"Fellini and Mastroianni took a moment of discovery and made it immortal."-Roger Ebert

LA DOLCE VITA

This gigantic, kaleidoscopic, bitingly satiric fresco of European life in the 1960s follows tabloid gossip monger Marcello Mastroanni on his travels with his photographer through the sweet life of Rome, in thirteen episodes. Legendary vignettes include: the statue of Christ soaring above Rome; Anita Ekberg's dip in the Trevi Fountain; a fake apparition; Marcello's father's visit; his friend's suicide; and the morning at the seaside after the orgy. Fellini's first cinemascope film gave currency to a new word (paparazzi), coined a new catch-phrase (the title)-and was an enormous, scandalous international success. To prepare for the film, Fellini attested: "I spent many evenings with the photographer-reporters of the Via Veneto." But, in fact, he said, it's all "... completely invented. The Rome of which I speak is a city of the inner self; its topography is entirely spiritual." Four Oscar nominations, including Art Direction, Screenplay, and Director, winning for Costume Design; winner, Palme d'Or, 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed/written by Federico Fellini; co-written by Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi; produced by Giuseppe Amato and Angelo Rizzoli. Italy/France, 1960, b&w, scope, 173 min. Italian with English subtitles.

"When the silence of God falls upon people."-Federico Fellini