La dolce vita (Italian: [la ˈdoltʃe ˈviːta]; Italian for 'the sweet life' or 'the good life'[2]) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who, over seven days and nights, journeys through the "sweet life" of Rome in a fruitless search for love and happiness. The screenplay, written by Fellini and three other screenwriters, can be divided into a prologue, seven major episodes interrupted by an intermezzo, and an epilogue, according to the most common interpretation.[3]
Released in Italy on 5 February 1960, La dolce vita was both a critical success and worldwide commercial hit, despite censorship in some regions. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival[4] and the Academy Award for Best Costumes.[5] It was nominated for three more Oscars, including Best Director for Federico Fellini, and Best Original Screenplay. Its success proved a watershed moment for Italian cinema and European cinema-at-large,[6] and it has come to be regarded as a masterpiece of Italian cinema and one of the greatest films of all time.[7]
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[8]
