LA DOLCE VITA
Directed by: Federico Fellini.
Produced by: Gieuseppe Amato & Angelo Rizzoli.
Written by: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli & Brunello Rondi, based on a story by Fellini, Flaiano & Pinelli.
Director of Photography by: Otello Martelli.
Edited by: Leo Catozzo.
Music by: Nino Rota.
Released by: Koch Lorber Films.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy/France. 174 min. Not Rated.
With: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimeé, Yvonne Furneaux & Alain Cuny.

DVD Features: Two Discs. Introduction by director Alexander Payne. Commentary by film critic/historian Richard Schickel. Fellini TV: Collection of Fellini Shorts. "Remembering the Sweet Life": Interviews with Marcello Mastroianni & Anita Ekberg. "Cinecitta: The House of Fellini," Musical Montage of Fellini's Studio. "Fellini, Roma, and Cinecitta": An Interview with Fellini. Restoration Demo. Biographies. Filmographies. Photo gallery. English & Spanish subtitles. Italian & English Audio. Eight-page collector's booklet.

Watching this 1960 masterpiece, one is struck by its pungent desperation and alienation. Society news hound Marcello (an entirely naturalistic Marcello Mastroianni) goes from one adventure to another on his ill-defined quest for something in which to believe (such as respectability and/or affection). His meandering - and that of the film, with its episodic, segmented structure - is endemic of his surroundings. This is hinted at in the depiction of the characters' need to worship, whether that is of religion, love, wealth, or celebrity. The film's provocative mixture of realism with spectacle culminates in a surrealistic meditation on the absurd nature of life.

From the statue of Christ hanging below a hovering helicopter to composer Nino Rota's luminously gentle score, the movie is filled with wild juxtapositions as the decadence of high society is examined. Its characters are searching for escape - which accounts for the excessive alcohol consumption on display. (An orgy scene showing Marcello drunkenly riding a fellow partygoer as if she were a horse is shocking even today).

DVD Extras: In his introduction, director Alexander Payne (Sideways) perceives Federico Fellini's directorial style as modernly novelistic. Film critic/historian Richard Schickel also casts La Dolce Vita as a critique of old-fashioned institutions. Nevertheless, Schickel says the film is nostalgic for traditional belief systems - which some viewers may interpret as a statement about the fundamental flaw of needing faith, placing the movie in a more postmodern context than Schickel identifies. Additionally, he stresses that there is no psychological motivation provided for Marcello because the motive isn't clear even to Marcello.

Fellini's TV commercial clips (outtakes from his Ginger and Fred [1986]) are bizarrely remarkable since it is difficult to tell if they are real advertisements or not. As for the Fellini interview, it is only interesting to hear how he links his studio, Cinecittà, and the city of Rome in his mind. Finally, the interviews with Anita Ekberg and Mastroianni provide a touching glimpse of the stars watching themselves onscreen in the film many years later. Reymond Levy
December 2, 2004