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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 source; Australian critics are listed first)
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Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" operates on so many levels that it's tough to know where Fellini is coming from or where he's headed, regardless of how many times you've watched his film.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
12/11/06
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

[An] epic of anomie.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
12/27/04
Richard Nilsen
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic

...experienced as a series of bizarre vignettes, a headlong rush into the heady air of Rome's Via Veneta , its swank nightclubs and seedy gigolos, the perfume of fame and the stink of money.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
06/13/07
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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

Rather than wallow in cynicism, Fellini's genius is characterised by a zest for life -- albeit a tragically insatiable one -- as he sprinkles dreamlike snapshots like glitter in the darkness.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
12/07/04
Stella Papamichael
Stella Papamichael
BBC

[Fellini's] poetic sensibilities are in full effect. There's also a tremendous soulfulness that roots the movie's depiction of sin in the soil of introspection.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
08/20/04
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In spite of its thematic ugliness, this is a stunning-looking trawl through the Italian capital, with Ekberg's impromptu paddle in the Trevi fountain still the films enduring image.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
04/20/09
Fran Hortop
Fran Hortop
Channel 4 Film

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

The movie is made with boundless energy. Fellini stood here at the dividing point between the neorealism of his earlier films ... and the carnival visuals of his extravagant later ones.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As much as La Strada, 8 1/2 or Amarcord, La Dolce Vita still marks a summit of Fellini and of post-war Italian moviemaking.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
09/09/04
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune

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

Mágico e inesquecível, representa não apenas um fascinante estudo de personagem, mas também um mergulho dilacerante na fragilidade humana. E Ekberg tornou-se, para sempre, uma das maiores personificações de sensualidade oferecidas pelo Cinema.

comment Comment
04/10/09
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

No review available.

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

It's just perfect.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
08/30/04
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

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

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

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

Marcello's journey is a string of remarkable vignettes that delivers fashion and sociology in equal measure.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
12/24/04
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post

No review available.

comment Comment
09/27/02
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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