La dolce vita
(The Sweet Life)

Screening on Film

Directed by Federico Fellini.
With Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée.
Italy, 1960, 35mm, black & white, 176 min.
Italian with English subtitles.

Marcello Mastroianni became an international star thanks to his swaggering portrayal of a reporter for the society pages of a Roman newspaper who becomes enmeshed in the lives of the jaded aristocracy as he attempts to search for something more meaningful. The decadent lifestyle quickly takes its toll, however, as the film follows Mastroianni’s journey through a nightmarish world in which emotions have been destroyed by surface realities, moral conventions, and unresolved guilt. Banned by the Catholic Church in many countries, the sensationalism of the film made La dolce vita an international success, although often to the detriment of the film’s serious intent. Epic in scale and episodic in structure, this cinematic anatomy of the decrepit values of modern society never wavers in its brilliance.