Federico Fellini directed La Dolce Vita (Italian for “the sweet life” or “the good life”), a satirical dramedy, co-written by him, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi).
The film stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who, over seven days and nights, journeys through the “sweet life” of Rome in a fruitless search for love, meaning, and happiness.
The screenplay can be divided into a prologue, 7 major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and concluding with an epilogue.
Prologue
Day 1: A helicopter transports a statue of Christ over an ancient Roman aqueduct outside Rome while a second, Marcello Rubini’s news helicopter, follows it into the city. The news helicopter is momentarily sidetracked by a group of bikini-clad women sunbathing on the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building. Hovering above, Marcello uses gestures to elicit phone numbers from them but fails in his attempt. He then shrugs and continues following the statue to Saint Peter’s Square.
Day 1: Night Sequence:
Nightclub: Marcello meets by chance Maddalena, a beautiful and wealthy heiress, who’s is tired of Rome, while Marcello finds it suits him.
They make love in the bedroom of a prostitute whom they had given a ride home in Maddalena’s Cadillac.
Dawn Sequence: Marcello returns to his apartment to find his fiancée Emma overdosed. On the way to the hospital, he declares his love to her as she lies in semiconscious state in the emergency room. While waiting frantically for her recovery, however, he tries to call Maddalena.
Day 2: Day Sequence:
Marcello goes on assignment for the arrival of Sylvia, a famous Swedish-American actress, at Ciampino airport where she is met by news reporters.
During Sylvia’s press conference, Marcello calls home to ensure Emma has taken her medication. After the film star confidently replies to the barrage of journalists’ questions, her boyfriend Robert arrives late and drunk. Marcello casually recommends to Sylvia’s producer that she tours St Peter’s.
Inside St Peter’s dome, a reporter complains that Sylvia is “an elevator” because none of them can match her climb up the flights of stairs. Inspired, Marcello maneuvers forward to be alone with her when they reach the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Day 2: Night Sequence
That evening, Marcello dances with Sylvia in the Baths of Caracalla. Sylvia’s natural sensuality triggers raucous partying while Robert, her bored fiancé, draws caricatures and reads his newspaper. His humiliating remark causes Sylvia to leave, and she’s followed by Marcello and paparazzi.
Marcello and Sylvia spend the rest of the evening in the alleys of Rome, wading into the Trevi Fountain.
Day 3: Dawn Sequence:
Dawn arrives at just as Sylvia playfully “anoints” Marcello’s head with fountain water. They drive back to Sylvia’s hotel to find an enraged Robert waiting for her. Robert slaps Sylvia, orders her to go to bed, and then assaults Marcello.
Day 3: Day Sequence:
Marcello meets Steiner, his intellectual friend, inside a church, and Steiner shows off his book of Sanskrit grammar. They go up to play the organ, offering up a jazz piece for the watching priest before playing Bach.
Day 3: Late afternoon
Marcello, photographer friend Paparazzo, and Emma drive to the outskirts of Rome to cover the story of the purported sighting of the Madonna by two children. The Catholic Church is officially skeptical, but huge crowd of devotees and reporters gathers at the site.
Day 3: Night Sequence:
The event is broadcast over Italian radio and television. Emma prays to Virgin Mary to be given sole possession of Marcello’s heart. Blindly following the two children in downpour, the crowd tears a small tree apart for its branches and leaves that have sheltered the Madonna.
Day 4: Dawn Sequence:
The gathering ends at dawn with the crowd mourning sick child, a pilgrim brought by his mother to be healed, but trampled to death in the melee.
Day 4: Night Sequence:
Marcello and Emma attend gathering at Steiner’s luxurious home, where they are introduced to intellectuals who recite poetry, strum the guitar, offer philosophical ideas.
The British Iris Tree, whose poetry Marcello has read and admired, recommends that Marcello avoid the “prisons” of commitment: “Stay free, available, like me. Never get married. Never choose. Even in love, it’s better to be chosen.”
Emma, enchanted with Steiner’s home and children, tells Marcello that one day he will have a home like Steiner’s, but he turns away.
Outside, Marcello confesses to Steiner his admiration for his values, but Steiner admits he is torn between the security that a materialistic life affords and his longing for more spiritual albeit insecure way of life. Steiner philosophizes about the need for love, and shows fear about the future of his children.
Day 5: Afternoon
Marcello works on his novel at seaside restaurant, where he meets Paola, a young waitress from Perugia playing Perez Prado’s cha-cha “Patricia” on the jukebox. He describes her as an angel in Umbrian paintings.
Day 5: Night Sequence:
Marcello meets his father visiting Rome on Via Veneto. They go to the “Cha-Cha” Club, where Marcello introduces his father to Fanny, a beautiful dancer and one of his past girlfriends who takes liking to his father.
