La Dolce Vita (1960)

Director: Federico Fellini
Writers: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano & Tullio Pinelli.
Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée
Runtime: 174 minutes        

Plot: A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo journalist living in Rome.

Review:  This sensational representation of certain aspects of life in contemporary Rome, as revealed in the clamorous experience of a free-wheeling newspaper man, is a brilliantly graphic estimation of a whole swath of society in sad decay and, eventually, a withering commentary upon the tragedy of the over-civilized. Old values, old disciplines are discarded for the modern, the synthetic, the quick by a society that is past sophistication and is sated with pleasure and itself. It comes through with devastating impact in an episode wherein two frightened kids are used to whip up a religious rally for the benefit of television. It is implicit in the contact of the hero with a strange and motley mob of jaded aristocrats and world lings at an all-night party in a palace outside Rome. In sum, it is an awesome picture, lustful in content but moral and vastly sophisticated in its attitude and what it says.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam