Was there ever anybody cooler than Marcello Mastroianni? Ok why revisit La Dolce Vita? It’s been so many years and seen so many times. But still Mastroianni never loses his coolness. Every time I watch it his demeanor remains undiminished, untarnished by the passing of the years. Even after 50 years there still remains a timeless element in Mastroianni’s performance, an Italian cool hard to duplicate and never equaled since. Mastroianni plays a tabloid journalist sent to Rome to cover movie stars and the self-indulgent rich. And that’s about as structured as it gets, if you can even figure that out. If you’re looking for a standard plot structure you will be disappointed. There is no narrative logic here. This is a Fellini film. Look beyond the plot, the whole film must be absorbed as one sensory performance. La Dolce Vita leaves you with an impression and a wry smile, a “yea that’s how it’s done.” There are 7 somewhat unrelated scenes and Mastroianni moves through them all, his cigarette dangling out of his mouth, with an ambivalent nonchalance that is both repulsive and attractive. Marcello is just moving through life unfazed, amused by the spectacle around him. What’s Fellini trying to say? Movie critic Bosley Crowther says La Docle Vita is a, “brilliantly graphic estimation of a whole swath of society in sad decay and, eventually, a withering commentary on the tragedy of the over-civilized…” Hmm, well perhaps, but you can just enjoy watching Mastroianni move through the film with a confident coolness that most men would love to possess. Even when his girlfriend takes too many sleeping pills he remains unfazed__ just a wry look, another puff on his cigarette, ho hum. There is a sadness here, Marcello wants really to write something important but remains seduced by the money and the prestige of his meaningless job. He lacks the courage to change and so he must just enjoy “the sweet life” Recommended, Fellini’s best film.
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