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LA SEDATA VITA Supposedly so shocking, so daring with multiple themes it was decided to sell La Dolce Vita as an “adults only” roadshow in the more cosmopolitan American cities. And didn’t do half bad as one, either; in Chicago, it followed Ben-Hur at the famed Michael Todd Theatre and ran a healthy 17 weeks. In black and white, the picture wasn’t prestige stag, or what had been hoped to be; it was Federico Fellini leasurely gasping at the depravity of his modern Roma, showing sinners and lechers prefiguring Silvio Berlusconi types deserving of Hell because they’re aimless, alienated, bored. Still hailed by many as a searing look at the beginnings of the Paparatszi culture, which would soon explode during the filming of Cleopatra, Fellini felt an urge to expose hypocrises as “truths” without admitting he was then and remained throughout his years just as much a languishing voyeur as the smoking, drinking and sex-obsessed parasites he exploited. For what seemed like years all people talked about was Anita Ekberg in the fountain and the “orgy” with its prancers and the lovely Nadia Gray gyrating to Pérez Prado’s “Patricia.” But the talk stopped when most of us as teens got to see the picture at the drive-in months later and were disappointed because the hype in ads—“uncut, uncensored, now for all to see, the nights, the drunken revels, the sins and the sinners, the perverted decadence of the jet set rich”—produced expectation never realized on the screen. There was more base action going on at A Summer Place than Fellini’s place. Ekberg’s boobarama notoriety aside, it’s Marcello Mastroianni who benefited most—becoming an international superstar. (If audiences smile apprehensively at his character’s face-slapping of his intended—Yvonne Furneaux in the movie’s most annoying performance—as earned if overdue remedy, his misogynist leanings in feather-dropping and piggybacking can’t be dismissed.) The kindest thing to be said decades later: after Juliet of the Spirits, Satyricon, Fellini’s Roma and Fellini’s Casanova, La Dolce Vita looks blessedly sedate. Compared to L’Avventura, La Notte, Last Year at Marienbad and Fellini’s 8 ½, it may be the less exceptionable of the elevated Eurotrash “masterpieces.” Occasionally showing up on TCM with a TV-14 rating and YouTube frequently runs a good print, often surprisingly graspable when aired without subtitles. Winner of the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. With Anouk Aimée (somnambulantly driving a Cadillac convertible at night wearing shades), Lex Barker, Alain Cuny as timebomb Steiner, and Giò Stajano the lead flamer who in real life would surgically transiton in 1983. Filmed in TotalScope. Oscar win for best b & costume design. Nominations for best director, original screenplay, art direction/set decoration. (Otello Martelli wasn’t nominated for the one award deserved—best black and white cinematography; that went to The Hustler.) ROLL OVER IMAGE & POSTERS
Text COPYRIGHT © 2001 RALPH BENNER (Revised 9/2024) All Rights Reserved. |
