Sat ouside a
cafe on the Via Veneto sometime in late 1959 in Rome, there is a very good
chance you would have seen
being made -
one of the key films of this century.
It was a joint Italian and French production, released in 1960 in Black and White.
The title translates into English as 'The Sweet Life' - depicting a life of ease and luxury, yet with interesting nuances of meaning..
It revolves around the semi-decadent life of a young journalist - Marcello Rubini played in a superb performance by Marcello Mastroianni.
Marcello is not from Rome and we see how, although the big city seems to offer everything, pehaps he is still not happy.
He has a wonderful English sports car, wears fashionable clothes and visits all the chic bars, yet still something seems missing......
Marcello's suicidal girlfriend Emma (played byYvonne Furneaux) and decadent lover Maddalena (played by Anouk Aimee) serve to add even more colour to his life.
The arrival of
a the glamorous American movie star - Sylvia, played by Anita Ekberg (looking
absolutely stunning) throws Marcello's life into even further disarray.
The film is directed by Federico Fellini and is one the of the high points of his career. With a star studded cast (in European terms) and controversial subject matter, it was arguably the most talked about film in Italy in 1960.
We can see that now Fellini is still looking at all the facets of humanity explored i his perevious films - but is now not looking at the lower social strata but actually at the same prob;ems and conflicts in the wealthy and decadent classes of those living in Italy - in this case Rome, in this period of time.
It has often been suggested that the character we see leaving on the train in I Vitelloni is represented in La Dolce ita by Marcello - that Fellini's films contain elements of continuity from one character to another across his films.
Fellini himself dislikes to speak about such issues and would often give several different answers just to amuse himself in watching the poor journalists (like Macello in La Dolce Vita) flounder for the truth.
However we interpret it this is a simply superb film.
It has a wonderful music score by Nino Rota, a composer who worked with Fellini for many years.
As we sit here on the via veneto, perhaps we could have another coffee
and go back to
conversation we had earlier to discuss the life
and early works of Federico Fellini.....
Alternatively we could talk a little more about La Dolce Vita. On that subject it is facinating to note that our Virtual Via Veneto is not the first ever made - Fellini made the first VVV in 1959...
Last Updated 8th of February 1999
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