#AudreyMcDonald

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : La Dolce Vita (1960)

8 1/2 will forever be my favorite Federico Fellini film, but since the first moment I publicly stated my love for the film, a popular refrain began to emerge... ‘Have you seen La Dolce Vita?’.  Funny enough, I’d seen plenty of his older films, but that particular one had eluded me.  So I sought it out, and needless to say, I was blown away by the epic scale of the narrative, and that’s even in comparison to the mind scramble that 8 1/2 is. 

Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a socialite journalist with his thumb squarely on the pulse of what’s hip in his community.  From the top tier celebrities to those that make the gears turn, everyone seems to love Marcello, even when his tactics to get the best stories cause scenes and scandals.  Over the course of seven days and nights, Marcello, his faithful photographer Paparrazo (Walter Santesso), and everyone that gets caught in their gravity chase story after story and event after event, having little to no regard for each event’s significance in the bigger picture or how their presence impacts them.  Among the many events that take place, Marcello neglects his wife Emma (Yvonne Furneaux) in hopes of winning over the beautiful Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), nearly breaks up the engagement of famous actors Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) and Robert (Lex Barker), attends parties, views supposed acts of God, ruminates on the true nature of love and much, much more.

It’s funny how people who can live in the moment while being oblivious to the damage that choice often leaves is as old as time.  With this self-involvement comes an illusion of importance, where validation is sought after in moments that ultimately mean nothing in the bigger picture.  You would think that this would make it easy for people to treat one another as equals, but La Dolce Vita also manages to examine how the haves often take advantage of the have-nots across the spectrum of experience.  For example, Marcello and Emma clearly have a relationship that is damaged beyond repair, but her need for him is a way to absolve him of the guilt that comes with shallowness, and therefore, he refuses to let her go.  In a shocking (but unexpected) series of events, God and spirituality are thrown into the mix, and their importance in the midst of a self-obsessed society is questioned.  Fellini once again manages to present us with socialites lost in the imitation of life.

This presentation comes off as a ballad of the self-involved, with deeply dark humor found in the shallowness of the connections among the characters.  In the world that Fellini has created for La Dolce Vita, the celebrities and people of stature wear their arrogance like an armor as they pick and choose their very public battles.  The focus on this sensationalist style of celebrity and tabloid journalism plays as a prophecy to the TMZ approach we find today, somehow managing to be as equally prophetic as a film like Network without even seemingly trying to be.  As briefly mentioned before, many of these celebrities make a conscious choice to live very intimate and privately moments purposely within the public gaze.  As a result, many of the ‘star’ characters come off as socially schizophrenic, both fawning for and attempting to hide from the gaze of admires and the paparazzi.

La Dolce Vita wouldn’t be a Federico Fellini affair without a never-ending parade of beautiful people and strong personalities, and the movie has that by the boatload.  Even Rome steps up as an unbilled star character in its own right, with its balance of beauty, poverty and all that lies in-between.  The aforementioned cast is not only grand in scope, but extremely multicultural and hailing from all over the world.  Fellini seemed fascinated by ‘the process’ of creation, with some of his films seeming to examine the machinations and existential dread attached to film and celebrity, with La Dolce Vita being a lighthearted (but biting) condemnation of both.  The cinematography is stunning, as the camera seems to move throughout the streets and social settings with equal parts joy and curiosity.  Nino Rota is a bit more reserved on the score front this time, but does provide some wonderful moments with diagetic sound and tunes made in the style of popular music at the time.  A lot of the humor is found in the interplay of Italian, French and English being spoken, similar to The Science of Sleep (with Spanish replacing Italian in that context). 

