Sure, it's a classic. However, being a picture that's mainly about a day in the life of Marcello, and without much of a cohesive plot, you can definitely feel the 3 hours passing by. It has his merits, but it's difficult not to deem this as a pretentious and overindulgent piece of filmmaking.

Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid journalist during the Italian post-war era of booming consumerism and economic growth. He wades his way not just through the waters of the Trevi Fountain — the film’s iconic scene — but through the vapid high-society Italy has produced. He’s a tormented man who lies to, and cheats on, his fiancée, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux) nearly driving her to kill herself. The story meanders as Marcello finds himself more and more enamored with “the sweet life” even if it is slowly killing him. The story is much more disjointed than I had anticipated and demands a concentration and attention to detail that is cumbersome. This is Fellini’s magnum opus and I found myself developing contempt for the 174-minute run-time. The contrasts of the Eternal City to the modern development is the setting itself. This reason alone may be enough to watch this movie, but I can’t imagine the average viewer enjoying it in 2024. If made today, I’m sure La Dolce Vita would be ramped up to eleven with the debauchery. Moreover, I’m certain the story possessed a message that hit differently in 1960 and through that lens I want to review the work. For that reason, I am comfortable giving it a 4 ½-star equivalent of an (85). It is beautiful to look at and its tableau has helped shape what Rome looks like to the outsider, even today. But be warned, this movie is a slog for a single sitting and you may find yourself saying, “get on with it already” from the couch. For the cinephiles who appreciate the technicalities of filmmaking, this is a must watch — same goes for those who want a complete view of the history of Italian filmmaking. It also gave us the term “paparazzi,” named after the invasive tabloid photographer, Paparazzzo (Walter Santesso).

Great movie. Totally recommended

This film is like a time capsule that preserves the Rome of the 1960s: its landmarks, its views, its people, their stories, their fashion, their art and music… It may seem long, but one has to get into the spirit of La Dolce Vita, and that is in reference to the title as much as it is to what it stands for. The cinematography is magnificent, and perhaps that is what preserved Federico Fellini’s masterpiece throughout all these decades. The story lacks structure, but Fellini’s touch is what assures the viewers that that is okay as long as the camera is telling a story, one for each episode. Even if hypothetically the film lacked a story, it would still be worth watching just for the cinematography and camerawork. It may not be the greatest movie of all time, but it is one of the absolute greatest especially in Italian cinema, and for that is a valuable piece of history.

The Italian The Great Gatsby. Actually, change that: The European The Great Gatsby. They both make essentially the same point, in different ways. Fitzgerald the hedgehog; Fellini the fox. The (postwar) Roaring Twenties; The (postwar) Swinging Sixties. Fitzgerald is the poet of one big convergent idea that arrives at a single point; Fellini is the master of scenes and scenecraft (as Dostoevsky does in his novels) that oscillate around the idea and close a circle. You probably won’t see another movie like this again—I haven’t—but my most pressing impression of this is that Fellini is a genius of the cinematic image, of the cinematic scene, of the cinematic idea, of the cinematic symbol, perhaps less so (in this movie) of the rigorous organization of form, nor of the most abstract ideas. With Godard, and perhaps Resnais—Fellini is the most visual, the most ‘cinematic’ of all auteurs. The scene with the character exits near the end, with the crown of feathers, is just one of the truly great scenes that permeate this ‘string of spectacular scenes’ that is La Dolce Vita. Not the greatest, but certainly one of the very greatest, movies ever made.

I loved the sequence with Anita Ekberg and i appreciate the message of this movie but it was so long. So many longueurs of scenes

A unique storytelling style that consistently delivers the same message, La Dolce Vita is still relevant for today's society. It is filled with emotions, varieties, and thoughts.

Filme espetacular, como sempre diálogos sensacionais sobre à vida e críticas à burguesia da época.

Felt like I was in a class about cinema getting ready to watch this classic. My best guess is this is about what brings happiness. Certainly, the focus is on one man's life trying the hedonistic route, which absolutely is not the answer. Nice seeing all the women searching for the truth with or without men.

This film has two stories inside it - one of life and the other of death, each plays its half and by the end of the film you feel you have lived through so much revealed at the pace of the film. A film of astounding images and freedoms but reveals the ugliness and destruction of beauty it seeks to chase. A poignant and affecting film which is a masterpiece of cinema (now also in a restored version). Its opening scene is full of life and spirit and iv'e never forgotten it or the sadness of the final scene on the beach. It's a film about living to the full and in doing so exposes us to the excess that comes from hedonism but it draws us along for the whole ride and so we feel implicated in its resolution somehow. It's also a great piece of filmmaking art.

