La Dolce Vita (re-release)
User Score
8.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 25
  3. Negative: 1 out of 25

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  1. DaveC.
    Jul 9, 2004
    10
    Film-making at its most daring, fascinating, classy and stylish (not stylISED).
  2. DanC.
    May 2, 2004
    10
    Fellini's second best. That's saying a lot! (It's only behind 8 1/2 by my book). One of the most memorable films ever made.
  3. CarolG.
    Sep 10, 2004
    9
    It's a brilliant movie about what constitutes "home" for someone who resists the banality of a domestic existence. For some, it is easier to be "at home" in a world that is glamorous, exciting, superficial, sybaritic, footloose and very fancy-free. There is in this film, however, an undercurrent of misogyny; women are supposed to be fun-loving Sirens, without needs or demands or depth--these are the women to whom the society darling is attracted. After a man runs through a gamut of beautiful women, what now? Is that all there is? Fellini seems to ask at the end. Take it to the beach, then. The ocean is exciting and can prolong a sense of excitement in lovers who inevitably come to the end of desire.… Expand
  4. YoonMinC.
    Aug 5, 2004
    9
    La dolce vita was fellini's decisive break with his humanist cinema of the 50s. if his previous films ultimately embraced sweetness and pathos, with la dolce vita fellini allowed his characteristic sentimentality to be carried off into the wind; fellini resigned himself to the meaningless of the world. as such, it was a bold and dangerous move for fellini; it opened up the door to what's perhaps his greatest work--8 1/2--but it also laid the groundwork of later films that lacked focus, structure, and partied til they dropped all the while providing no compelling reason for their being. though somewhat dated--hardly shocking or scandalous by today's standards--it is a great document of postwar italy with its newly confident and exuberant--also shallow and amnesiac--priveleged class and the seductive intoxication of nihilism, celeb-centrism, and wanton materialism. fellini toes the line between disgust and delirium. fellini the sensualist can't get enough, fellini the moralist finds it an affront to morality of both the church and social-consciousness of postwar humanism. perhaps a dishonest work but undoubtedly glorious, exhiliarating, and thoughtful one. fellini has too much fun but between the bouts of revelry, he really does ask... is it all worth it? then off he goes again. the man's a rascal but rascality of this calibur is an artform. … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
93 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    70
    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--Roman orgies and Christian martyrs--with only a fraction of De Mille's showmanship.
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  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    The movie is made with boundless energy. Fellini stood here at the dividing point between the neorealism of his earlier films (like "La Strada") and the carnival visuals of his extravagant later ones ("Juliet of the Spirits," "Amarcord'').
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  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Bosley Crowther
    100
    A brilliantly graphic estimation of a whole swath of society in sad decay and, eventually, a withering commentary upon the tragedy of the overcivilized. (Review of Original Release)
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