Director
Federico Fellini

Cast
Marcello Rubini: Marcello Mastroianni
Sylvia: Anita Ekberg
Maddalena (as Anouk Aimée): Anouk Aimée
Emma: Yvonne Furneaux
Fanny (as Magali Noel): Magali Noel
Steiner: Alain Cuny
Marcello's father: Annibale Ninchi
Paparazzo: Walter Santesso
Paola: Valeria Ciangottini
Riccardo, the Villa Owner: Riccardo Garrone
Debutante of the Year: Ida Galli
Sonia: Audrey McDonald
Clown: Polidor
Frankie Stout: Alain Dijon
Newspaper photographer: Enzo Cerusico
Newspaper photographer: Giulio Paradisi
Newspaper photographer: Enzo Doria
Nadia's Admirer: Enrico Glori
Ninni the Prostitute: Adriana Moneta
Lying Child of The Miracle: Massimo Busetti
Nadia's lover: Mino Doro
Police Commissioner: Giulio Girola
Laura: Laura Betti
Nico, top-model (as Nico Otzak): Nico
Transvestite dancer: Domino
Transvestite: Carlo Musto
Robert: Lex Barker
Matinée idol: Jacques Sernas
Nadia: Nadia Gray


This is the film that gave the world the word papparazzo (after the film's press photographer character of the same name). Appropriately, it intimately portrays the life of a young playboy journalist who spends his life wrapped up in the world of the rich and famous. Nominated for four Oscars (somewhat controversially, it won just one - for best costume design) La dolce vita is a timeless masterpiece that chronicles a decadent, capitalist society where the only things of importance are sex and alcohol.

Fellini's engrossing social commentary of early 1960s Rome is held together by the protagonist, Marcello (Marcello Rubini - the film's producer famously walked out after he was prohibited from casting Paul Newman in the lead), through whom the action is witnessed. A tabloid gossip columnist, he is trapped in a shallow high-society existence of endless parties and one-night stands, and although he dreams of writing something important and meaningful, he can never quite find the courage to break away and forgo his well-paid occupation and the societal status it entails.

Despite dreaming of finding true love, he remains unmoved when his girlfriend commits suicide, and instead pursues the American starlet Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), who gives new meaning to the definitiion of 'bombshell' as she cavorts in a fountain in one of the film's most famous scenes.

A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's amoral decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film ends with an orgy where, symbolically, the participants find a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. While Marcello recognises, in his detached way, that his existence is ultimately soulless and facile, he lacks the strength to change, and so remains wearily resigned to enjoy this apparent 'sweet life'.