An unsettling but fascinating view of the rich and the lifestyles they have and how they cover it up so they don't reveal their unhappiness. Fellini masterfully divides audiences on the meaning of the film and Marcello M. is absolutely fantastic in this.

Brilliant but quite sad, ironically. Between this one and 8 1/2, we have two semi-autobiographical films that are pretty hard on the protagonist and his failures and faults. Beautifully filmed of course, and the soundtrack is perfect, just like in 8 1/2.

This is a fairly laidback and stylish film. I can understand it's appeal, it does have a bit of a classy feel to it I suppose, although it was a bit slow and somewhat bland at times for my tastes, at about 2 hours and 40 minutes long. Some of the dialogue is good, with thoughtful observations made, although you could also argue its a bit cheesy. It's worth a watch but it isn't a film I'd choose to watch again. I liked seeing the scenes with the characters in the soft top car. I also thought it was amusing at times how Marcello dealt with the photographers who hounded Sylvia (one in particular being called Paparazzo - I wonder if the term paparazzi was named after him? having looked it up online, it seems so). This is very much a film about the lifestyle of the 'haves' in the time its set (i.e. the 1960s). Yes I'd recommend this film, although I wouldn't go too far out of your way to see it, it's worth a watch if you get the chance to see it.

A continuous form of Italian neorealism with an interpretive poetic structure that discusses the highs and low of pursuing happiness towards life's meaning, gorgeously filmed under a unique degree towards the epic descriptive genre being more humanely grounded while charismatically riveted by impeccable performances. (B+)

The thing about La dolce vita is that although it is a great film, it's definitely not a pleasant one, and quite frankly it doesn't happen everyday to encounter an unpleasant film that's extraordinary. it's quite noticeable at how the events of the film are disconnected, the entire film is separated into different episodes and each episode is a step closer to the downhill of Marcello. you start to feel suffocated and presume that the plot is all over the place, except that you miss the point which is that Marcello's own life was all over the place and there were no other way to authentically depict a miserable man's life than the one Fellini did.

