La Dolce Vita: Grand illusions

Entry Number: 11

Film: La Dolce Vita

Year Of Release: 1960

Director: Federico Fellini

Rating: ?

*Warning: Major spoilers*

If you haven't, go watch this movie first, and then come back to this review.

While you may not know La Dolce Vita, there is no way on earth you don't know the image of Anita Ekberg walking around in the Trevi Fountain. You may not have seen the actual scene (although you most probably have), but you have without any doubt seen it in other movies and especially advertisements. The image of a beautiful woman walking around in an equally beautiful fountain is used constantly in ads to portray beauty and especially pleasure ... Which is interesting, as in the film, it is more a moment of frustration than a moment of pleasure.

Let me give some context: La Dolce Vita is a 1960 Italian classic by the legendary Federico Fellini. The title translates to The Sweet Life. As the title suggests, the film follows the life of Marcello Rubini, a member of the "cafe shop society". You know, not exactly the bourgeoisie who live in mansions, but those you always see in cafe shops wearing beautiful full suits and dresses. Of course, if you know Fellini, you probably understand the title is quite ironic, but we'll get into that later.

The world famous scene in the Trevi Fountain happens after Marcello meets Sylvia Rank, a famous Swedish-American actress played by the radiant Anita Ekberg. Sylvia is in many ways a reflection of the blonde-bombshell sex symbols you could find in Hollywood during the 50's and 60's. Your Marilyn Monroes and Jayne Mansfields. Innocent and cute, but undeniably sexy and bombastic. Anita Ekberg was the perfect choice for Sylvia, as after La Dolce Vita, she too became a worldwide sex symbol of this kind.

Of course, one important thing to note when talking about Sylvia is that she really is nothing but an illusion made by Hollywood. Or that's at least what she is portrayed as. The famous Trevi Fountain scene comes after Marcello chases her through the streets of Rome as she innocently chases animals. Eventually he manages to catch up to her in the famous Trevi Fountain. But the strange thing is that he never actually touches her. His hands are close, but in the end they only hover above her skin. He is both frustrated and amazed by how something so innocent can be so beautiful. In the end, he can't bring himself to touch her. He has been caught by the Hollywood illusion. And this isn't the only time we see Marcello fall victim to illusions like this. In fact, La Dolce Vita is a film about illusions and the people who fall for them.

Other than introducing the theme of illusion, this film is also a fitting introduction to Marcello's biggest character trait: His ignorance. In fact, this character trait is the first thing introduced in the entire film. La Dolce Vita starts quite iconically with Marcello being on a helicopter that is transporting a statue of Jesus. He sees some women dressed in bikinis and stops the helicopter to try to pick them up, not realizing that he is supposed to be promoting the Christian cause. He also quite comically doesn't realize that they can't hear him over the roaring helicopter propeller. He eventually just shrugs it off and lets the helicopter continue towards it's destination.

In this scene, another big character trait of Marcello is introduced: He loves women. Right after this, Marcello chases his first female victim: Maddalena, a heiress who is quite tired of Rome. She is maybe the first example of "the sweet life" actually not being that sweet, as all she talks about is how she wishes she lived on a private island with no papparazzi. She falls victim to his rich charm and they make love.

It is here Fellini quite brutally cuts to Marcello's wife Emma having a drug overdose in their cheap and empty apartment. If you said this was one of the most brutal cuts in cinema history, I wouldn't try to disagree. This will probably be the point where you realize that Marcello is a really bad person, as this shows that he is cheating on his wife. It also shows that Marcello's "sweet life" is in fact very bitter. Not only is his wife having a drug overdose, but it also shows that he lives in a small, empty and isolated apartment instead of the big, grand house everyone thinks he is living in. Marcello isn't only a living illusion, he is living in that illusion, and he isn't even realizing it. How ignorant is this guy? Well, turns out he is maybe the most ignorant man alive, as after he declares his neverending love to his dying wife laying in the hospital, he calls his mistress to declare his neverending love for her too.

We are shown that Marcello wants to escape the illusion he has been caught by through his fascination with Steiner, who is a member of the bourgeoisie. Marcello never really says he wants to live like Steiner, unlike Emma, who expresses her love of the bourgeoisie lifestyle repeatedly. But Marcello does seem happiest when he is with Steiner and his bourgeoisie friends. Steiner seems to be living the perfect life. He plays the organ, he discusses philosophy and poetry, and listens to recorded nature sounds in his free-time. Marcello wants to be living that lifestyle. This is the sweet life. But then Fellini brutally reveals that this too is an illusion when Marcello gets the news that Steiner has killed himself alongside his two innocent children. No matter what, Marcello is trapped.

