Dolce Vita, << DAWL cheh VEE tah or DOHL chay VEE tuh, >> La, is a study of Italian society that ranks among the most popular and controversial motion pictures of its time. The film was released in 1960 and became a major international success for Italian director Federico Fellini.
The title of the film means The Sweet Life. It deals with the shallowness and self-indulgence of celebrities and members of high society living in Rome in the mid-1900’s.
The motion picture opens with a famous scene of a giant statue of Jesus Christ being transported over the rooftops of Rome by helicopter. The story is actually a sequence of loosely connected episodes as seen through the eyes of an Italian journalist, played by the noted Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. The journalist is both fascinated and disgusted by the degradation and sexual excess he sees around him. The character of the journalist supposedly is an autobiographical representation of Fellini himself. Although La Dolce Vita explores the moral decay of many of its main characters, the film seems to neither condemn nor justify their lifestyle.
The movie includes a group of roving journalists who stalk famous people, seeking a sensational story. Fellini called one of the journalists Paparazzo. The word paparazzi has since become an international term for aggressive, scandal-seeking reporters and photographers.
La Dolce Vita runs almost three hours and features an international cast. In addition to the Italian actor Mastroianni, the stars include Alain Cluny, Yvonne Furneaux, and Anouk Aimee of France; Anita Ekberg of Sweden; and Lex Barker of the United States. Fellini was the coauthor of the screenplay. His directing and the screenplay were both nominated for Academy Awards, but neither won.
See also Fellini, Federico .
