Review: 'La Dolce Vita' Remains a Masterwork

Federico Fellini is unquestionably one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and "La Dolce Vita" is one of his signature films. Released in 1960, this visual feast predicted the lunacy, violence, unrest, and search for sexual freedom that would be widespread in the coming decades. It was condemned by the Vatican upon its release, so the director was doing something right.

Fellini's masterwork opens with the famous helicopter shot of a statue of Jesus being transported across the ruins, through a newly-constructed area and over St. Peters Square as journalist Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni, absolute perfection), aboard the copter, flirts with some women at a pool, setting the stage for his sexcapades (which would be taken to a womanizing extreme in the more Fellini-autobiographical "8�" a few years later). Marcello apathetically reports on the salacious stories of the day, such as the insanity that ensues when two children claim they can see the Madonna or the antics that occur when Swedish film goddess Silvia (Anita Ekberg) arrives in Rome. The latter provides "La Dolce Vita" with one of the most famous scenes in film history, which was actually stolen from a real photo shoot with Ekberg a few years earlier: Her enjoying a dip in the Trevi Fountain.

Along Marcello's odyssey he hooks up with Maddalena (an entrancing Anouk Aimée), and they pick up a prostitute together. We also get insight into who he is by watching his pathetic father. The finale is a bulldozer to the gut, with Fellini's basically saying that no one has any idea what is going on inside the minds of those we think are living the sweet life. And that "dolce vita" may not be so sweet after all.

The film is timelier than ever as an indictment of how the media manipulates in order to get a more palpable story. There is very little difference from their machinations back then and what bloggers do today for clickbait. And it's difficult not to watch these evil photojournalists and not think of Princess Diana's fate. This film is where the term "paparazzi" comes from, as the most aggressive photojourno is named Paparazzo. This might also be the first time the word "cougar" is used to describe an older woman coming onto a young man, via a bizarre séance sequence.

Paramount has done a swell job, but it's a curious release. Criterion's 2014 edition is loaded with a ton of goodies, including vintage interviews with both Fellini and Mastroianni, so it's odd that Paramount would release such a sparse Blu-ray edition. There are no extras except a 2� minute intro by Martin Scorsese, where he explains how the film expressed the anxiety of the nuclear age, among other things.

The Criterion Edition is currently out of print, although you can easily get it on Amazon. Still, it's nice to have this astonishingly timeless celluloid treasure easily available for anyone who wants it.

The film was shot in "Totalscope" and restored in 2010. I'm guessing both editions are from this restoration, since there is no noticeable difference. Both look and sound fantastic. Nino Rota's truly iconic score gets in your head and stays there.

This was Roger Ebert's favorite film, and he would wisely revisit it through the years and feel differently towards the characters, always admiring the film more. This was, perhaps, my fifth time seeing it, and I wholly agree. That there is so much to appreciate and a revisit at different points in one's life makes one look at the characters in new ways. In addition, a richer interpretation might emerge. This time I was left with a sense of despair for humankind, despite the beauty in our world. But I was still humming Rota's score.

"La Dolce Vita" is available on Blu-ray February 8, 2022.