La Dolce vita (1960) - film review

Marcello, a gossip columnist for the rich and famous, lives the life of a playboy in Rome.  He neglects his overly possessive girlfriend Emma, preferring transitory liaisons with other women, such as the wealthy Maddalena and the beautiful American filmstar Sylvia.  As he drifts from one drunken orgy to the next, he begins to realise how empty and meaningless his life has become...

La Dolca Vita may be Federico Fellini’s most famous film, but it’s a moot point as to whether it’s his best. It certainly made an impact when it was first released, and helped to establish Fellini as one of the foremost directors of his day. The scenes of drunken debauchery which take up most of the film’s runtime must have shocked liberal sensibilities in the early 1960s, and in some ways the film defined the stereotypical images that most people have of that time.

The film’s lack of depth and meaning perfectly mirrors the superficiality of the characters it portrays, although at almost three hours in length you do feel that Fellini is being somewhat overly indulgent.

Whilst the film is certainly a long haul, it is rarely boring, and features some of Fellini’s most memorable set pieces.  These include the slightly surreal scene which opens the film, where a helicopter looms into view carrying a giant statue of Christ, and the appropriately downbeat ending on the beach where, with understated tragedy, Marcello realises there is no escape from his unsatisfying hedonistic life style.

© James Travers 2002

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