Essential Fellini #1: La Dolce Vita (1960)

Federico Fellini's 3 hour masterpiece La Dolce Vita is probably my favorite out of the handful of his movies I've seen. I am not totally sure why I find the movie so alluring. Perhaps it is the decadent style, fabulous costumes, and beautiful faces on the screen. La Dolce Vita feels like the archetype of midcentury Italian cinema. Many directors were working at the top of their game at the time, like Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio De Sica, and Roberto Rosselini. When I think of Italian movies of the time, however, I think of La Dolce Vita. 

On the surface, the movie is capital-G Glamor, right? Sophistication, wealth, fame, celebrity. But a look even just a dash more probing reveals something far more grotesque and troubling. Fellini's party movie depicts the push and pull between sensationalism and hard truths. Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is somewhat self-aware of his need to be within this swirling, fashionable world but doesn't seem to quick to escape it. Fellini looks at the addictive nature of being in the center of the party, even as loneliness starts to seep in within those parties. There's a dread, a fear of death's void, but one that is contrasted quite beautifully with the exuberance and liveliness on screen. The movie is a joke, life is a joke, love and sex are jokes, and maybe death is a joke too. 

I'm never quite sure what to make of La Dolce Vita every time I watch it. I don't want to find it cynical; actually I look for some hope and light in it, wanting to believe these selfish people are capable of redemption and introspection. The film's structure is hazy and free-form, as Marcello drifts from vignette to vignette. The hypocrisy of this Italian society is laid bare, even in the revered institution of the Catholic Church. Everything is for sale or for consumption. Even so, there are a few moments that shock Marcello back to reality but those moments are fleeting or easily forgotten. 

One of my favorite moments in the film is when Marcello visits old ruins while at a party in a castle. He chances upon his casual lover Maddalena (Anouk Aimee) there. While they are in two separate rooms connected by a an echo chamber, he proposes marriage to her. He confesses his love for her...but she already lost interest and drifted to another lover. It's the perfect encapsulation that la dolce vita is rotting from within, so why should Marcello call out for genuine connection? No one is listening from the other side.