The best movie ever made. This time what really struck me was Steiner and the consequences your actions have on the people around you. Marcello starts off annoyed by his wife, but with enough decency to care for her. He slowly gets more impatient and angry until he loses all caring for her. This is when the most desperate and sad version of himself comes out in the last chapter. Steiners philosophy really struck me this watch. Marcello was surrounded by prophets giving him life advice that he would proceed to do the opposite of, perhaps he didn't understand or perhaps be didn't care. Steiner did understand and he did care, but he was too old by then, he was already Marcello and had no way out any longer. His children would be raised in a world he thought so little of and himself that to combat this struggle he killed his children and himself. Was this the right thing to do? Naturally we would say no because it's murder, but what we're Steiners other options. The biblical imagery was very prevalent too, of course the Jesus statue at the start where the girls can't here Marcello and the disgusting creature at the end where Marcello can't hear the girl. I also found it very disturbing that this castle once lived in by popes was no occupied with sluts and almost any kind of sin imaginable. How could anyone have the heart to play the ouji board in a place once lived in by popes. The maddona sighting is also scandalous, children taking advantage of the media by faking something so meaninglfull and symbolic is something only someone as bold as Fellini could do. Marcello's father is still a heartbreaking representation of Marcellos future, Steiner is the version that acknowledged his mistakes, and Sylvia is Marcellos past. And the girl across the river is the hopeful version of what could have been, ending the film on a surprisingly happy tone. Technically, the film was shot beautifully, the shots are less about what looks best and more about what achieves the mood and tone best, but there are plenty of painting like shots too. Every shot is subtley beautiful with great depth and black and white is used to its highest potential, its surprisingly more white then black. The music was fantastic and contradicting, another aspect of the movie is that it is extremely hypocritical, especially in the fourth chapter, a personal favorite of mine. Marcello meets with very wise poets and writers, this is where we see Steiners true feelings very subtley. That sense of hope mixed with dread is incredible in this film. The screenplay is one of the all time best. Every action is so precise and every part of it had great meaning towards the whole film. Not a single scene is wasted and it is so smart in how it handles its subject matter. 10/10 My Chapter Ranking - the reviews will be shorter because I've already gone in detail with many segments in my overall review. 1. Chapter 4 - the chapter that most exposes the beliefs of our characters and the themes of the film with an incredible first shot, pure pointless dialougue in a single room that is so interesting is beyond impressive. Steiner's situation is enthralling and this is definitely a segment you have to watch twice. 2. Chapter 7 - The chapter where everything breaks down around Marcello. Steiners incredible payoff is something that really makes you think. Marcellos pitiful actions at the party are disturbing, but unbelievable human. The great dialougue segment where Marcello and Emma express their feelings with incredible writing and performances. The symbolism at the end mirroring the start of the subtle hope in the girl offer great payoff for the building emotions you feel throughout the three hour runtime. 3. Chapter 5 - The story of Marcellos father is heartbreaking while also being a cautionary tale for the not so distant future of Marcello. His father has fallen into desperation that he can't handle. More great character traits bleed through the very dialougue heavy segment, especially Marcellos embarrassment of his father's actions and the whole scene is very uncomfortable in the way his father presents himself to Fanny. 4. Chapter 2 - The beautiful Sylvia represents fresh fame and the soon to come turmoil. The trevi fountain is one of the most magical and unexplainably amazing scenes in all of cinema. The language gap is so realistically painful to watch and the lack of payoff is really the most payoff this segment could actually achieve. 5. Chapter 6 - The most disturbing and fantastical chapter of them all. The actions done in this once holy and sacred castle are the most disturbing and uncomfortable of the entire film. The perfect chapter to have before everything went to disaster. 6. Chapter 1 - A statue of Jesus being carried by helicopters feels wrong while also feeling within good intentions. The actions that follow offer a new and constantly changing angle at what this represents. The rest is more set up for the rest of the movie and really just offers a great entrance to the film without particularly doing much. 7. Chapter 3 - If I could remove any chapter it would be this one. I appreciate the bold move to have children exploit such a meaninglfull thing, but feel this chapter lacks the most in the bigger picture. This one is all about the media and while the media is a huge part of this movie, it's not exactly a prevalent part to its plot and themes. How come the best movies always start off seeming the opposite, I found this movie boring, confusing, and uninteresting the first time around, the same for 2001, a thought Bonnie and Clyde was very flawed but nonetheless enjoyable, and I disliked many of the choices in The Godfather and had a personally terrible experience watching it. My other reviews... First Fellini Movie April 25th I didn't get this one, some movies are so legendary that it's more that you didn't like it personally than it not being a very good movie. I love to think of its themes, but find the movie much more boring. None of the characters had much character and it never seemed to have plot. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on. The main reason why I even wanted to watch this movie was for Sylvia and she's only in it for about 15 minutes. I really enjoyed the last 25 minutes as I started to piece together what this whole movie was about, I'll have to watch the rest of the movie agian with more knowledge and maybe more patience. If this movie came out today it would be a sex filled surrealistic nightmare and it kind of already is as close to that as you can get in 1960. It was much more disturbing than I thought. This will be my favorite movie, someday. This might be the first movie that I was too young for, I was very confused by the characters actions likely because I have never felt their emotions, Roger Ebert wrote a great review showing how his feelings on this movie changed as he got older. 7/10 April 26th It's trying to juggle so many themes, but it doesn't fall apart because of the way it's structured, the question is what does it all mean for Marcello. My Analysis Watching this is like watching an entire lifetime, its a plotless set of short stories across seven days destroying Marcello into desperation, the good life can be seen in many ways. The good life can be before the movie starts or it can be the sin throughout the movie. Marcello seems like a detached character, but he is what we all have fantasies of being, intelligent, well liked, rich friends, and lots of sex. The moments that really expose this supposed "good life" are the uncomfortable actions of Marcellos aging father trying to get with a woman half his age only to feel ill and leave Rome and Steiners death. Steiner was different, he saw the flaws of the lifestyle, he said subtle things his friends didn't catch. Sylvia represents the start of fame, the glamorous parts of the lifestyle, and something just out of reach for Marcello. Literally, he wants to have sex with her but feels so detached from the language gap that he doesn't know how to. Figuratively, it represents what he has now left, he used be like her, but now he is broken and things only get worse. I found it interesting how the last we see of Sylvia is her being beaten, I first found it dumb that there was no resolution. This movie is as first person as it gets and as realistic as it gets. It takes the basic screenwriting technique of a character running in to other characters that teach him something to the extreme like a fairy tale, only he doesn't learn and ends the movie hopeless. I now realize that the last moment of Sylvia represents that she too will end up like Marcello. Marcello runs into many things, but he doesn't stop them or think much of them, something not so out of the ordinary for someone living this supposed good life. It starts with men holding up a statue of Jesus happily feeding into their desires and ends with them broken after a failed and desperate attempt of happiness, they are on the other side of opportunity symbolized by the gap between Marcello and the young aspiring girl. Paparazzo is a metaphor for what triggers these characters feelings, at first they love it when he takes their pictures, later they see him as a nuisance they can not possibly get away from. The Maddona sighting represents greed and messing with people's emotions for their benefit, just like the paparazzi. The paparazzi use it being their job as the reason they are aloud to do it and the children are innocent children brought on by parents who raised them this way. While being such a sad, miserable, and uncomfortable film, La Dolce Vita has many small bits of hope throughout its three hour runtime and it really depends on your mood whether you will see them or not. It's genius, this is really a movie you could watch multiple times and always find something new or experience different emotions. For now I'll give it an 8/10 or a 9/10 because I was not very entertained and was extremely thrown off, next time it will probably be a 10/10, maybe even the greatest movie I have ever seen. I won't say your wrong if you critizice this movie for feeling like it's a film students homework, but I personally love analyzing films. I believe that if you know what your in for, this can be one of the most immersive films that really plays with your emotions, I think that the people that didn't enjoy it were not expecting this to be such a tough film to watch. It's very Lynchian before Lynch even made films, but when you go to a David Lynch movie you have a certain mindset, this movie doesn't advertise that mindset and achieves it much more subtley and uncomfortably. 9/10 It seems like a movie that could be directed by Gaspar Noe,but then it would be ruined by his empathetic point of view. There are hardly any analysis out there and I'm glad, this is one where you have to look inside yourself for meaning. Like The Graduate, this movie will always be a beautiful painting, but your opinion of the art will change as you grow older, and an even more extreme and worldwide example would be The Birth of a Nation. This movie gave me a whole new look on surrealism and how it's actually more effective for the events to be in reality. April 26th, review from alt account The greatest movie of all time, immersive in a whole new way, incredibly disturbing and real in a way never seen before, rich in meaning, and beautiful. Anita Ekberg is the most beautiful woman ever and was originally the only reason I wanted to watch this movie. 10/10

