LA DOLCE VITA - MIFF 2011

I must admit that I have seen very little of Fellini’s work and so far what I have seen I haven’t responded to the way that I thought I would.  I mean he has a strong visual style, is very technically proficient and likes to deal with circus imagery that I adore, but for some reason I’ve still yet to connect with his films.  Still I wanted to give “La Dolce Vita” a chance, if just because of its amazing reputation.  It turns out that “La Dolce Vita” is not the film I thought it was, as before this screening all I really knew of the film was the iconic image of Anita Ekberg standing in the Trevi fountain, with Marcello Mastroianni following in after her.  I always thought that the film was a romance between these two characters as they travelled around Italy.  This could not be further from the truth.

Marcello is a tabloid journalist who throughout the film becomes more and more disillusioned by the world he lives in, upper class Rome, and yet finds that he cannot escape from it.  He is continually drawn back to the glamour, the girls, the nightlife.  We follow Marcello through a number of small vignettes and watch him sometimes while he works or sometimes at play when he is partying with the rich and famous.  As the film goes along though, they appear to get increasingly sadder, with Marcello himself becoming more and more depressed by the decadence he is witness to and a part of.

Because the film is episodic in nature, I think the quality of each segment differs, depending on what you respond to.  My favourite segment by far is the one when Marcello’s father comes to visit him.  It is here we see Marcello trying to grab hold a small piece of that small town innocence that his dad still possesses and that he, himself, lost long ago.  During his visit though, almost the opposite happens as his father is almost corrupted by the decadent night life of Rome.  The saddest segment is the second last one when Marcello finds out that one of his friends has taken his own life after killing his two children first.  Worse still is the fact that it is up to him to break the news to the man’s wife.  I must say that I was incredibly frustrated by the final scene that takes place at a never-ending party, because Marcello just becomes a bit of an arse in this segment.  However it redeems itself when they end up on a beach, and Marcello has a strange otherworldly connection to a young girl.  This segment feels completely different than the rest of the film, and I’m starting to think that Marcello is actually dead in this segment.  Throughout the entire film, he is dressed in a black suit, except here when he is in white (a ghost?), he has also aged considerably with his hair visibly greyer, and his strange interaction with the girl on the beach, makes me conclude that he is now dead.

I am sure that there is much more to get out of this film than I have on my first viewing of it, and I’m also sure that with repeated viewings more of its secrets would open themselves to me, but for my first, this three hour film was admittedly a lot to take in.  That said, I cannot fault the filmmaking on display here because it is incredibly well made, beautifully directed with gorgeous black and white cinematography.  Marcello Mastroianni also gives a truly outstanding performance as his namesake. 

3.5 Stars.

 

It is amazing how much I want to revisit this film since writing this review.  That is usually a sign of a great movie.