Stylish Films - La Dolce Vita
Fellini's 1960 film remains a touchstone in my life, in part due to the film's stylish achievement.
Warning: Spoilers
Sitting on the 38th latitude, San Francisco has a lot of streets that can substitute for the Via Veneto. Valencia, Polk, Broadway, Union, Fillmore, and Chestnut just to name a few. Long streets draped with bars and restaurants and nightclubs. Places where we can visit and be on our worst behavior sans inhibition of being judged. Venues where it was perfectly okay to wear the things that make us unique. Places where we went every night to do the things that we wanted to before the drinks got too strong and the lights got too bright and we needed to rest our heads til the afternoon hours.e
Federico Fellini filmed La Dolce Vita in 1959 and it was received by the world a year later with mixed reviews. The story, set in post-war Rome, features a young(ish) gossip journalist named Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) as he explores his world of celebrities, models, prostitutes, and aristocrats. The narrative is linear, tales of nights and dawns, valleys and peaks as Marcello spends his nights looking for things that he’ll never find, just to arrive at a sober morning the same person he was the night before. It is unclear how much time is spent between episodes, but by the end of the film Marcello has noticeably aged and the youthful wonder has left his eyes for good.
When the film was first released, it was met with mixed reviews in Europe as many critics deemed it immoral and grotesque. The sins portrayed on the screen were too much for some of the more conservative film critics. The behavior of the characters; however, was never far-fetched. It more so captured a moment in time - Rome in post-war prosperity - and depicted the lifestyle of its wealthiest residents. Rome was Fellini’s city and he wouldn’t shy away from capturing the spirit of it all with sharp accuracy.
There are several scenes from the film that remain famous today, but the film’s most enduring legacy lies in a minor character; a photographer named Paparazzo, who follows Marcello through the cafés and the clubs in hopes of catching the rich and famous in their most vulnerable moments. The name, which is Italian for ‘mosquito,’ became the nickname for all gossip photographers in the form of ‘paparazzi.’ While significant, having that be the most accessible legacy of the film dismisses the complex characters and deep themes placed throughout the film.
The most famous section of the film follows Marcello as he covers Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), an American actress vacationing in Rome. Sylvia at her core represents what Marcello wants at the most shallow level. She’s a large-bosomed, charismatic, spontaneous free spirit. One that takes up dancing and singing in the clubs, loves to drink and wanders around the city after dark. She is Marcello’s Madonna, the object of his desire. Looking through the smile, there is something melancholic in the way she moves.
"You are everything... everything! You are the first woman on the first day of creation. You are mother, sister, lover, friend, angel, devil, earth, home,” Marcello tells Sylvia during a dance under the stars on her first night in Rome. After a night of dancing and drinking, Sylvia grows discontent and angry with her drunk, abusive boyfriend, and runs off into the night. Marcello, who is quickly falling for her, takes off with her to explore the back streets of Rome after hours. She pets a stray cat and howls with the wolves. Marcello holds her repeatedly, getting closer and closer, while simultaneously calling his friends wondering if there is a party where he can take her.
With the streets empty, she stumbles upon the Trevi Fountain. Like a reflex, Sylvia jumps into the freezing water, calling Marcello in. “I’m making a mistake. We’re all making a mistake,” he says to himself as he walks to her through the freezing water. She pools a bit of water in her hand and pours it over his head, a baptism of sorts. The two sinners get as close to each other as they ever will; their faces moving just inches from meeting lips. While the audience roots them on, we know that it could never happen. In a scene that offers as much neorealism as a film can, we experience a lapse in time. Again, there isn’t a body as far as the eye can see, but right before Marcello and Sylvia lean in to kiss, the dark sky suddenly turns to daylight, you could hear the birds singing and a man on a bicycle is sitting there watching the two “almost lovers.” Hand-in-hand, but without a kiss, Marcello and Sylvia exit the fountain, and their night is over.