The movie is best understood from the context of existentialism. There are so many scenes that illustrate the absurd and irrational in life. Marcello is grappling with his own life - career, love, perhaps a dream to write. I believe this is the best film ever made. The opening scene with the flying Jesus statue on cables suspended from the helicopter signifies atheism which is rather common for existentialists, and perhaps life's mixture of religious with mundane. But the scene is surreal. The statue shadow rises on the apartment building like Jesus ascending to heaven. Also, in the opening scene the photographer and helicopter crew want the girls sunbathing on the rooftop pool to remove their tops, but they misunderstand they want their phone number, etc. Across the impassable gulf between any two people there is often no understanding. Closing scene likewise has Marcello and the pretty girl from the cafe (where he was trying to write with the Lettera) failing to communicate across an expanse of water. The woman he first meets and spends the night with, Maddalena, has beautiful large eyes with sensuously curving eyelashes at the outer corners. The only thing keeping her going she says is love. Toward the end at the vacant mansion she admits her love to Marcello and asks him to marry her while admitting she would just whore around. He would, but she has already turned to another lover at hand. Meanwhile his fiance thinks only of bed and food, but Marcello says, "I don't believe in your aggressive clinging maternal love." The fiance is clutching, crazy, jealous and possessive. They have a bad breakup, but, nevertheless, they are together again at the end. It doesn't make sense, but that's life. A couple kids claim they saw the Madonna on a tree in a remote area on the school bus. So a crowd gathers along with lights and media. Sick people come to pray for healing. The kids shout "There she is" and run toward the spot a couple times exciting the crowd. It rains. People tear pieces off the sacred tree. His father couldn't make love to the French dancer girl, so he was "ill." Notice him tidying up the wrinkled bed before he goes. His friend Steiner shot himself and his two daughters. Marcello had greatly admired him. He was sensitive, reserved, had a beautiful wife, family, large house and smart friends all gathered together. It seemed absurd and random and without reason. But Steiner had said he felt trapped by convention, family, success. The woman on the divan asks what people wanted. Steiner wanted to live beyond passion and emotion. The woman wanted to live in the moment. The fiance didn't know what she wanted (simple-minded). Marcello says he is wandering through life. At end of the movie fishermen drag in by net a huge fish (ray?) excitedly talking of such a profound animal and the fortune it may be worth then just leave it abandoned on the shore to rot. The nun's hat (at the hospital) was ridiculous - like a gigantic origami on her head with gull-wing tips and a huge crown. Shot in black & white with crisp whites and blacks not too dark - very well done. Notice the large spaces, deep views of halls, colonnade, etc. That's what it means to me, but in art as in life you have to make your own meaning, your own way.

A film that is superficial even though it is truly totally empty. Fellini's best film yet. 8/10

An absolutely glorious film in every way. I cannot truly do it justice myself so would simply advise anyone to read Roger Ebert's review, in my opinion his best ever, it says everything I would want to and more and says it beautifully.

An influential and stylish masterpiece that, even with the years have passed by is still -and probably will always be- an unforgettable and everlasting piece of art about all the noise in the world. Marcello Mastroianni is on fire!