Marcello tells Paparazzo that as a child he had never seen much of his father, who would spend weeks away from home. Fanny invites Marcello’s father back to her flat. Marcello leaves the others when they get to the dancers’ neighborhood. Fanny gets upset that Marcello’s father has become ill.
Day 5: Dawn Sequence: Marcello’s father suffers mild heart attack. Marcello wants him to stay with him in Rome so they can get to know each other, but his father wants to go home to Cesena. He leaves Marcello forlorn watching the taxi leave.
Day 6: Night Sequence:
Marcello, Nico, and friends meet on Via Veneto and drive to a castle owned by aristocrats at Bassano di Sutri outside Rome. The partygoers there are bleary-eyed and intoxicated. By chance, Marcello meets Maddalena again and they explore suite of ruins annexed to the castle. Maddalena seats Marcello in a vast room and then closets herself in another room connected by echo chamber. As a disembodied voice, Maddalena asks him to marry her; Marcello professes his love for her, but avoids her proposal. Another man kisses and embraces Maddalena, who loses interest in Marcello. He rejoins the group, and then spends the night with Jane, a British artist and heiress.
Day 6: Dawn Sequence:
Burnt out and bleary-eyed, the group returns to the castle to be met by the matriarch, who is on her way to mass, accompanied by priests in a procession.
Day 7: Night Sequence:
Marcello and Emma are alone in his sports car on an isolated road. Emma says that Marcello will never find another woman who loves him the way she does. Marcello becomes enraged, telling her that he cannot live with her smothering maternal love. He wants her to get out of the car, but she refuses. With some violence (a bite from her and a slap from him), he drives off, leaving her alone on a deserted road. Hours later, his car returns, and she gets in with neither saying a word.
Day 7: Dawn Sequence:
Marcello and Emma are asleep in bed, when he receives a phone call, informing him that Steiner has killed his two children and himself.
Day 7: Day Sequence:
Waiting with the police for Steiner’s wife, he meets her outside to break the terrible news while the paparazzi swarm around.
Epilogue
Night Sequence:
An older Marcello, now with gray hair, and partygoers break into a beach house owned by Riccardo, a friend of Marcello’s. where some men are homosexual. Marcello is mocked for abandoning literature and becoming publicity agent.
To celebrate her divorce from Riccardo, Nadia performs a striptease to Perez Prado’s cha-cha “Patricia.” Riccardo shows up at the house and tells the partiers to leave. The drunken Marcello attempts to provoke the other partygoers into orgy. However, the party to descend into mayhem, with Marcello riding young woman crawling on her hands and knees and throwing pillow feathers around the room.
Dawn Sequence:
The party proceeds to the beach where they find modern-day leviathan, a bloated sea ray-like creature, caught in fishermen’s nets. In his stupor, Marcello comments on how its eyes stare even in death.
Paola, the adolescent waitress from the seaside restaurant, calls to Marcello, but the words are lost on the wind, drowned out by the crashing waves. He shrugs and returns to the partygoers; one woman joins him as they walk away from the beach.
Last shot: In a lengthy close-up, Paola waves to Marcello, watching him as he walks away with an enigmatic smile on her face.
Critical Status:
Released in Italy on February 5, 1960, La Dolce Vita was both a critical success and worldwide commercial hit, despite censorship in some regions.
It won the Palme d’Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the Best Costumes Oscar.
It was nominated for three more Oscars, including Best Director for Fellini, and Best Original Screenplay.
Its success proved a watershed moment for Italian cinema and European art cinema-at-large.
It is regarded as a masterpiece of Italian cinema and one of the greatest films of all time.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s list of 100 films that “have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978.”
Cast
Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini
Anita Ekberg as Sylvia Rank
Anouk Aimée as Maddalena
Yvonne Furneaux as Emma
Lex Barker as Robert
Magali Noël as Fanny
Alain Cuny as Steiner
Nadia Gray as Nadia
Jacques Sernas as Divo
Laura Betti as Laura
Walter Santesso as Paparazzo
Valeria Ciangottini as Paola
Riccardo Garrone as Riccardo
Annibale Ninchi as Marcello’s father
Ida Galli as Debutante of the Year
Audrey McDonald as Jane
Alain Dijon as Frankie Stout
Enzo Cerusico as News Photographer
Giò Stajano as Pierone
Giulio Questi as Don Giulio Mascalchi
Sondra Lee as Ballerina
Dominot as Drag Queen
Ferdinand Guillaume as Pagliaccio
Oretta Fiume as Lisa
Harriet White Medin as Edna
John Francis Lane as John
Umberto Orsini as man in Shades
Archie Savage as Dancer
Nico as herself
Adriano Celentano as himself
Iris Tree as herself
Desmond O’Grady as himself
