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Summary: Marcello kickin-it in Rome
Review: this movie is cool because Marcello hangs out, parties with the 'in crowd', and trashes somebody's apartment in Rome. but seriously, this is another must see of Fellini's (8 1/2 of course) and definitely a msut if you love Rome. if you're familiar with the cities monuments, smells or people you'll really enjoy this. while not quite aspiring to the philisophical pretentions of 8 1/2, and not quite as visually appealing, this film rocks and you better see it!this reviewer also recommends 'Wild Strawberries', '8 1/2', 'Cinema Paradiso', 'Goodfellas', 'Raging Bull', 'Home Alone 6', etc.
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Summary: Ah....... Rome at night!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie really describes what is the sweet life. Fellini big fan??????????? BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: WHY IS THIS FILM NOT RELEASED ON DVD YET !?!?!?
Review: Until Criterion get off their butts and remaster this (and take your time and do it "right"), ultra-legendary film classic, we will all have to content ourselves with the VHS cassettes: two chunky tapes with semi-poor audio and a grainy picture. This film is BRILLIANT in every way, and in my opinion, if you have never seen it, you don't know much about cinema! See it as soon as you are able, and if it's been awhile, you owe yourself a treat and rent or buy it again soon! The VHS tapes will "do" temporarily, but considering the overseas international sensation this film caused in 1960, it's puzzling why no one has released a high quality version on DVD as yet? The 1960's would not have been what they were had it not been for this movie. The city of Rome would not be what it is today if not for this movie. We would not have the term "paparrazi" if not for this movie. Why then can we not see it in all its wonderful glory as it was meant to be seen?!?! I can only hope that the Criterion collection is preparing something BIG and giving this film the same spectacular treatment that Criterion showed to 8 1/2.
When (not if), they do, buy your copy immediately. I would easily pay $100.00 for my copy without blinking an eye and feel I got a bargain! If you only own three movies in your home collection, this should be one of them!
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Summary: La Dolce Vita, My Views and Suggestions
Review: Upon my first viewing of La Dolce Vita I had been very excited. I did not know much about it but had seen photos of Anita Ekberg's fountain frolic and had read a few selected articles. I soon learned La Dolce Vita is not the kind of film you go into unprepared. 15 minutes into the film I really enjoyed it, within a half hour I was loving it. But as time went by things got slower and slower as well as more tastless. by Vita's end I absolutely hated it. I went to bed that night guilty and confused, angry over wasting a good three hours. But the next day an odd thing happened, I was sitting in school when I began thinking of it. I tried to stop but couldn't get the images out of my head. I felt a strange desire to watch it again, as if I had missed something. However I quickly put these thoughts out of my head. About two weeks later I was in the video store when I came across 8 1/2. I had thought I would never be interested in any of Fellini's works again but I had accumulated a strange urge to see it. So I rented it, brought it home and was blown away. It quickly vaulted to the top of my favorite films list and Fellini to the top of my directors. Fascinated I began viewing some of his other works. Eventually though I came to the inevitable, La Dolce Vita, so a few days later I ordered it off Amazon. That viewing left me utterly stunned and wondering what I had missed the first time. I began to see things I had never seen and think things never thought. I began to find meaning in Vita I had never acknowledged, masses of it. However I won't get into that now. Upon my first viewing Vita would have recieved about one star, now I've come to realize its brilliance. However, I would not recomend it to virgins of Fellini's work. It would probably be best, in that case, to start with some of his earlier more enjoyable films, ala La Strada. Also it would probably be best to read up on it before hand. Its good to have an idea of what you are looking for, before you try to find it. Oh, and one more thing, don't fall into the articles that will tell you La Dolce Vita is an immoral and an ungodly film. The material is a bit tasteless but the meaning behind it can easily be viewed in a very christian way. Follow these suggestions and I guarantee your expieriances will be far more pleasurable.
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Summary: Fellini's best. A paparazzi's charmed life in '59 Italy.
Review: Very good. An excellent B/W film based solely on content, circumstance and dialogue. Excellent settings and cast. When you go to Rome you WILL go by the fountain Anita Eckberg pranced through. (It is a National Monument now) A not-quite middle aged journalist is trying to make it in a crowded "mod" sort of market. He must deal with insurmountable problems, continuously, but his hair and suit always look great! If you only have one of Fellini's, get this one. In Italian, of course.
Rating:
Summary: Fellini's Best
Review: What a great movie...It needs to be watched more than once for full understanding...Crikey, get this movie on DVD...I can't say too much but it looks like too little. Watch it if you have an open mind.
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Summary: One More Shot Please Miss Ekberg!