Marcello Mastroianni turns his swag all the way up, maxing out his charm and suave sensibilities to the point the frame can barely contain it.  In contrast, Yvonne Furneaux plays the total opposite, a tragic figure hopelessly caught in the trap of a search for admiration she will never receive.  Anita Ekberg injects a jolt of energy into the film, with her childlike fancy immediately taking center stage during her time on screen.  Anouk Aimee, one of my favorites of the Fellini troupe, turns in a performance that is somehow both calculatingly cold and infinitely alluring.  Walter Santesso somehow happens to always pop up with his camera, commenting in a manner that can sometimes reflect audience thoughts.  Alain Cuny balances a sense of existential dread against a passionate and loving nature for his friends and family.  Annibale Ninchi manages to portray aspects of a human echo as Marcello’s father, with his general indifference and fleeting fascination having completely taken over, aspects that we can wholly attribute to Marcello as well.  The emergence of Nico somehow brings an aire of the mystic without having to lean on the supernatural or other obvious tropes.  Brief but memorable appearances by Alain Dijon, Lex Barker, Magali Noel, and name here also stand out.

If it’s not obvious already, I could go on an on about Fellini films, as pretentious as that sounds.  The man is a true visionary, one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, and someone that I can only hope and aspire to be remotely compared to as a filmmaker... maybe one day.  We can all dream.

[last-an-eon]

Oh my goodness

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and

Lin Manuel Miranda and

Audrey McDonald and

Jane Krakowski

All in the same car

Singing along to Broadway songs

My not-so-inner theatre nerd is FREAKING OUT right now

[sissyscullari]

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Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings #Wattys2016 (su Wattpad) http://w.tt/1SIwQUf Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings, frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney insieme ai suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Michael Clifford. Un giorno, camminando per i corridoi, incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutti quelli che mi hanno sostenuto anche in questa …

[sissyscullari]

Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings #Wattys2016 (on Wattpad) http://w.tt/1QbVqVJ Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings, frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney insieme ai suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Michael Clifford. Un giorno, camminando per i corridoi, incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutti quelli che mi hanno sostenuto anche in questa nuova avventura!!!! ✔ Storia originale di skywithBand5SOS I crediti per la copertina vanno a: @emywolfers © All rights reserved

[sissyscullari]

Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings (su Wattpad) http://w.tt/1VZZlds [STORIA MIA, NON COPIARE!!!!!] Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings, frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney, con i suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Micheal Clifford. Un giorno, però camminando nei corridoi incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutte le persone che h…

[sissyscullari]

Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings (on Wattpad) http://w.tt/213Svop [STORIA MIA, NON COPIARE! GRAZIE] Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings, frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney, con i suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Micheal Clifford. Un giorno, però camminando nei corridoi incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutte le persone che hanno creduto in me e mi stanno sostenendo anche in questa nuova avventura!!! ✔Storia originale di skywithBand5SOS I crediti per la copertina vanno a: @cercandoliam © All rights reserved

[sissyscullari]

Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings (on Wattpad) http://w.tt/1RfAKzH [STORIA MIA, NON COPIARE! GRAZIE] Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings, frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney, con i suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Micheal Clifford. Un giorno, però camminando nei corridoi incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutte le persone che hanno creduto in me e mi stanno sostenendo anche in questa nuova avventura!!! ✔Storia originale di skywithBand5SOS I crediti per la copertina vanno a: @cercandoliam © All rights reserved

[sissyscullari]

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[sissyscullari]

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[sissyscullari]

Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings (on Wattpad) http://w.tt/1l82Cup Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney, con i suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Micheal Clifford. Un giorno, però camminando nei corridoi incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale... PS: Ringrazio tutte le persone che hanno creduto in me e mi stanno sostenendo anche in questa nuova avventura!!! ✔Storia originale di @skywithBand5SOS I crediti per la copertina vanno a @cercandoliam © All rights reserved

[sissyscullari]

An emotion isn't real until you realise that you're trying to enjoy and cry da Wake Me Up When September Ends || Luke Hemmings (su Wattpad) http://w.tt/1Gd2tzB Il diciannovenne Luke Hemmings frequenta il Northwest Christian College di Sydney, con i suoi amici Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin e Micheal Clifford. Un giorno, però camminando nei corridoi incontra Giulia Ross, una studentessa spagnola arrivata a Sydney per uno scambio culturale..... ✔Storia originale di @skywithBand5SOS I crediti per la copertina v…