La Dolce Vita
Oct. 25th, 2020 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveFellini's iconic film of 1960 is on Amazon prime and I watched it this early evening. I have seen it before but ages ago, and I found it quirky the first time I watched it. La dolce vita translates to the sweet life.
By the most common interpretation of the storyline, the film can be divided into a prologue, seven major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and an epilogue. If the evenings of each episode were joined with the morning of the respective preceding episode together as a day, they would form seven consecutive days, which may not necessarily be the case.
From Wikipedia -
Marcello is a journalist in Rome during the late 1950s who covers tabloid news of movie stars, religious visions, and the self-indulgent aristocracy while searching for a more meaningful way of life. Marcello faces the existential struggle of having to choose between two lives, depicted by journalism and literature. Marcello leads a lifestyle of excess, fame, and pleasure amongst Rome's thriving popular culture, depicting the confusion and frequency with which Marcello gets distracted by women and power. A more sensitive Marcello aspires to become a writer, of leading an intellectual life amongst the elites, the poets, writers, and philosophers of the time. Marcello eventually chooses neither journalism nor literature. Thematically he opted for the life of excess and popularity by officially becoming a publicity agent.
The theme of the film is predominantly café society, the diverse and glittery world rebuilt upon the ruins and poverty" of the Italian postwar period. In the opening sequence, a plaster statue of Jesus the Labourer suspended by cables from a helicopter flies past the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct. The statue is being taken to the Pope at the Vatican. Journalist Marcello and a photographer named Paparazzo follow in a second helicopter. The symbolism of Jesus, arms outstretched as if blessing all of Rome as it flies overhead, is soon replaced by the profane life and neo-modern architecture of the "new" Rome, founded on the economic miracle of the late 1950s. (Much of this was filmed in Cinecittà or in EUR, the Mussolini-style area south of Rome.) The delivery of the statue is the first of many scenes placing religious icons in the midst of characters demonstrating their "modern" morality, influenced by the booming economy and the emerging mass-consumer life.
It does seem a bit dated now though. However, it was nice seeing some early acting by Nico, before she joined the Velvet Underground in the later sixties.
By the most common interpretation of the storyline, the film can be divided into a prologue, seven major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and an epilogue. If the evenings of each episode were joined with the morning of the respective preceding episode together as a day, they would form seven consecutive days, which may not necessarily be the case.
From Wikipedia -
Marcello is a journalist in Rome during the late 1950s who covers tabloid news of movie stars, religious visions, and the self-indulgent aristocracy while searching for a more meaningful way of life. Marcello faces the existential struggle of having to choose between two lives, depicted by journalism and literature. Marcello leads a lifestyle of excess, fame, and pleasure amongst Rome's thriving popular culture, depicting the confusion and frequency with which Marcello gets distracted by women and power. A more sensitive Marcello aspires to become a writer, of leading an intellectual life amongst the elites, the poets, writers, and philosophers of the time. Marcello eventually chooses neither journalism nor literature. Thematically he opted for the life of excess and popularity by officially becoming a publicity agent.
The theme of the film is predominantly café society, the diverse and glittery world rebuilt upon the ruins and poverty" of the Italian postwar period. In the opening sequence, a plaster statue of Jesus the Labourer suspended by cables from a helicopter flies past the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct. The statue is being taken to the Pope at the Vatican. Journalist Marcello and a photographer named Paparazzo follow in a second helicopter. The symbolism of Jesus, arms outstretched as if blessing all of Rome as it flies overhead, is soon replaced by the profane life and neo-modern architecture of the "new" Rome, founded on the economic miracle of the late 1950s. (Much of this was filmed in Cinecittà or in EUR, the Mussolini-style area south of Rome.) The delivery of the statue is the first of many scenes placing religious icons in the midst of characters demonstrating their "modern" morality, influenced by the booming economy and the emerging mass-consumer life.
It does seem a bit dated now though. However, it was nice seeing some early acting by Nico, before she joined the Velvet Underground in the later sixties.
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