La Dolce Vita Literary Elements

Federico Fellini

Marcello Mastroianni

Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Lex Barker, and Alain Cuny

Comedy-Drama

Italian

Prior to the release of La Dolce Vita, few foreign-language films had been nominated for Academy Awards. Federico Fellini was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for best art direction-set design Academy Award, as well as the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, and Best Costume Design Academy Award (which it won).

The film was initially released on February 5th, 1960.

Giuseppe Amato and Angelo Rizzoli

The film is set primarily in Rome over the course of seven separate days and nights.

The film is told from a third-person perspective.

The film is adventurous, mysterious, raucous, intense, and tense.

Marcello Rubini is the protagonist of the film; Marcello is his own antagonist.

The major conflict of the film is Marcello's struggle to find contentment, love, and happiness.

The climax of the film occurs when Marcello and his group of friends come face-to-face with the leviathan.

The statue that Marcello is following to Saint Peter's Square foreshadows the two young people's sightings of Madonna, Jesus' mother.

The love that Marcello has for Emma is understated throughout much of the film because it shows Marcello having relations with several other women.

Though the film is well-shot and well-lit, it was not innovative in filming or lighting, or camera techniques.

The film makes numerous allusions to the geography and landmarks of Rome, Italy. The film also makes allusions to mythology (like the leviathan and Medusa), other popular culture (including the films of Alfred Hitchcock), the art scene, and to the Bible.

Steiner is a seemingly smart and caring man but kills his children in an act of evil and uncaring.

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