that go on until dawn that are given by intellectuals, hedonists, the decadent rich & various other parties. One such memorable scene is over a false miracle (the media has a field day as a pair of children claim to have seen the Holy Virgin); the most moving scene is the suicide of an intellectual friend (Alain Cuny), that is done with compassion for the morallly upright vic; and, finallly, an orgy, that became the film's reason for being.
I have a few favorite scenes that lift the film above the muck: the opening shot has a helicopter lifting a statue of Christ into the skies & leaving Rome. As far I can see, it symbolicallly augments the departure of God for Fellini's prophetic vision. Another memorable scene is over the Trevi Fountain (Mastroianni goes into the fountain where visiting Hollywood actress Anita Ekberg is bathing). The warmest scene had Marcello meeting with his father (Annibale Ninchi) & tempting him with the sweet life.
The film veers between high culture & trash, with a little of everything in between. Because the sex was frank, the Catholic Church condemned it as a dirty movie (which I can imagine increased its box office). The film is much more than that, it's Fellini's statement about him as an artist & how he wants to make movies as both real life & fanciful art. It's winsome because of the stylish cinematography, which fills the screen with mind-blowing bizarre visuals. It's a special film, but has become dated; it points its finger at decadence with a certain titillation but just as easily seems to be grounded with a sophisticated attitude in its need to search for a way to find the sublime. Like its playboy hero Marcello, it can't make up its mind if it wants to grow up. You might say that our hero has become a victim of something that's too good to leave, but ultimately may not reallly be that good for him.
Uptake on the shallowness of the fast life (SPOILERS) - By: Jay, 03 Sep 2007 Fellini themes are common to many of his films, but what makes La Dolce Vita so memorable are the cynical tone, the Nina Rota music, & the string of terrific visual images.
The opening scene is of a helicopter hauling a gilded plaster statue through the air across Rome. The flying saint is a bizarre image but serves to set up the movies which is alll about images & events that are never what they seem to be.
Notable are the scenes of statuesque Ekberg in that terrific strapless black dress with the voluminous skirts as she swishes around dancing & eventuallly wading through a city fountain. The party scenes are also notable. The first because of the intolerable intellectuals who sits around & talk & talk but never do anything. The last party has the indelible image of Mastroianni "riding" a drunken blonde woman as though she were a horse. The final image of the giant dead fish is quite unsettling as it symbolizes their bloated lives.
Fellini is brilliant in filling scenes with odd people as extras, usuallly hideously dressed or wearing ugly glasses. The "galllery" of people who inhabit the city is one of grotesques, vapid fashion slaves, the rich, hangers on, etc.
A long film, but highly recommended & very memorable.
Vidual poetry - By: Wilhelm Snyman, 24 Jun 2006 Yes, it could be argued that the film goes on a bit, but there's so much visual poetry & philosophical resonance in every scene, alll of which conspire to make this film one of the greatest ever. Enduringly relevant & satisfying.
Not sweet - By: L. Davidson, 21 Mar 2006 
If you want to watch a black & white, forty five year old ,three hour long film about a group of thoroughly obnoxious & amoral Italian hedonists , then "La Dolce Vita" is the film for you. The film follows the life of an unpleasant, arrogant tabloid journalist & consists of a series of discrete episodes based around various social gatherings he participates in, rather than a conventional linear narrative with a plot. I didn't think the acting or the cinematography was the greatest & the whole film looks dated now , although I'm sure that in it's time it was considered stylish & glamourous. One thing that is of interest is the fact that the lifestyle & values of the Italian socialites in the film are very much mainstream Western European ones now , no longer restricted to the so-callled "beautiful people" .
