La Dolce Vita: Fifty Years Down the Road

Watched La Dolce Vita / "The Sweet Life" (1960; US release, 1961) again. The passage of time even since the last time I saw it in 2008 has made it all the better. It's hard not to be dazzled yet again by Anita Ekberg, Nico, Marcello Mastroianni, and my personal favorite in this film, Anouk Aimée (Françoise Sorya Dreyfus).

Fellini follows the existentially lost Marcello as he longs to become something more than a well-heeled celebrity journalist -- often in company with frenetic paparazzi associates (Fellini's character Paparazzo in La Dolce Vita inspired the jaded term we now take for granted). Though maddening in his indecisiveness, Marcello somehow remains sympathetic (he really wants to write novels, but seems to lack self-discipline of any kind). Perhaps because he's mortal and flawed and occasionally has flashes of self-understanding.














Here: Marcello Mastroianni and Nico.

In black and white, sometimes brash, always stylish and meditative, La Dolce Vita provides insight into today's world and refracts a colorful funhouse from the Fellini Rome's chiaroscuro nights and dawns of fifty years ago. The pace may be too whimsical for some ADHD viewers to endure in one shot, but the imagery is breathtaking. Maybe sample a little at a time first and go from there.  

Today's Rune: Journey.