La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini) 1960

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)



Federico Fellini screenplay

Federico Fellini story



Ennio Flaiano screenplay

Ennio Flaiano story



Pier Paolo Pasolini uncredited

Tullio Pinelli screenplay

Tullio Pinelli story

Brunello Rondi screenplay



Cast (in credits order) verified as complete

Marcello Mastroianni .... Marcello Rubini

Anita Ekberg .... Sylvia

Anouk Aimée .... Maddalena (as Anouk Aimee)

Yvonne Furneaux .... Emma

Magali Noël .... Fanny (as Magali Noel)

Alain Cuny .... Steiner

Annibale Ninchi .... Marcello's father

Walter Santesso .... Paparazzo

Valeria Ciangottini .... Paola

Riccardo Garrone .... Riccardo, the Villa Owner

Ida Galli .... Debutante of the Year

Audrey McDonald .... Jane

Polidor .... Clown

Alain Dijon .... Frankie Stout

Enzo Cerusico .... Newspaper photographer

Giulio Paradisi .... Newspaper photographer

Enzo Doria .... Newspaper photographer

Enrico Glori .... Nadia's Admirer

Adriana Moneta .... Ninni the Prostitute

Massimo Busetti .... Lying Child of The Miracle

Mino Doro .... Nadia's lover

Giulio Girola .... Police Commissioner

Laura Betti .... Laura

Nico .... Nico, top-model (as Nico Otzak)

Domino .... Transvestite dancer

Carlo Musto .... Transvestite

Lex Barker .... Robert

Jacques Sernas .... Matinee Idol

Nadia Gray .... Nadia



Directed By: Federico Fellini





Throughout the history of cinema there have been actors and filmmakers who shaped and transformed the vocabulary of filmed storytelling. Without question, Federico Fellini was one of those great masters, a director whose influence was felt globally. And he has a trump card over most other famous auteurs — can any other director claim to have added a word to the international vocabulary? After all, at virtually every point on the globe, when a celebrity is followed (and occasionally stalked) by photographers, these culture-vultures are referred to as "paparazzi," which originated from a character in Fellini's 1960 masterpiece La Dolce Vita ("The Sweet Life"). It's a variation on the name of one of the photographers in the film, Paparazzo — played by Walter Santesso — who acts just as one expects for someone with his moniker. And that the film could add to dictionaries the world over bespeaks its international acclaim. The hugely successful Dolce Vita was a turning point in Fellini's career: It was his first picture to earn widespread attention, netted his first nomination for the Best Director Oscar, and yielded both fame and infamy (the film was condemned by the Catholic church for its libidinous and sacrilegious content). But unlike other taboo-breaking movies that seem modern and hip in their era's context — usually to become antiquated a few years later — La Dolce Vita is still potent, expressing an ennui that remains contemporary. Told through an episodic narrative that is frequently set during twilight hours of evenings out, Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a reporter for a tabloid who has wheedled his way into the most happening scenes in Rome. Often finding himself "spending time" with Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), he's been living with the manic Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), whose suicide attempts underscore the barrier their relationship has reached; she loves him more than he loves her, and it's turned her into a clingy, matronly figure. But Marcello doesn't help matters — he's often chasing women, and his habits have him out one night with Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), a flighty starlet with a bruiser of a boyfriend. Sylvia and Marcello's evening leads to the film's most renowned sequence, in which Sylvia decides to wade in a fountain for no apparent reason. Marcello also spends time with his friend Steiner (Alain Cuny), who has a wife and two children and seems to be living the perfect life, but Steiner expresses concerns that he's abandoned his dreams by settling down. Marcello is surprised by an unexpected visit by his father, and the two spend a night out, after which his dad goes home with a dancer, and Marcello realizes how little he knows him. Work often intrudes, sending Marcello on a trip with Emma to document two children who say they saw the Virgin Mary in a tree (their claims appear false); it's a sequence that bespeaks the greatest difference between the two — she's a believer, he a cynic. But the further Marcello goes along, the more perturbed he becomes with his life and himself; his relationship with Emma disintegrates while Maddalena proposes to him, only to sleep with another man moments later. The film veers into even darker terrain when a tragedy occurs that irrevocably changes Marcello.





La Dolce Vita found Fellini in his prime, particularly in this particular era (his next feature would be 8-1/2), and his sense of camera and framing (of the CinemaScope film) is stunning. But for those with a reticence towards Fellini's fascination with both circuses and the grotesque, La Dolce Vita could be typed "The Fellini film for people who don't like Fellini

films."