The scene between Marcello and the film star Sylvia is symbolic of the life that Marcello leads. He is always chasing the pretty things that he wants. For his sins, he is rewarded with close proximity, but doomed to never achieve his good life. While the fountain scene may be the most iconic, the most important scene to the greater plot and thematic structure of the work is the following episode where Marcello meets with his friend Steiner, an aging aristocrat. Steiner is an older, handsome gentleman with a beautiful wife and two young children. At a dinner party at Steiner’s house, Marcello rubs shoulders with intellectuals, celebrities, and Bohemians. If Marcello could define the title of the film, the sweet life, it would be this. In the midst of this beauty and glory that Marcello has been looking for the entire film, Steiner takes him away for a private conversation where he reveals his truth:
"Don't be like me. Salvation doesn't lie within four walls. I'm too serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional. Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected," says Steiner in what may be the most vulnerable sequence of the film. Steiner, like all of the other characters who have seemingly achieved this notion of a “sweet life,” also feels trapped in a lifestyle with no fulfillment.
The last spoiler I will give in this analysis is that a little bit later on during the film’s 3 hours run time, we discover that Steiner has committed a terrible crime of passion. While his wife is away, he shoots and kills both of his children before pulling the trigger on his own head. With this, Marcello’s world, his idea of the “sweet life,” is shattered.
I’d be remiss as a fashion writer to neglect the clothing choices of the characters, however, there isn’t much to
discuss. The men are almost exclusively seen in suits or tuxedos because the film is more or less one long party. The same goes for the women, who are always draped in an elegant gown or beautiful cocktail dress. The wardrobe choices mirror the opulence of the time and place.
I saw this film for the first time as a teenager. I couldn’t have been older than 16 or 17, and for me, this idea of the "sweet life" was everything I was hoping for. As a high schooler, many nights and weekends were spent doing homework and studying for exams. I thought to myself that if I paid my dues then, I’d be rewarded with this lifestyle as an adult. There was a coolness, an elegance in the way that Marcello carried himself that I was attracted to. I saw him as someone who truly had everything that he needed, but his suffering came from the desire for the things that life couldn’t offer. The film came with a warning to me. I knew that fulfillment was impossible in that kind of life, but it was a lifestyle that I think most people pursue at one point or another.
Now in my late-twenties, I have seen the movie more than 50 times and my love and adoration have only gotten stronger with every view. I now see Marcello as an allegory for a broken society. The war had a great impact on the world, and Italy was one of the countries that were hurt the most. Tie that with the secularization of modern society and we have a recipe that makes La Dolce Vita possible. It’s a form of escapism - to disappear into a sea of sinners and pursue late nights full of sex, booze, and adventures. The endless pursuit of this picturesque lifestyle is everywhere. Every major city has streets where there are rows of bars, restaurants, and clubs. Las Vegas’s entire economy runs on the pursuit of feeding into your sins. La Dolce Vita is just one of the first mainstream artistic masterpieces that condemned and warned against the dream of the "sweet life". Marcello strives for substance, for importance, but he is looking for it in all of the wrong places - the places where it may appear to be easier to attain such status.
I love and commiserate with Marcello because I have had several nights that mirror episodes in the film. Maybe that’s why I love it so much: I see myself as the film’s hero. San Francisco is a long way away from the Via Veneto, but at 2 AM, all of the same rules apply. I’ve had late nights fueled by alcohol where I end up at strange homes full of strangers for parties I’ll never forget. I’ve been out until sunrise and had to take the lonely Uber home as people are just waking up. Unlike Marcello, I think I’ve heeded the warning well, finding purpose in art and literature and family and fashion, but when you’re in the middle of the groups of sinners, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Once you’re in the eye of the storm of decadence, your instinct is to push it all as far as you can.
There are a million reasons that La Dolce Vita will always hold a special place in my heart, but the biggest reasons tend to be twofold. While the film serves as a warning, one that helps me keep my head wherever I am faced with the temptation of it all, it also serves as a source of inspiration. The “sweet life” can be a beautiful thing when taken in doses. Living in the moment with terrific company. Those are the best nights, but there needs to be a balance. I do think that the “sweet life” is possible, just not the way that Marcello was going about it. I’ll keep growing up, finding fulfillment and beauty every day. The ghost of Marcello is doomed to eternal damnation, looking for happiness in a Via Veneto street café. We all have an idea for “the sweet life,” but only you can decide what that is for yourself.
Peace and Love