One thing that became clear for me on a rewatch of this film is that Fellini is the only person who could have directed it. Fellini is often called a magician. His movies opperate in worlds that are somewhere between the real and the magical, which is why it makes so much sense for Fellini to make a film about illusions. Fellini's films also have this floating nature to them. The most notable example here is his 1963 magnum opus 8½, a film that floats through the dreams, thoughts, concerns and feelings of a movie director. And even though I don't really know if I prefer La Dolce Vita over 8½, I do think that La Dolce Vita is the film that utilizes this floating feeling the best.

Towards the beginning, La Dolce Vita is in fact quite magical. It's truly impossible to not get caught in the flow and energy of this film. I would easily rank the scene where Anita Ekberg dances to rock 'n' roll music among the most magical in cinema. But the twist with La Dolce Vita is that the longer the film goes on and the more is revealed about Marcello's lifestyle, the more loose the film's flow becomes. I have always personally found this lack of direction towards the end to be rather terrifying, but I have never been able to explain why. I guess it's just that Fellini somehow makes me feel just as hopelessly loss as Marcello.

This grim feeling of hopelessness is first presented when Marcello arrives at the first of the two drunken parties. It's important to note that this is right after Fellini has ripped away all illusions with Marcello hearing that Steiner killed himself alongside his two children. All magic and illusion is gone and Fellini is ready to show what "the sweet life" really looks like, which is a bunch of rich, drunken fools aimlessly wandering around. The most notable thing about this sequence is when everyone goes to explore a "haunted" mansion. Fellini rather brilliantly throws parallels between these rich, drunk fools and ghosts. They are so hopelessly lost that they basically aren't even alive.

However, it's during the final party when things turn into nightmare material. This is when Marcello decides that he too is so lost that he also should just join them in their drunken aimlessness. A woman famously performs a striptease, but the atmosphere is so grim and lifeless that there isn't anything remotely sexy about it. And then we have the climax of the film with Marcello being so drunk that he looks like the monster from the nightmare you had last night. Seeing that the party is about to end, he tries to start an orgy, loudly and rather terrifyingly exclaiming "This party must never end!" His rather hopeless attempt eventually ends in upset, anger and sadness.

So, let's finally talk about the ending. For those who don't know, the film ends rather mysteriously with the whole party deciding to take a walk on the beach. On the beach, they find a mysterious and ugly sea creature. It seems to be somewhere between a blob and a leviathan. It is seemingly dead and has washed up onto the beach. While everyone studies the sea creature, Marcello sees a girl on the other side of the river. She tries to tell him something through sign language, but Marcello, not being able to understand her, just shrugs it off and joins the party on their walk back to the mansion.

So, let's start with the girl. We have seen this girl before. While sitting in a restaurant, Marcello talks to a young girl who is dancing to a jukebox. He goes on an almost Shakespearean monologue about her pureness. He even compares her to a biblical angel.

So, why is she on the beach, and what is she really trying to say? Well, if we study the sign language, we can clearly understand that she is saying something along the lines of "Come with me, I can save you." So if she is supposed to be this kind of biblical angel, she is probably supposed to save Marcello from his own trap. But the thing is, he just shrugs it off and walks away. Just like the film starts with miscommunication and ignorance, the film ends with miscommunication and ignorance. Even though all illusions have been ripped away, Marcello is still ignorant. He still thinks he is living "the sweet life", which makes the ending undeniably heartbreaking.

And then we have the sea creature. The sea creature is without any doubt the most debated part of the film. And to explain it (or at least try to), we have to touch on a subject we haven't really touched on yet: How do normal, everyday life people view Marcello's lifestyle?

One of the other things we are introduced to by the opening scene is how normal people want to live like Marcello. While Marcello is in the helicopter that is carrying the statue of Jesus, we see massive amounts of people chasing the helicopter, a rather poignant metaphor for how they want to live like Marcello. In the way Marcello sees the bourgeoisie lifestyle as "the sweet life", everyday life people view Marcello's lifestyle as "the sweet life". But of course, the whole idea of "the sweet life" is an illusion.

I feel a great example of this is the great Roger Ebert's review of this movie. Ebert was always quite public about the fact that La Dolce Vita was his favorite film. Why was it his favorite film? Well, it was the film he personally related the most to. He describes in his review how the first time he watched it in 1960, "the sweet life" represented everything he wanted, but when he watched it again in 1980 (which was after he became the biggest critic in the world), he viewed Marcello as a victim instead of a model. "A victim condemned to an endless search for happiness that could never be found." So, to put it short: Those who aren't living "the sweet life" wants to be living it, but those who are living "the sweet life" wish they weren't.

So, how does the sea creature tie in to this theme? Well, to quote Ebert again, the sea creature is beautifully contrasted by the statue of Christ towards the beginning. The statue of Christ is beautiful, but also fake. The sea creature is ugly, but also real. And this is really a beautiful allegory for the whole film. For everyday people, "the sweet life" is beautiful, but what they don't know is that it is fake. For those who are living "the sweet life", it is quite ugly, but at least it is real. 

Rating: 10/10

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