La Dolce Vita (1960)

 Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita"

Famed Italian poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini once described Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece "La Dolce Vita" as being too important to even be discussed as one would normally discuss a film. I feel this absolutely to be the case. Not only is "La Dolce Vita" a monolith of cinematic history, it also set a precedent for how cinema would be constructed thereafter. Its DNA can be found in the very components of modern cinematic convention. It's themes and story points are as relevant today as they were in 1960, providing it a sense of timelessness. To call "La Dolce Vita" a masterpiece would be an understatement. 

The film is not told in the same traditional narrative style as most films. Rather, it is told through various interconnected episodes. It stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who aspires to write literature. Through the cafe society of Rome, he spends the night with an heiress, attempts to court a Swedish actress, covers fake religious miracles, goes to lavish parties, and spends white nights with careless and debauched aristocrats. 

Abandoning traditional character developments, Fellini employs non-linear encounters between Marcello and an entire ecosystem of characters that mirrors a sort of Dantesque journey into the underworld. Through these various interactions and environments, Fellini's compositions and arrangements of these characters and places almost resemble a sort of carnivalesque grotesquerie. The characters almost seem more like caricature. Because the story seems to resemble a carnivalesque slideshow of situations, the viewer does not feel as connected to any particular circumstance or focused narrative. Rather, the viewer is left to connect the situations together into a collective viewpoint of the story as a singular experience. 

The collective arrangement of these situations into a single experience, one comes away from the film experiencing a fatigue of post-war society, its moral decay, the descent into sensationalism, and the fundamental principles and observation of vice itself. The film opens on the images of a helicopter carrying a golden statue of Christ over the ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct, as it is being transported to Pope at the Vatican. The statue then flies further into the city to reveal a more modern Rome, full of high-rise buildings and bikini-clad women. The post-war landscape of Italy is that of glitz, glamor, and modernity that lies on top of the ruins of old Rome and more important, 'old morality.' As Marcello goes deeper and deeper into the throws of modern wealth and abundance, the moral depravity becomes more and more grotesque. Marcello desires a connection to something, as it looks for love and women in the world of this excess. The more he attempts to find meaning in this world, the utter and complete lack of meaning and substance results. 

One of the most prominent images I think back on in the film is in the scene in which a large crowd gathers on the outskirts of Rome to view two children who claim they can see an invisible ghost of the Virgin Mary. The crowd becomes crazed and even tear down a tree after the children claim the Madonna was see at it. The image of the crowd tearing apart the tree so that they can grab of piece of this miracle, to me, is the single most important image in the film. It perfectly encapsulates the theme of the film: that of humanity devouring the world around themselves to appease their desires, superstitions, and craven delusions. 

There are so many elements to be found within the film that could be expressed and explored more in depth. However, the main thematic conceit of the film is simply that of a post-war modernity. 19th Century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once contemplated the new 20th century landscape and believed that the death of religion and thereby, 'the death of God,' would bring about a social nihilism. This social nihilism would only be satiated by the creation of new gods; gods that would have to fill the void of meaning that was left in the wake of moral fallout. In "La Dolce Vita," we see this 20th century vision. In fact, I would argue that "La Dolce Vita" is perhaps the greatest tableau of 20th century modernity observance in 20th century art. The characters in this tableau have replaced the morality of God with the sensational consumption of vice and materialism. Fellini's film demonstrates the consumerist, consumption-driven, and materialist landscape of the post-war modern life. His depictions of what our humanity has led to reveals nothing but vapid, craven, and empty souls without any sense of life. All humanity has been lost. Consumption is now the only antidote to fill the void that has been created by post-war comfort and wealth. It is a society and humanity that is now doomed to its own desires. These desires of ours only led to depravity and the soulless pursuit of numbing ourselves to the malaise of modernity we've found ourselves in.

The film's structure and thematic relevance set a precedent for films to come in the latter half of the 20th century. One can recall a film perhaps that encapsulates the idea of a protagonist joining a certain ideal because its shiny appeal attracts them. In the beginning, this ideal provides the life and glamor that satiates our protagonist's every desire. Like in "La Dolce Vita," as the story progresses, the protagonist begins to devolve morally, devolve mentally, and the thing that once satiate them no longer provides any sort of spark or emotion at all. The fame and glamor in the film acts as a sort of drug and mirrors its effects. 

I could keep going on and on about how magical Fellini's rendition of 20th century deteriorating morality, his rendition of vice personified, his rendition of the rise of sensational materialism, etc., but like Pasolini's comments from before, the film is too monolithic and ever-reaching to completely dissent in its entirety.