La Dolce Vita translated is "The Sweet Life" which suits this movie perfectly. The plot centers around the fantastic and tragic aspects of famous people's lives. Marcello Mastroianni portrays the protagonist, Marcello, a paparazzi journalist and captures him as he associates with many famous icons. In this way we are introduced to many characters who may not seem important and who are not mentioned for a long time but play a major role in the film's eventual end.
The last two scenes of this movie seem to be unconnected to the rest of the film, this is not to say they are bad but rather give the feeling of being from a different film entirely. Our protagonist has suddenly gone through a drastic change (which we do not see), we do not see many main characters and thus do not know what the end of the movie has been for them, and the sudden previous scene seems lost and forgotten (we as the viewer are given no inclination as to how the previous scene ended or how long ago it was). One may assume that the relationship between Marcello and other characters not shown in this scene ended badly validating their lack of appearance, and this would make sense due to tensions that grow throughout the movie. Also, as the entire movie is a critique of the lives of famous people, we may assume that the transition and utter non-mention of the previous scene is used to show no one longer cares, like news their emotions too have faded towards the situation. This is of course all speculation that I have come up with to justify the last two scenes, yet even I am still bitter.
One of the last two scenes is also mirrored in Fellini's later 8 1/2. In La Dolce Vita as a party comes to an end, characters parade out of the house to music, as if parading the entire cast off set. This is done in 8 1/2 as well where Fellini parades the cast and crew of the entire film around a movie set. I admire Fellini's ability to apply this technique to two separate films and doing it so beautifully both times.
Perhaps the thing that should be most commemorated about La Dolce Vita is the acting. Marcello Mastroianni is an actor that Fellini used multiple times and the reasoning is very apparent. While Marcello Mastroianni's character is a rude cheater and a liar the viewer can't help but follow his story and hope it works out a certain way. Whether you want him to end up with Emma or Maddalena, you are deeply invested in the characters actions. This movie is entirely based on the audience empathizing with the character, as there is no real plot.
While the movie is entirely character driven, there are certain story lines and relationships that Marcello develops. These relationships have their own stories and only some have an actual conclusion, others have inclinations as the audience is shown many things Marcello doesn't actually know (there is a scene in which Marcello goes into a cemetery while Maddalena "works").
The critique of the life of famous people and the business of paparazzi is so well demonstrated, in a way that was both interesting and held my attention, and really drove Fellini's point home. Although the move was made in the 60s, the themes are still apparent today. We can see in the movie how paparazzi infiltrate the lives of actors and how annoying they can be. We see the lengths they will go to, no matter how inappropriate, to get the story. I finished this movie disgusted at how entertainment news is captured and I believe everyone else will too.
Overall, I love this movie. While I am not thrilled with it's ending, the acting and visual aspects pleased me so. I connected with the protagonist in the sense of wanting the plot to unfold a certain way (it didn't or maybe it did, like I said the ending is kind of open in that way although I took it in a sense that I had been wrong).
(NOTE: Movie is in Italian and black and white)
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