La Dolce Vita
— This masterpiece of stylish satire, full of memorable images remains nevertheless aloof.”
- Director: Federico Fellini
- Italy, 1960
Something about Fellini’s films always leaves me cold. They’re literate, exquisitely shot and intensely artistic. But ultimately I never seem to get on with them.
La Dolce Vita is an iconic classic, one of Fellini’s brightest pearls in a whole string of them. It charts the path of Marcello Rubini, a journalist who aspires to greater things but cannot escape his fascination for the lifestyles of Rome’s playboys and girls. And on the way, the images are indelible: a statue of Christ airlifted over the city by helicopter, Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Fontana Di Trevi, the strangely sad cabaret.
I ought to love this movie. The satire’s so powerful that one character’s name has become part of our language. But as with 8½ it just feels empty. A spectacle for the sake of a spectacle. A beautiful tableau minus a fitting caption.
See also:
Y Tu Mamá También
Your mother wouldn’t like it: the awkward charm of a Mexican coming-of-age drama.
- Originally published: 4 Feb 2008 in Film
Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters)
When the going gets tough, the tough get forging.
- Originally published: 4 Nov 2007 in Film
Babel
Exciting director’s brave attempt to take on the theme of globalisation.
- Originally published: 29 Jan 2007 in Film
Together (Tillsammans)
One of Moodysson’s lighter efforts: a warmhearted film for a cold winter’s night.
- Originally published: 14 Feb 2007 in Film
A Bittersweet Life
Yet another tour de force in a growing trend of Korean cool.
- Originally published: 16 Nov 2006 in Film
Who you gonna call?
Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
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Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
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