La Dolce Vita (The sweet life), Fellini (1960)

Résumé du document

The scene takes place in Rome in the 1950s. The main character, Marcello Rubini (alias Marcello Mastroianni) is a journalist of a tabloid newspaper, but his dream has always been to become a writer. He works with a photo-grapher called Paparazzo. The word "paparazzi" originates from the film.

In the prologue, a helicopter carries a statue of the Christ over the city of Rome to the Vatican.
In the first scene of the film, Marcello and Paparazzo follow a couple in a restaurant. Marcello meets Maddalena there, a woman of the world who is idle. Then, Maddalena and Marcello walk around in Rome. They pick a prostitute up to her home, and in exchange, she lends them her room to make love. At dawn when coming back to his place, Marcello finds his wife Emma lying, she tried to commit suicide. He takes her to the hospital.

In the next scene, a Hollywood star, Sylvia (alias Anita Ekberg), arrives in Rome. The action is divided into several sub scenes: the arrival at the air-port, the visit to the Vatican, the interview, the party in the ruins, the walk at night and the fountain of Trevi. First surrounded by a crowd of photographers and journalists, Marcello finally manages to end up alone with her: this is the mythic scene of the fountain of Trevi, a dream that finishes with the rising of the sun.

Extraits

[...] His job is to be aware of what happens, in search of any juicy detail. He has a very active way of life, has a network of relations and the major part of his life is experienced at night. Even if the film seems to be unstructured, Fellini manages to organize the scenario by connecting the paints together through Marcello and some other main characters. This gives the impression of an exploration without judgment, the exploration of the existentialists choices that has to face the main character regarding career, love, family, religion and time going by. [...]

[...] He has also a beautiful cabriolet, although not living in a beautiful place. So we can say that Marcello is a consumerist. Recommendations Since the early 70s, society has experienced important changes that have become fully integrated in the 90s. We have experienced a dominating hedonism being the engine of people looking for more and more pleasures, sensations and willing to live present moment. Thus, the affective dimension as well as the emotional dimensions is always more important in the customer's purchase. [...]

[...] La Dolce Vita (The sweet life), Fellini (1960) Summary The scene takes place in Rome in the 1950s. The main character, Marcello Rubini (alias Marcello Mastroianni) is a journalist of a tabloid newspaper, but his dream has always been to become a writer. He works with a photographer called Paparazzo. The word “paparazzi” originates from the film. In the prologue, a helicopter carries out a statue of the Christ over the city of Rome to the Vatican. In the first scene of the film, Marcello and Paparazzo follow a couple in a restaurant. [...]

[...] Later in a party given by Steiner with blue-ribbon guests competing for the best paroles, Marcello is told about Steiner's secret fear of chaos. His seeming serenity is actually very fragile. Whereas Marcello tries to resume his writing in a restaurant on the beach, a very young waitress that comes and goes distracts him: she is purity and innocence personified. Back in Rome, Marcello meets his father who has come to visit him. He takes him to the cabaret he was frequenting when he was young. [...]

[...] While driving at night, Marcello and his wife argue. He evicts her out of the car, leaves, but come back at dawn to take her home. By his job, Marcello is among the first aware: on the scene with the police, he learns that Steiner killed his children before committing suicide. In the last scene, Marcello joins night owls for an orgy in a villa on the beach. They are thrown out in the morning. In the epilogue, Marcello ending up on the beach sees the waitress trying to talk to him from across an estuary. [...]