I want love. I want life. I want truth.

La Dolce Vita appeared to be a film riddled with society’s contradictions. It was about nothing and everything all at once, about spontaneity and routine, hope and disillusionment, illusion and reality, self-indulgence and emptiness. Many of the characters seemed on a vain quest to find love or, more accurately, the shallow, trivial silhouette of what they believe it to be. The concept of love is tossed around this film so abruptly and haphazardly that it is difficult for anyone- the characters or the audience- to catch it. The word “love” is used as casually and conflictingly in the film as it is today when we use the same term to describe our feelings towards a pair of shoes and our emotions towards lifelong friends. Emma, Marcello’s suicidal girlfriend, desperately tries to get him to appreciate her “love” towards him and immensely craves it in return. Yet her selfish, jealous, over-protecting, suffocating attitude towards him is difficult to constitute as genuine love. Maddalena asks Marcello to marry her by sitting him in a room and speaking to him through another room. This reminded me a lot of the confessional room in 8 ½ , and was used to express their love for each other in a discreet, impersonal way in a society were emotions as deep as love were considered of no value. As her proposal is met with Marcello’s expressive, hopeful reply she begins to kiss another man. This just shows how casual and careless the notion of love for these characters is. Sylvia’s lighthearted comment at the press conference states, “I like lots of things, but I like three things the most: Love, Love, and Love.” Her childish approach to this human emotion is as futile as Marcello’s interest in her. Marcello sees the gorgeous, voluptuous actress as nothing but an object of his desire. Her character is indeed an extreme, hyperbolic Marilyn Monroe who represents temptation, enticement, and excitement to Marcello.

While the film unraveled I came to the conclusion that the only love in the film lay within Steiner. It was obvious that he was tortured by calculated organize security and the confined, domestic, mundane life he came to lead. And yet I still fully believed that he would be the one to provide the movie with some sort of positive revelation. He seemed to be the most level-headed, genuine character in the movie. The way he spoke about his children, the way he looked at them, made me feel certain that there must be some hope for pure, untainted love in the world that Fellini created. You can imagine my absolute shock and horror when the suicide and murder of the children occurred. The second that I realized what had happened, I had to pause the movie and sit in silence for a few minutes to gather my thoughts. With that event, my wish for genuine affection in the film flew out the window as did Marcello’s concept of what he believed what right and real. Marcello had earlier expressed his admiration towards Steiner and yearned to have the type of life he led. When Marcello walked into the rooms where Steiner committed the unspeakable acts I am sure that his world was flipped upside down (my world was flipped upside down too and I was just a mere observer!). Fellini definitely has a way of twisting his films at the precise moment when you begin to feel comfortable.

Fellini’s contempt for the church was also as obvious in “La Dolce Vita” as in “8 ½.” The whole scene with the children witnessing the Holy Mary seemed to me to have been a terrible scam ran by the naïve, innocent, attention-seeking brother and sister squad. I didn’t know at first if it really happened or not, but knowing the way Fellini views the Catholic religion, I came to the conclusion that he just wanted to show the manner that a crazed crowd reacts to a thread of hope whether it be real or false. One character in the scene tells Emma, “Your Italy is an ancient land filled with natural and supernatural forces. Therefore everyone feels their influence. He who wants to look for God finds him were he wants (1:02:33).” Fellini’s disillusionment with the church and the country seemed obvious and this quote shows the way that the paparazzi (a term interestingly coined by this film because of Paparazzo) also see the world. They wait at restaurants and outside of houses in hopes of catching that scandal, event, or celebrity. They see news where ever they want to and completely disregard common sense. Privacy and respect is nonexistent. This is most obvious when Marcello has to tell Steiner's wife about the death of her husband and kids (how do you notify someone of something like this?) and sees first-hand what it feels like to be placed in the middle of a horrible situation with reporters surrounding you. The journalists were as desperate to get to the “truth” of the story as the people were to find “truth” through the children who claimed to see the religious figure. Yet all of these truths can easily turn into a planned, staged falsity. The journalists interviewed the family of the children who saw the Holy Mary and when the woman started crying the interviewer encouraged her and directed as if he was putting on a show. Suddenly all of the journalists run out and they leave the three people frozen on the balcony pointing in different directions.

It was marvelous how Fellini was able to tell us Marcello’s story through random pieces of his life in the time span of one week. He really create a film that allowed the audience to relate to the characters and yet still feel detached from them. This is something that I believe is extremely difficult to do! As was said at the party that (with the man obsessed about oriental woman) when admiring a piece of art, “it is painted with such a detachment, precision, rigor that makes them almost tangible. You can say that it is an art where nothing is coincidental.” While he is referring to the objects in the painting, this can also be applied to Fellini’s way of making his films. The characters within them are both accessible and inaccessible. He makes us so detached from them that they almost seem to exist in an objective, true fashion. Few directors would be able to keep an audience interested in unsympathetic characters for 3 full hours. Brilliant!

Fellini’s approach to movie-making is unique and utilizes many appealing techniques. In a few different instances, we see the film through Marcello’s eyes for a few seconds. The camera angles, such as when we look up at the infinite winding staircase in 2:35:15, are attention-grabbing. This film reminded me a lot of 8 ½. It was very circus-y, creative and full of fascinating images such as the Christ statue with outstretched arms flying over the Vatican, and Sylvia playfully wading in the Trevi fountain. Fellini’s films seem difficult to digest, but are refreshing when it all does start to come together. When Steiner was talking about his son at the party he said, “if you give him a flower, first he looks at every part… then he laughs because he understands that it is beautiful (1:22:30).” This is how I feel when watching Fellini’s films. While the film is playing I feel like it is a jumble of poorly placed random scenes, events, and dialogue. Yet when it is over, I take a step back and am fascinated by what I just saw. The individual pieces of the film perplex me, but when I feel like I’ve understood it as a whole (as best as I can) I don’t know what else to do but laugh, because it is just so out of the ordinary.

In 1:01:31, it is said that “miracles are born out of silence, not in this confusion!” In 8 ½ the main character was being criticized for his non-traditional film making and I believe that this could be quote could be another statement aimed at Fellini. When taken out of context, it is saying that masterpieces come out of perfectly planned out screenplays (that even include the silences and omissions) and not from the chaotic, confusing havoc that Fellini’s films seem to be. I think he proves this view wrong by creating a thought-provoking classic about empty, alienated lives in Rome, the "tranquil jungle where one can hide well.”

PS- title comes from the following time: 2:15.