La Dolce Vita (re-release)

Movie Info

Genre(s): Classic  |  Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Federico Fellini
Ennio Flaiano
Tullio Pinelli
Brunello Rondi

Directed by: Federico Fellini

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 30, 2004
DVD: September 21, 2004

Running Time: 180 minutes, B/W

Origin: Italy / France

Language(s): Italian (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noël, Alain Cuny, Annibale Ninchi, and Walter Santesso

One of the most controversial and acclaimed of Federico Fellini's many classics, La Dolce Vita stars Marcello Mastroianni as a third-rate reporter who lives a playboy's life as he pursues a shabby career of scandal mongering. His increasingly amoral interest in the "sweet life" of high society takes him to hedonistic parties and orgies throughout modern day Rome, as days and nights blur into one another. (Landmark Theatres)

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What The Critics Said

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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kurt H gave it a4:
Disjointed , mish-mash that does have somewhat of a message. Honest reviewers basing on movie , not director's reputation or cognoscenti will not rate this higher than 7.

Carol G. gave it a 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.

Yoon Min C. gave it a 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.

Dave C. gave it a 10:
Film-making at its most daring, fascinating, classy and stylish (not stylISED).

Dan C. gave it a 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.