La Dolce Vita

Released Apr 19, 1960

2h 55m

Drama

List

95%

81 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In Federico Fellini's lauded Italian film, restless reporter Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) drifts through life in Rome. While Marcello contends with the overdose taken by his girlfriend, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), he also pursues heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée) and movie star Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), embracing a carefree approach to living. Despite his hedonistic attitude, Marcello does have moments of quiet reflection, resulting in an intriguing cinematic character study.

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Critics Consensus

An epic, breathtakingly stylish cinematic landmark, La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- its sprawling length.

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David Stratton

The Australian

[La Dolce Vita] propelled Fellini into the front rank of international directors.

Jun 12, 2020

Full Review

Guardian Staff

Guardian

The western cinema has needed for a long time its own kind of healthy puritanism to counter that from the east - notably Poland - and with directors like Fellini and Karel Reisz it now seems that it is getting it.

Apr 10, 2020

Full Review

Eric Rhode

Sight & Sound

Fellini admits to having a confused sense of values, to being as uncertain as a child. Why then does he try to make realist films? It's a great pity; for if La Dolce Vita had beenless grandiose and more private and personal it might have worked.

Feb 10, 2020

Full Review

Gerri Major

Jet Magazine

Fellini is noted for his mastery of contrasts, his uncanny ability to find off-beat and bizarre occurrences which expose both the little and gross facets of life... Its impact is violent. Its irony is grim. Its wit is sardonic. Its pathos is awesome.

Jan 17, 2024

Full Review

Pauline Kael

Massachusetts Review

La Dolce Vita wants to be a great film -- it cries out its intentions -- and it’s frequently clever, as in the statue hanging from the helicopter, and it’s sometimes effective, as, near the end, when Marcello throws the feathers. And that is all it is.

Sep 11, 2023

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

With “La Dolce Vita” Federico Fellini has created a masterpiece that feeds off of every aspect of the cinematic experience.

Rated: 5/5

Aug 22, 2022

Full Review

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Abe A

The Italian The Great Gatsby. Actually, change that: The European The Great Gatsby. They both make essentially the same point, in different ways. Fitzgerald the hedgehog; Fellini the fox. The (postwar) Roaring Twenties; The (postwar) Swinging Sixties. Fitzgerald is the poet of one big convergent idea that arrives at a single point; Fellini is the master of scenes and scenecraft (as Dostoevsky does in his novels) that oscillate around the idea and close a circle. You probably won’t see another movie like this again—I haven’t—but my most pressing impression of this is that Fellini is a genius of the cinematic image, of the cinematic scene, of the cinematic idea, of the cinematic symbol, perhaps less so (in this movie) of the rigorous organization of form, nor of the most abstract ideas. With Godard, and perhaps Resnais—Fellini is the most visual, the most ‘cinematic’ of all auteurs. The scene with the character exits near the end, with the crown of feathers, is just one of the truly great scenes that permeate this ‘string of spectacular scenes’ that is La Dolce Vita. Not the greatest, but certainly one of the very greatest, movies ever made.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/28/24

Full Review

Panayiota K

I loved the sequence with Anita Ekberg and i appreciate the message of this movie but it was so long. So many longueurs of scenes

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

07/13/23

Full Review

Kev F

A unique storytelling style that consistently delivers the same message, La Dolce Vita is still relevant for today's society. It is filled with emotions, varieties, and thoughts.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/09/23

Full Review

Alexsander F

Filme espetacular, como sempre diálogos sensacionais sobre à vida e críticas à burguesia da época.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/03/23

Full Review

Georgan G

Felt like I was in a class about cinema getting ready to watch this classic. My best guess is this is about what brings happiness. Certainly, the focus is on one man's life trying the hedonistic route, which absolutely is not the answer. Nice seeing all the women searching for the truth with or without men.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/29/23

Full Review

david b

This film has two stories inside it - one of life and the other of death, each plays its half and by the end of the film you feel you have lived through so much revealed at the pace of the film. A film of astounding images and freedoms but reveals the ugliness and destruction of beauty it seeks to chase. A poignant and affecting film which is a masterpiece of cinema (now also in a restored version). Its opening scene is full of life and spirit and iv'e never forgotten it or the sadness of the final scene on the beach. It's a film about living to the full and in doing so exposes us to the excess that comes from hedonism but it draws us along for the whole ride and so we feel implicated in its resolution somehow. It's also a great piece of filmmaking art.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/23

Full Review

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Federico Fellini

Director

Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Rubini

Anita Ekberg

Sylvia

Yvonne Furneaux

Emma

Anouk Aimée

Maddalena

Magali Noël

Fanny

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Synopsis

In Federico Fellini's lauded Italian film, restless reporter Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) drifts through life in Rome. While Marcello contends with the overdose taken by his girlfriend, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), he also pursues heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée) and movie star Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), embracing a carefree approach to living. Despite his hedonistic attitude, Marcello does have moments of quiet reflection, resulting in an intriguing cinematic character study.

Director: Federico Fellini
Producer: Franco Magli
Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Tullio Pinelli
Distributor: Republic Pictures, American International Pictures, Astor Pictures Corporation
Production Co: Cinecittà, Pathé Consortium Cinéma
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 19, 1960, Original
Release Date (DVD): Sep 21, 2004
Runtime: 2h 55m