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In Federico Fellini's lauded Italian film, restless reporter Marcello Rubini drifts through life in an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome in a fruitless search for love and happiness.
Perhaps many spectators will squirm at the three-hour length of the film or of some of its sequences (though director Federico Fellini cut some 30 minutes from his final print), yet others will never notice they've sat that long.
Along with his later 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita is regarded as one of acclaimed Italian director Federico Fellini's best-loved and most influential films. The '60s-set tale of one man's struggle with the so-called "sweet life" stars Marcello Mastroi
The film was hugely successful and widely praised in its time, though it's really nothing more than the old C.B. De Mille formula of titillation and moralizing.
There are perhaps a couple of party scenes too many, and the peripheral characters can be unconvincing, but the stylish cinematography and Fellini's bizarre, extravagant visuals are absolutely riveting.
In spite of its thematic ugliness, this is a stunning-looking trawl through the Italian capital, with Ekberg's impromptu paddle in the Trevi fountain still the films enduring image.
Fellini has set out to move us with the depravity of contemporary life and has chosen what seems to me a poor method: cataloging sins. Very soon we find ourselves thinking: Is that all?