La Dolce Vita (1960)

(Italy, mostly Rome; contemporary)
IMDb

I liked this Fellini film more then I liked 8 ½. I felt this movie was more diverse and entertaining, though it dwells on similar themes to its more recognized follow-up. La Dolce Vita follows roughly a year in the life of Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) a reporter for a Rome based tabloid newspaper. The narrative is all a little diffuse, its not the standard three act structure (as Director Alexander Payne points out in the DVD introduction), but I suppose that is typical for Fellini. Rather it’s a collection of episodic events, tied together to varying degree’s, and meditating on the decent of the already cynical and disillusioned Marcello to new depths of internal madness.

Two storylines stand out to me, out of probably a half dozen. The first concerns two children who claim to have seen a vision of the Madonna near a tree in sparsely populated tundra near their home. These children we learn are obviously lying, their playing a game and exploiting the somewhat garish religious sentiments of the adults around them. The Catholic priest sent in from the Vatican to adjudge the claims of a miracle see’s this, and he leaves unimpressed. But hopeful town folks, as well as a horde of media await, staging a return visit of the duo to the tree that night. When greeted with all this attention and movie camera’s, the two act up, claiming to see the blessed virgin over there, and now over there, and there. Before long chaos has been let lose on the sight, with ecstatic Italian women tearing the tree apart in the hopes of taking home a little holy wood, destroying what they find sacred in a made rush of enthusiasm. The pounding rain that accompanies this sequence, and adds to confusion, just reinforces a sense of weeping at our collective inability to cope. Many of the sick, who came and laid on mats, holding candles and hopping for a miracle, die that night, as a result of the rain, cold, chaos, and general state of neglect.

The other story that stood out to me concerns Steiner, and acquaintance of Marcello’s whom he envies. Steiner is successful, well off, with a beautiful house, charming family, and fascinating friends. When Marcello confesses to his friend his envy, while attending a party at the mans home, Steiner responds that he is not to be envied, and we find that his seeming composer masks a form of existential despair. Yet I was surprised, much later in the film, when Steiner snaps and kills his two young children before taking his own life. Marcello is shocked to, and this appears to be the event the really unhinges him, leading to his departure from journalism, and debouched state at the end of the film. La Dolca Vita has its light moments too, which when added to the more poignant sequences produces a rich tapestry of a film, one that doubtless gains more resonance upon repeat viewing.