Review: What can be said about La Dolce Vita that has not already been said? Nothing left to say. It's all been said thousands of times and by better writers than myself. So I will approach my review from the historical significance of "La Dolce Vita">
Some think that "8 ½" is Fellini's masterpiece; some think his later works such as "Amarcord" are his best and most accessible. Yet others lean toward "La Strada" or "Nights of Cabiria." But for me "La Dolce Vita" is the Maestro's masterpiece.
It was made at the end of his more realistic period on the verge of his dreamier concoctions. Yet in this film you feel the effects of dreams and the drifting segmented form of dreams
. The film is set in the most exciting period of the history of cinema. The early 1960's when Rome played host to the film word and was know as "Hollywood On The Tiber" a time when big American bucks were pumped into such studios as Rome's Cinecitta to produce films like "Ben-Hur" and "Cleopatra" and Vincent Minnelli's rip off of "La Dolce Via, "Two Weeks in Another Town".
At the same time such wonders of the Italian cinema as this gem, and works by De Sica, Antonioni and Visconti were being made. All of this in the midst of the birth of the paparazzi press of Rome. Here in Fellini's film you are shown that world in an inwardly turned and self-loathing lens. A glamorous and hollow world that is not so different from our world today. And in many ways gave birth to the media frenzy we find ourselves encircled by just as Anita Ekberg's Silvia is upon her arrival in Rome.
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Summary: 5 star FILM--0 stars for a DVD that isn't released!!
Review: WHERE IS THE DVD of 'La Dolce Vita'?? This is far superior art and entertainment to that wonderful-but-ridiculous '8 1/2' I mean, we all love Fellini, but why is his most coherent and artistically mature film lying around in some distributor's vault while trash like 'Shanghai Surprise' and box-sets of Whoopi Goldberg movies get all these million-copy releases?? Fellini is more than '8 1/2'; FEEL FREE TO RELEASE THIS DVD ANYTIME!! Ugh, do I have to get a region-free DVD player to watch foreign films? Heck, there are some American classic films that do not have release here, but are being printed in UK and European codes. What is wrong with American distributors?? We want our Fellini, and we want it now!! Gimme the sweet life gimme the sweet life GIMME THE SWEET LIFE!!!! P.S. To all sympathizers, Bergman's 'Persona' is FINALLY getting American release in February. Cross your fingers they don't back out at the last minute in favor of a straight-to-DVD sequel to 'Finding Nemo': 'Filet of Nemo: Almond Crusted with a Side of Rice Pilaf,' starring the voices of Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Aniston, and Dom Deluise.
Rating:
Summary: Totally overrated . . . but let me explain
Review: Yes, La Dolce Vita is Fellini's crown jewel, his overindulgent masterpiece. Yet it's definitely not his best work. I'm sure, viewed in the context of the time of its release, it was shocking with its unblinking eye towards high society or "the sweet life" debauchery. It definitely was THE film that really made Fellini's name known worldwide but viewed amongst his oeuvre, La Strada or Amarcord are better. Although it is touted as being his best, and rightfully so even if it is slightly misogynistic, it's not one of my favorites. Running at three hours long it becomes a bit self indulgent and tedious at points. Some segments are really entertaining while others could have been edited for length. There's definitely a lot to dissect here. It truly is a stunning film but I can only watch it in segments instead of straight through.
What makes La Dolce Vita, and 8 ½, so noteworthy is its combination of Fellini's neo-realist roots, which he would soon abandon, with his surrealist dreamscapes that he would eventually and wholeheartedly embrace. We have the surreal nightclub scene where Marcello meets Maddalena juxtaposed against Steiner's neo-realist double murder/suicide (if you haven't seen this by now then shame on you!). We have Sylvia's romp in Tivoli fountain paired against Marcello`s neurotic wife's suicide attempts.
The theme of paparazzi (that phrase as fans of Fellini know was coined from a character in the film) and the fascination with high society culture is even more relevant today than ever before. However, if taken simply for its entertainment value, La Dolce Vita is as visually amazing as most of Fellini's films. Anouk Aimee, as bored aristocrat Maddalena, is breathtaking in a Jackie-O meets Sophia Loren kind of way and Anita Ekberg, as buxom blonde starlet Sylvia, is so very Anna Nicole down to her innocently aware child-like antics. Even 60s rock/Warhol icon Nico is in this too. It's a great starting point for those new to the visually poetic world of Fellini but I can't say it's his best. City of Women, And The Ship Sails On and Ginger & Fred are still my favorites with Juliet of the Spirits holding a close place in my heart, but to each his own I guess.
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