La Dolce Vita was my
#12
Alright, so if the last movie from my list,
Who's Virginia of Woolf, can be summed up as 2 hours of endless insults and arguing,
La Dolce Vita is 3 hours of endless parties, superfluous emotions, and fruitless searches for sexual pleasure. But there's a reason why one is #12 on my list and the other one is significantly lower, at #17.
La Dolce Vita consists of multiple episodes, 7 in total over the course of 7 days and 7 nights, and they all connect. It is one consistent flow as the film shows the high and lows of a lust, rich-filled Rome. In one episode Marcello Rubini, (Marcello Mastroinanni), the film's protagonist, a journalist for gossip magazines, high in the sky on a helicopter waving at beautiful women from up above, in another episode, he descends down to half-underground nightclubs.
There are many beautiful female leads in this film, but none of them I consider to them to be a leading actresses. Fellini treats them as Mastrioianni's character would treat them, which is delivered to the audience. We are introduced to a lot of them, their numbers are quite big even for a film that stands at 3 hours long, but we quickly move on to the next woman before any relationships can start. This is not a distraction, merely a brilliant way to make you feel as empty on the inside, still lonely, and longing for more, just like the upper class citizens filling up every frame. It truly is a great experience, and even after I finished the film I couldn't get out of it for a day or two.
La Dolce Vita is arguably Fellini's ultimate masterpiece (I just prefer
8 1/2 for personal reasons, including "Surrealism FTW"
). It combines just about every film he made in the past, (
La Strada,
Nights of Carabia) and shapes the direction for his future filmography. This film is at the point a bit before he fully matured as a filmmaker, thus while it is not a complete, it is filled with young energy and a lot of passion.
I believe
La Dolce Vita can do something for everyone, regardless of age, because it is one of those unlikely relatable films that catch you by surprise. For me, it made Mastrioianni a Top 10 actor, and Fellini a Top 5 director, and a reason to sit through films chugging for 3 hours (originally the ideal length of a film for me is just around 2 hours, and still us, but
La Dolce Vita made me more tolerant about length, because, sometimes it's worth it). For those of you who are looking for an entrance to Fellini, this is the perfect film.