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Movies / On DVD / La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita

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La Dolce Vita (1960)

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Reviews Counted:51

Fresh:50

Rotten:1

Average Rating:9.1/10

Runtime: 3 hrs

Genre: Foreign Films

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: In Federico Fellini's seminal film LA DOLCE VITA, a three-hour masterpiece that shows one man's descent into "the sweet life" of debauchery, Marcello Mastroianni stars as eccentric journalist... In Federico Fellini's seminal film LA DOLCE VITA, a three-hour masterpiece that shows one man's descent into "the sweet life" of debauchery, Marcello Mastroianni stars as eccentric journalist Marcello Rubini. On assignment to chronicle the lives of the rich and famous Italian aristocracy in a gossip column for a Roman newspaper, Marcello floats from one fabulous party to the next, meeting all varieties of beautiful, extravagant people. While he would never protest this seemingly ideal job, it makes him feel lonely and empty, and he stays up drinking and dancing night after night only to wake up each morning unbalanced and unfocused. The film follows Marcello's ups and downs in an episodic pattern in which each evening is a new story, a new adventure, a new dare, a new woman with whom to fall helplessly in love--but only for that night. Each morning the slate is wiped clean, and Fellini resets Marcello's score to zero. Sprinkled with religious images and gestures at salvation, LA DOLCE VITA is supreme in the beauty of its all-encompassing symbolism that is expressed through lavish sets, an alluring script, overemphasized physical movements, roller-coaster jazz music, and helpless emotions. [More]

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Anita Ekberg, Yvonne Furneaux

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Anita Ekberg, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noel, Nico, Alain Cuny, Riccardo Garrone, Laura Betti, Jacques Sernas, Nadia Gray

Director: Federico Fellini

Director: Federico Fellini
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi
Producer: Giuseppe Amato, Angelo Rizzoli
Composer: Nino Rota

[See More Credits]

Reviews for La Dolce Vita

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
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The film was hugely successful and widely praised in its time, though it's really nothing more than the old C.B. De Mille formula of titillation and moralizing.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 4 Comments
05/08/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

Rarely, if ever, has a picture reflected decadence, immorality and sophistication with such depth.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/05/02
Boxoffice Magazine
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There are perhaps a couple of party scenes too many, and the peripheral characters can be unconvincing, but the stylish cinematography and Fellini's bizarre, extravagant visuals are absolutely riveting.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
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After what we've seen of decadence during the past three decades or so, La Dolce Vita now seems tame, but people wasting time in nightclubs, dancing in the fountains of Rome, and just generally hanging out seemed a bit of a shock in 1960.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
08/29/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Perhaps many spectators will squirm at the three-hour length of the film or of some of its sequences (though director Federico Fellini cut some 30 minutes from his final print), yet others will never notice they've sat that long.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/08/07
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A timeless, bittersweet carnival of severed roots, disintegrating values, lost innocence and dumbing down. Unmissable!

Full Review Source: Movie Gazette | comment Comment
10/30/04
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Movie Gazette

Rich in intelligent observation...it shares some wisdom without being preachy, always with Fellini's gift for entertaining and amusing us.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
01/01/00
Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net

In sum, it is an awesome picture, licentious in content but moral and vastly sophisticated in its attitude and what it says.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It comes from a period in which the filmmaker was perched between neorealism and all-out fantasia. As such, it represents the best of two worlds, even as Marcello can't find contentment in either one.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
12/02/04
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News

Fellini's best film, in which the fragility of the characters is not overwhelmed by the director's decadent indulgences.

comment Comment
07/25/02
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Matinee Magazine

No review available.

comment Comment
01/06/06
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

The satire on display is so simultaneously subtle yet blatant that the movie itself is intoxicating.

Full Review Source: Daily Radar | comment Comment
04/24/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
Daily Radar

Roman opera, a nocturnal vision demarcated by dawns, purring a siren's call of temptation and dissolution.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
12/03/04
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

Federico Fellini's parody of the parasites who bask in the glory of cheap publicity not only exposes the emptiness of their lives, but also of those who report their antics as if they were of world-shattering import.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
10/06/04
David Parkinson
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A profound film by a legendary director in the greatest period of his career.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
07/22/04
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

It's winsome because of the stylish cinematography, which fills the screen with mind-blowing bizarre visuals.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/16/07
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Everyone has a favorite scene.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
12/27/04
Douglas Pratt
Douglas Pratt
Hollywood Reporter

The circus that became the '60s was ushered in cinematically by La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini's masterwork about the so-called 'sweet life' on Rome's teeming Via Veneto.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
09/23/04
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Made at the peak of Fellini's career, La Dolce Vita provided the first look into Rome's decadent cafe society, boasting superlative performances from Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Anita Ekberg, and others.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
06/29/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

This remains a landmark movie that should be seen by every self-respecting movie buff.

Full Review Source: NYC Film Critic | comment Comment
03/05/05
Ethan Alter
Ethan Alter
NYC Film Critic
 
 
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