Week 2 EOC: La Dolce Vita

This was my first time seeing La Dolce Vita. Though I was not able to get to see the entire film, I was surprised that out of the scenes shown an instant memory was struck. In the scene where Sylvia is in the fountain, I thought to myself "I’ve seen this before" but I hadn't. I had scene the imitation of that scene in the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun". It was a strange feeling to know the scene yet having never seen the original film where it had come from. Fellini did an amazing job capturing moments that would some day be a common occurrence. How was he able to see that in our society we would always be fascinated with celebrities? Why do we care what they eat or drink? What they wear? Maybe it was this film that generated our need to know what our favorite movie star was doing on their vacation. In this sense it’s as if we de-humanized people that are celebrities. They no longer deserve privacy in our eyes because they signed away that right when they became famous. Should we feel sorry for these celebrities who complain about just wanting a normal life outside of working? Personally I believe that if your goal is to be famous in the industry that the downside is, yes you do have to give up a lot of your privacy. It comes with the territory. La Dolce Vita gives an interesting performance and gives an “insiders” view of what it was like to be considered famous in the 1960s.

During some research I was able to find a review of the film by Variety. It was published in 1960 during the year the film was released. Even though the imagery in the film was shocking for those times the author of the review was able to appreciate the performances in the film. “The performances are uniformly excellent. Mastroianni is perfect in the key role of the basically good and honest boy who succumbs to the sweet life. Ekberg is a revelation as the visiting star, while Furneaux almost runs off with the picture as the reporter's instinctive, possessive mistress.” Though the reviewer enjoyed the film he does not mention anything about the ever-present paparazzi in the film. I believe before we could check the Internet we thought differently when it came to celebrity gossip. Performances should be what are important in a review instead of the personal life of the actor.