La Dolce Vita (1960) -
I've talked about my relationship with Fellini in the past, but everything I've seen from him so far has left me cold. In addition to this film, I've also seen 8 1/2 and La Strada. While I don't have any issues with those films per se, I felt like they flew over my head. Given that, I wasn't so hot on rewatching this film concerning its 3 hour runtime, but to my surprise, I ended up liking it quite a lot. Though I'm not sure I loved it per se, it's definitely made me more eager to revisit 8 1/2 and La Strada.
On the surface, this film is lovely to look at. It largely consists of various parties Marcello goes to, where he's surrounded by his friends and various women he intends to start a successful relationship with. The deeper one delves into these scenes, however, Marcello's lifestyle feels less like a utopia and more like a prolonged mid-life crisis. The great tragedy of Marcello is that he desperately craves a change in scenery, yet every event he attends results in the same scenery and a similar outcome of winding up back at square one. Instead of abandoning this unfulfilling lifestyle though, he keeps on attending these parties, experiencing more and more failed relationships along the way. Though it's unclear what he wants, there seems to be something he intends to obtain from this lifestyle before he fades away from it altogether, except, one party after another, his attempts keep falling flat. On the surface, it could be said that his intention is to start a successful relationship, but I think his motives are more complex than this. He's already engaged to Emma, yet cheats on her and shows little interest in their relationship. However, if their relationship seems as if it's about to be destroyed, he attempts to prevent that from happening. This raises questions on whether he even knows what he wants. Whatever his intentions are, it's clear his desires won't be fulfilled in his current state.
The most commonly criticized aspect of this film is its length. While I'm not going to pretend the movie kept me fully engaged all throughout (I felt its length in a couple party scenes in the latter half), I think its length was part of the point. I love how Rotten Tomatoes has "...La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- its sprawling length." in the film's Critical Consensus. Marcello seems trapped in a never ending cycle of attending parties and forming relationships, yet always ends up unfulfilled. His response to these failed attempts are to try again and again until something finally works out. In that sense, the repetition adds more layers to Marcello's characterization. I suspect that another rewatch will make this aspect more profound. As it currently stands, I struggled with the film somewhat (albeit, far less than I did when I first watched it), but the odds of me revisiting it are definitely much higher than they previously were.
Overall, I really liked this film. Brimming with bloat and repetition, it's not for everyone, but there's definitely a lot going on in the film beyond presenting a gorgeous portrait of nightlife in Rome interspersed with some drama. It's not quite a great film for me (again though, I suspect I'll like it more with another viewing), but it's grown on me to the point it's now my favorite of Fellini's films.
Next up; The Man From Nowhere