Marcello is a society gossip columnist. During one of his rounds, he meets again Maddalena and spends the night with her in a whore's bedroom. When he comes back home the next morning, he discovers that his girlfriend Emma poisoned herself because of him. Later, he is at the airport where the famous star Sylvia is arriving : he will go with her a few days... A chronicle of a decadent society where there is no more values except alcohol and sex, and no solutions but suicide. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

“La Dolce Vita” is one of those great films that divides audiences.

There are those who will see it as rambling, indulgent, overdone or uninteresting. And then there are those who see something deeper at work.

This is the story of Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni), a reporter and a would-be elitist, whom we watch over a few days as he pursues stories, women, and the meaning of his life. For him, almost every night includes a party, every dawn a groggy beginning, and he consistently finds himself torn between the safe life with fiancée Fanny (Megali Noel) and the adventures to be found with the likes of Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), an American actress who flirts with him through one long evening.

What’s incredible about Federico Fellini’s work is its sense of life. Never once does this movie feel constructed or contrived, but rather appears to be unraveling before us, unscripted and uninhibited.

And this is the point of difference between those who will yawn, and those who will lean forward starting tomorrow at a screening of a new print at the Oriental Theater. For some, unpredictability is liberating; for others, it is simply confusing.

Without generalizing, I think it’s safe to say that most people have experienced a period in their lives when they felt unlike themselves, as if they were living for someone else, by the rules of others, and focusing on what others deemed important.

I consider the camera’s gaze in “La Dolce Vita” to be Marcello’s realization of this truth. Behind his smiles, the flashing cameras, and the elaborate pageantry, this is a movie about a man’s discovery that his life has really ceased being his own.

Watch how he pursues Sylvia during their one, fateful night, and how he has lost all sense of self in chasing her. Or take the night when he finally blows up at Fanny, resentful of both her philandering and her shallowness, unsure if he should stay with her out of safety or leave her to pursue someone better in their social circle.

Or consider the film’s very last sequence, in which he both celebrates and mocks the various performances being put on at an elaborate house party. To some degree, he is disgusted by what he has become and creates a spectacle that degrades those he used to admire.

Even better, fans of the film will surely disagree with this analysis. “Vita’s” ambiguity and this ability to interpret and read it in numerous ways is the mark of a great artwork, enticing each viewer to see something different in its themes and nuances.

Fellini is unquestionably a director who indulges himself, but here his eccentricities are perfectly appropriate. His glorious wide shots capture the irony and the scope of the film’s big moments, and his close-ups give us an insight into Marcello’s perspective, in his frustration as Sylvia remains the woman just out of reach, and his elation during his intimate whispering conversation with Fanny and his confusion in the car when he finally decides that she is not right for him.

Most great films have a “great” feel. They are about wars, epic romances, or wholly unique visions. Films like “La Dolce Vita,” Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game,” or De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief” are brilliant precisely because they do not need the “big idea” to work. They simply give us flawed humans to observe, and help us to understand ourselves just a little better with a story that is honest and direct.

Here, patient viewers will start to see that Marcello’s smiles, pleasantries, aspirations and passions are not really what they appear to be; that amid a lifestyle most people dream of, this man is losing his soul - one sunrise at a time.

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