La Dolce Vita - Decadence, Depravity, and the loss of Innocence in the heart of Rome?

'Fellini' is name that I have always connected with the more pretentious side of cinema. Though I have always tried to be open minded in my film watching and like to watch a different films from different genres, eras and countries, I have been guilty of avoiding more artful films in favour of genre ones. However, I recently watched Federico Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita' and found that I enjoyed it very much. Once you accept the non traditional narrative structure and challenging characters and dialogue, you will find a beautiful looking film with interesting musings on the nature of life and love.

The film follows Italian gossip reporter Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) over seven days and nights in Rome as he mingles among the the rich and famous. Marcello is a man of internal struggle, and throughout the film he seems to be searching for some meaning in his life. One the one hand he writes for the trashy tabloid press, and leads a life of indulgent excess among Rome's popular culture, hopping into bed with numerous women and cheating on his loving girlfriend Emma (Yvonne Furneaux). Other scenes hint at a more sensitive side to Marcello. In a key moment we see him spending the afternoon in a seaside cafe, working on a novel, so we know he has literary aspirations beyond the gossip columns he writes for. He meets a young girl named Paola (Valeria Ciangottini), who hums along to a song on the jukebox. He describes her as like an angel, and asks her if she has boyfriend, to which she replies yes. Paola seems to be an image of purity and innocence, and she is seemingly the only character throughout the whole of the film to not gets sucked into the line of decadence and depravity which runs rampant throughout. Of the other children in the film, there are a pair who claim to have seen an image of the Madonna on the outskirts of Rome. They lead a stampede of devotees and the press on a wild goose chase, in the process of which another child is trampled to death. The two other children in the film are those of the rich intellectual Steiner (Alain Cuny), whom he shoots along with himself. To this end, it would be fair to say that Paola is a lone angel in a film steeped in sin and excess. The fact she has a boyfriend contrasts innocent monoagmous relationships with Marcello's philandering, and the fact he meets her in a scene where he is writing a novel and compares her with a painting, contrasts the intellectual worlds of literature and art with the celebrity journalism he usually takes part in. In the film's epilogue, Marcello has chosen neither literature or journalism, instead opting to become a publicity agent and lead a popular life with wild parties. In the final scene, as the rowdy members of Marcello's party argue over a fish monster they have pulled from the sea ("It's alive!"..."It died three days ago.") Marcello breaks off from the crowd and spots Paola across the beach. She calls to him but the words are lost on the wind. Marcello shrugs it off and returns to the party, and in an unforgettable final shot Paola smiles directly into the camera. Paola represents what Marcello has lost, the prospect of a purer and more intellectual existence, but he has sucked into the decadence and depravity of Rome's La Dolce Vita ('The Sweet Life'), to the point he can no longer hear her.

La Dolce Vita is an extremely important and influential film. One shot was copied almost exactly by Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction, in which Marcello drives his unconsious girlfriend Emma to the hosptial after she has taken an overdose. The film is also responsible for the use of the popular use of the word 'paparazzi', in the English language, after a gossip/celebirity photographer named Paparazzo (Walter Santesso). Overall this is a fascinating and beautiful film, not something I would watch everyday but I am very glad I have watched it. I would recommend it to all serious fans of cinema.