Slight spoilers in the last paragraph.

Our modern malaise is all-encompassing self-pity. I went through it last year: what was the point of wanting things if you were never going to get them anyway? In the throes of my self-absorbed sorrow, I didn’t notice that I had no ambition to begin with. Finding something to care about got me out of that horrible dark place, but every day, I come across more people my age – kids who haven’t even hit twenty yet, for fuck’s sake – diagnosed with depression, although nothing monumental has happened to them, to us. Why are you so unhappy? I don’t know.

Watching La Dolce Vita was like coming across yet another one of those…

La Dolce Vita is a masterfully elaborated vignette that opens the portal to the facile glamor of the 1960s Rome. Federico Fellini held back nothing with his scathing, morally enticing portrait of a society suffering from faith crisis, commitment issues, and incurable human conditions. Despite its demanding three-hour runtime, it rarely feels tedious, as the oddity of the adventure as well as its provocative moral revelations is more than enough to keep one entertained throughout.

La Dolce Vita details a journalist's multiple romantic encounters, and a string of events that push him gradually to his limits. Marcello Mastroianni was the perfect candidate to pull off the emotional range and personal charm of such a mesmerizing character, especially in those more…

"Don't be like me. Salvation doesn't lie within four walls. I'm too serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional. Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected."

It's always intimidating to try and write about something considered to be one of the best films ever made. Regardless of how great it might be, it can be hard to have fun without a personal access point. It's like staring at the Mona Lisa: sure it's an amazing painting and it's easy to appreciate on that level, but what does it have to say about my own subjective reality?

So it was…

Truthful, audacious, bold, boring in stretches, and passionately sweeping: Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita is a film that I admire greatly, but I never truly found a direct connection to it in relation to my own personal experiences. I was very indifferent to much of the film in the second half, only to have spurts of majestic beauty and honesty awake me from my slowly-fading attention. The ending is absolutely perfect however, and just like Don't Look Now, It's a conclusion that raised my thoughts of the film as a whole. I don't think it comes close to the masterful beauty of 8 1/2, but I can clearly understand why it is as revered as it is. Marcello Mastroianni stuns…

Jesus flies above a Rome that is elegant but decadent. There is no strict character development in La Dolce Vita, just a slither of a story about a hedonistic reporter getting lost amidst an amoral landscape. The film embraces the shallowest of lifestyles to reveal the emptiness of it all. Fellini's Italy is an enchanting place where the nights are alive, but everything in La Dolce Vita is fake. News and reality is all constructed, as characters seek new adventures in a city deemed tranquil and bland. La Dolce Vita contains so many characters, essentially it is cavalcade of the people who wander through a certain social class. These people are disconnected from the world. Their lives are shallow and…

After adoring Nights of Cabiria, and loving 8 ½ , it seemed like the appropriate time to take another dip into Fellini’s pool with a film that many consider their favourite.

I had no foreknowledge going in that this is what influenced The Great Beauty, a film I detested so much that I walked out after about 15 minutes ( actually walked out twice, first after 10 minutes, and then, after deciding to give it another try and continued, walked out again after another 5 ).

I was positively giddy watching the opening scene of ‘Flying Jesus’, there was a big smirk across my face. It wasn’t just the symbolic imagery, but also the wonderfully creative cinematography. Of course seeing…

***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***

Reportedly, after being asked about the main inspiration of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini replied that "one year the fashions made the women in Rome look like big flowers". With this idea in mind, Fellini constructs one of his biggest and most celebrative and daring masterpieces of his entire filmography. Would it be enough to say that the film contributed the term "paparazzi" to the language? Such term was derived from the protagonist's photographer friend named Paparazzo. To what extent can a masterpiece that introduced a new era and represented the exact moment when Fellini suffered a filmmaking style transition influence the actuality culture? Condemned by the Italian Catholic party…

Helicopters carry a giant jesus statue with his arms outstretched over the skies of rome, the children follow and scream and cry with glee at the mere spectacle of it all, much like the paps that ride along inside one of the copters. The beautiful girls sunbathing atop an apartment building wave their hats at them enthusiastically and they quickly swivel around for a chance at their phone numbers. Marcello oozes cool, a distinguished "naughty boy" whose duty is to inform the public, so he maintains. Seven days but mostly nights are presented tumultuously through the lens of Marcello, the lost and happy and damned and unhappy paparazzi constantly on the move towards something, in search of something. "Every night…

There’s a lot that could be said about this film and a lot that you want to say but can’t really put into words. If I had to put it succinctly: it’s a film with a highly unconventional narrative structure that tries to accurately capture life in post-WW2 Italy through the eyes of a playboy having an existential crisis. 

The themes are the main thing here. Each episode deals with aspect of human nature: family, suicide/sin, lust, faith, marriage, purpose, fatherhood. The film is does a great job of exploring all of these themes in an age in which there was a massive cultural revolution relative to their Catholic/Italian roots. 

Marcello is a great protagonist. One the audience can really…

I finally did it. I finally finished this film. 

Look,this film is way too complex to me so I’ll write down everything I could gather. 
La Dolce Vita translates to The Sweet Life, something we all look for. We see the rich and powerful go to nightclubs and burn through their wads and rolls of cash in a single night and we envy this life. Such is Marcello,our main character. Marcello struggles to juggle the various women in his life and at the same time focus on his job. 
The film has an unusual narrative that takes place in episodes, like a series. I loved the score, it had such an innocent tone to it that warmed my heart. Marcello…